General Directorate of FoundationsGovernment

The General Directorate of Foundations (Vakıflar Genel Müdürlüğü) is a Turkish governmental institution affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Its primary mandate is to manage, regulate, and audit charitable endowments (waqfs), oversee modern foundations, and restore as well as preserve thousands of historical cultural heritage properties. Established in 1924 during Atatürk's early republican reforms, it succeeded the Ottoman Ministry of Sharia and Foundations, continuing an administrative lineage of endowment management that formally began with the Ottoman Evkaf-ı Hümâyûn Nezâreti in 1826.