Annual Reports and Codes

Annual Reports

DEN follows the Governance Code Culture and publishes the latest substantive and financial annual reports. Here you will find all annual reports from 2015 onwards.

2025

In 2025, the world moved faster than many organizations could keep up with. New technologies, led by AI, offered opportunities for creativity, reach, and efficiency. At the same time, they raised urgent questions. How do you innovate without losing your values? How do you avoid chasing trends? And how do you keep moving when uncertainty can lead to stagnation?

For DEN, 2025 was therefore a year of staying close, connecting, and maintaining course. We were deeply involved in the daily practices of the cultural sector. There, we saw a lot of curiosity, willingness to learn, and ambition. Professionals want to move forward with digital tools. They want to know what works, what is responsible, and how technology can strengthen their audience, creators, and organization.

At the same time, it also became clear that digital growth in the workplace does not automatically lead to organizational-wide change. Many ideas still remain isolated projects too often. The next step is to more firmly link digital choices to strategy, collaboration, funding, and policy.

In 2025, DEN worked on this with practical tools, new collaborations, and a growing network. From audience data and digital maturity to AI, immersive technology, and international knowledge exchange. Always with one goal. Digital innovation should not be a coincidence but a shared movement that strengthens the sector.

The outlook for 2026 is clear. The progress made in practice must permeate the core of organizations. Only with a shared vision, resources, and ownership can digital transformation grow into artistic, organizational, and social strength. Read how DEN worked on this in 2025, together with the sector. Download the 2025 annual report here (opens in new tab).

Previous Annual Reports

• Annual Report 2024 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2023 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2022 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2021 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2020 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2019 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2018 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2017 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2016 (opens in new tab)
• Annual Report 2015 (opens in new tab)

Governance Code Culture

The Governance Code Culture (opens in new tab) (GCC) is a tool for good governance, adequate supervision, and transparent accountability. DEN follows this code, and our Supervisory Board uses it as a guiding tool for oversight. The executive and the Supervisory Board embed the principles of the GCC in the organization and reflect on them in the management report, which is published as part of the annual report on this page. 

In addition to the Governance Code Culture, we have a management and supervisory board regulation. This ensures that the roles of executive and supervisor are used to serve the organization's interests. The organization can call upon their advisory role. View the profile of our Supervisory Board (opens in new tab) or the current Supervisory Board members on our team page (opens in new tab). 

All activities of DEN serve our societal goal and vision, namely, ‘By optimally utilizing the opportunities of the digital society, the cultural sector ensures that culture is always and everywhere around us, and everyone can create, share, and experience culture’. The principle of socially responsible entrepreneurship is inherent to DEN's mission and activities. 

In addition to the Governance Code Culture, the executive and Supervisory Board work with various frameworks and regulations. These describe the roles, responsibilities, and working methods of governance and oversight within DEN.

View the Supervisory Board's oversight framework (opens in new tab)

Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

DEN is committed to the Code Diversity & Inclusion (opens in new tab). We want culture to be always, everywhere, and for everyone. Even within our own services and organization, we strive for diversity, inclusion, and accessibility:

• Program: Digital transformation and the use of digital technologies contribute in various ways to the accessibility of culture. DEN shares knowledge and organizes activities on this subject to introduce/inspire cultural organizations about these possibilities.
• Partners: DEN works with a flexible network, both within and outside our network. We also select partners who bring new perspectives to our approach. This results in a valuable exchange of knowledge, experience, and background.
• Personnel: DEN aims for a multi-voiced organization. We are taking steps to make our team more inclusive, for example, by advertising vacancies through specialized agencies. Diversity and inclusion also play a clear role in the recruitment and selection process of the Supervisory Board, inviting candidates who enhance the organization's multi-voiced character.
• Audience: We want all information on our website to be accessible and findable for everyone. Through periodic user testing and continuous development, we work towards making our information and services more accessible. Read more about the accessibility of our website (opens in new tab). When writing texts, we follow the guide 'Values for a New Language' by LKCA (opens in new tab) and manual 'Words Matter' by Wereldmuseum (opens in new tab).

Fair Practice Code

DEN emphasizes the Fair Practice Code (opens in new tab). Our employees (permanent and flexible), trainers, and interns receive fair compensation. DEN follows the Research Institutes Collective Labour Agreement. We handle third-party copyrights carefully and publish ourselves (where possible) under a Creative Commons license. We work on the sustainable employability of employees and offer a generous training budget (4%). We are committed to a safe working environment, with an external confidential advisor, company doctor, and complaints procedure. We continuously raise awareness of these topics through team training on, for example, conduct and integrity. This increases the visibility of the confidential advisor and lowers the threshold for both employees and the Supervisory Board.