Aydın Doğan Foundation
The Aydın Doğan Foundation was established in 1996 by Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan and Honorary Vice Chairman Sema Doğan.<[3]
Founded with the aim of education and equal opportunities for girls, the foundation organizes education, culture-arts, and sports events such as the Aydın Doğan Award, Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition, and Turkish Journalists’ Association Aydın Doğan Young Communicators Competition.<[4]
Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ serves as the Chairman of the Foundation's Board of Directors.<[5]
The Anatolia Awards
Doğan Holding has sponsored the Anatolia Awards since 2020, which were launched by the Baksı Culture and Art Foundation to highlight productions contributing to Anatolia's common identity.<[6] The Anatolia Awards are given to institutions in even years and to individuals in odd years.<[7]
Empowered Girls, Empowered Future
The Aydın Doğan Foundation provides support such as scholarships, mentorship training, summer camps, and student projects to help girls be well-equipped for university life. Additionally, in collaboration with UNICEF, UN Women, and UNFPA, the foundation organizes conferences under the "Empowered Girls, Empowered Future" project on International Day of the Girl Child.<[8]<[9]
Holistic Education Campaign
Through the "Well-Maintained Schools" project, the foundation supports the cleaning, security, and technical needs of schools donated to the TC Ministry of National Education.<[10] Additionally, through the "Happy Graduates" project, it provides moral support to students of schools contributed to education and participates in their graduation ceremonies.<[11]<[12]
Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition
The Aydın Doğan Foundation launched the "Aydın Doğan International Cartoon Competition" in 1983, bringing cartoonists together.<[13] As of 2025, more than 8,800 artists from 137 countries have participated in the competition.<r[14] In 2019, "National Comic Book" and "National Children's Book Illustration" categories were added to the competition.
The competition, which has a jury from many different countries, also organizes a competition among children in collaboration with the Creative Children Association.<r[15]
Young Communicators Competition
The Aydın Doğan Foundation, in collaboration with the Turkish Journalists Association, organizes the Aydın Doğan Young Communicators Competition to help aspiring communicators be better equipped and not fall behind in competition. In 2019, the competition continued to be organized under the name "Turkish Journalists’ Association Aydın Doğan Young Communicators Competition" as a joint initiative of the Turkish Journalists’ Association and the Aydın Doğan Foundation.<r[16]
Vuslat Doğan Sabancı, who is a founding partner,<r[17] established the Rightful Women Platform together with nearly 40 women's organizations.<r[18] With the 'One Voice for Women' organization, which brings together female members of parliament and candidates, as well as civil society organizations, business representatives, and related opinion leaders, programs were organized to seek solutions to eliminate gender inequality and all kinds of discrimination against women in Turkey through women's solidarity.<r[19]
Shared Values Initiative
In 2016, under the leadership of Doğan Holding Board Chairwoman Begüm Doğan Faralyalı, the Shared Values Initiative(ODH) was launched.<r[20] The movement, launched for the purpose of social reconciliation, aims to increase the contributions of shared values to the country.<r[21]
No! To Domestic Violence
Doğan Holding launched the 'No! To Domestic Violence!' campaign in 2007 to raise awareness about domestic violence, a social problem. It also initiated a comprehensive training program on domestic violence for imams and police forces.<r[22]
The campaign organized "No’to Domestic Violence". Before the 2011 General Elections, it established the Rightful Women Platform, which brought together all NGOs working on women's issues in Turkey under one roof and worked to get more women into parliament. It also works to provide microcredit to low-income women to start their own businesses.<r[23] It was announced that microcredit has been provided to more than 700,000 women to date.<r[24]
The Emergency Helpline, which started in 2007 as a one-year pilot project but continued to operate for 8 years due to the magnitude of the problem, was transferred to the Federation of Women Associations in Türkiye in 2014.<r[25]
Kelkit Initiative
The Kelkit Initiative was launched with the aim of meeting the feed needs of the livestock owned by Kelkit Doğan Besi İşletmeleri, which was established to enable farmers to grow high-value-added products and create benefits for both themselves and Kelkit's economy, through a project carried out with Kelkit farmers.<re[30] Kelkit Besi planted approximately one million square meters with farmers, provided that they produce according to desired specifications, and guaranteed to purchase all of the 4,000 tons of product obtained from these fields.<re[31]
