Michael Seberich

At Wider Sense, I can bring my ideas and experience on CSR and philanthropy to the work with our clients.

Michael Alberg-Seberich is Managing Director of Wider Sense and a consultant on philanthropy, CSR and impact investing. Photo: Constanze Wenig for Wider Sense 2022

As Managing Director of Wider Sense, Michael Seberich is together with the leadership team responsible for the development of the company. He manages a portfolio of Wider Sense’s consulting projects and brings his many years of experience to bear primarily on strategy projects. He also supports our clients as a coach, facilitator and mediator. Michael Seberich deals with questions of philanthropy, foundation management, corporate social responsibility and impact investing. In recent years, he has worked especially with companies and their foundations. Issues related to the preservation of social justice are particularly close to his heart.

Before joining Wider Sense (then Beyond Philanthropy), Michael Seberich worked in various senior positions at Active Philanthropy and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. At the Bertelsmann Stiftung, he was a project manager in the field of democracy, human rights and tolerance education and led projects on strategic development in politics and federalism reforms. He was also responsible for the 2007 Carl Bertelsmann Prize (now Reinhard Mohn Prize), „Social Engagement as an Educational Goal.“

Michael Seberich studied North American studies, anthropology and international law at the University of Bonn and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After graduation, he taught languages and cultural policy at Oxford University.

As a guest author, he writes regularly for Alliance Magazine, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and other blogs. He is a member of the editorial board of Alliance Magazine. He co-published the book The Corporate Social Mind with Derrick Feldmann in the summer of 2020, on contemporary management of corporate social engagement. Most recently, he published a research report on the same topic, examining consumer expectations of the corporate social mindset of companies in Germany and the United States.

Michael Seberich currently volunteers as a board member of the German YFU Foundation and the Youth For Understanding Foundation. He is also a member of the boards of trustees of the German Youth For Understanding Komitee e.V. und Schüler helfen Leben e.V.. He also represents Wider Sense in the shareholders‘ meeting of the Wirkungsanteil Foundation.

Why did you choose working for Wider Sense?

Wider Sense is about actively supporting social change projects. For me, it is important that we act quickly, even though thorough analysis is important, because this is the only way to create movement and change.

What is a random fact about you?

I guess I'm bike obsessed. Once I´m on it, I can relax and experience the environment. This also applies to my other passion, traveling by kayak.