The goal of the Foundation is to remove land and properties from the stream of commerce and inheritance in order to make them available for new social purposes. One important area of activity is the provision of affordable plots of land and buildings for cultural and social initiatives and alternative, creative enterprises and institutions. Through purchases, donations and bequests, Stiftung Edith Maryon acquires properties or land on which buildings can be erected. The Foundation subsequently rents these buildings to interested parties who may, in individual cases, be granted usufructuary rights; alternatively, the Foundation grants a long-term building lease or offers a Miet-Eigentum arrangement (a special type of lease whereby the tenant enjoys the benefit of additional rights but the Foundation retains the title to the property).

In every case, the primary goal is to reduce the encumbrance of debt on property. Further social goals are to interconnect cultural and commercial undertakings with other usages, to encourage self-accountable and self-administrative structures, as well as to promote living, organic architecture that encompasses green building methods enabling people to feel at ease and rediscover their individuality within the social whole.