Alliance is the leading magazine on philanthropy and social investment across the world. Published quarterly by the Alliance Publishing Trust, a UK-registered charity, it tracks the latest trends and developments providing expert analysis from northern and southern perspectives. It is a unique forum for discussions and exchange of ideas between funders and funded. Providing comprehensive coverage of the challenges faced by NGOs and those who fund them, Alliance stimulates new thinking on how these can be addressed and overcome.
Under the umbrella of NEF, European foundations have jointly launched initiatives designed to build a decisive contribution to the cultural dimension of Europe the European Year and to the Year of Intercultural Dialogue, so as to give an impetus from civil society to European and national policies and practices. It is hoped that this strong input from foundations will facilitate synergies between the public and private sector on initiatives in the field of culture and intercultural dialogue.
The NEF Cultural Cooperation initiative is led by the European Cultural Foundation (Netherlands) and supported by the Compagnia di San Paolo (Italy), the Evens Stichting (Belgium/France/Poland), Berhneim and Freudenberg foundations. It is implemented by Culture Action Europe (Belgium).
The European Fund for the Balkans, an initiative of European Foundations including the Robert Bosch Stiftung, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, the Die ERSTE österreichische Sparcasse Privatstiftung starts its operations from its Belgrade office in the fall of 2007.
The Fund is both operational and grant-making and as such undertake and support initiatives in Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including Kosovo) aimed at bringing the Western Balkans closer to the European Union. The Fund's objectives are to encourage broader and stronger commitment to the European integration of the Western Balkan countries and societies and to support the process of Member-state building, in particular by building constituencies in the societies of Southeast Europe who are offered an opportunity to experience and learn about Europe.
For further information on EFB, please visit the fund's website at http://balkanfund.org/
EPIM is the European Programme for Integration and Migration, initiated in 2005 by a group of foundations from different European countries. It aims to strengthen the role played by NGOs active on migration and integration issues in advocating for a European agenda that benefits migrants and host communities.
Following the successful first phase of the programme, and building on the lessons learnt, a second phase of EPIM has been launched.
This second phase takes a broader perspective and will run from 2008 until 2011. Grants have been made available for short and longer projects (up to 3 years).
15 projects have been selected : 3 short term and 12 long term. The focus areas of 7 of these projects is on undocumented migrants. 5 projects are dedicated to migrant voices/host community and 3 projects concentrate on Media. 9 of the grantees work mainly at country level while 6 of them work at the EU level.
EPIM is a joint venture of: The Atlantic Philanthropies, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, Compagnia di San Paolo, European Cultural Foundation, Freudenberg Stiftung, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Fondation Bernheim, Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Oak Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and King Baudouin Foundation.
The Chair of the Steering Committee is Juliet Prager from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The Executive Committee is also composed by Olaf Hahn from the Robert Bosch Foundation and Juliet Prager from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
For full information about EPIM, the list of grantees and the description of their project, please consult www.epim.info
As significant actors of civil society, foundations share widespread concern about the inadequacy of democracy education and learning in Europe, including in particular with regard to its European dimension. There is shared concern on the importance of working together to extend and deepen democracy education, as a living experience, throughout Europe, linking closely with the follow-up to the 2005 Year of Citizenship through Education organised under the auspices of the Council of Europe.
The project is chaired by the Bertelsmann Stiftung.
The European HIV/AIDS Funders Group of the European Foundation Centre (EFC) was set up as a knowledge-based network dedicated to strengthening the contribution of European philanthropy in the field of HIV/AIDS. Its purpose is to mobilise philanthropic leadership and resources to address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and its social and economic consequences and to promote an enabling environment for independent giving in this field. NEF acts as the hosting organisation for this initiative, again illustrating the close cooperation with the EFC.
The Group is chaired by Dr. Astrid Bonfield, Princess of Wales Diana Memorial Fund.
Early in 2006, NEF considered the growing public concern in Europe and elsewhere about Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of xenophobia in Europe. This led to a special meeting with a number of foundations to exchange experience on the issues at stake and their activities in this field.
Following further reflexion, NEF decided to launch a special initiative to examine the place of religion in the public sphere in Europe. A number of foundations immediately responded to the invitation to act as partners in mounting this initiative. The Ford Foundation in particular agreed to collaborate as part of its European programme of work in this field. A Steering Committee was set up to oversee the programme of work under the chairmanship of Rien van Gendt (Van Leer Group Foundation) and with the participation of the Chief Executive of the European Foundation Centre (EFC).
The first year of the Religion and Democracy in Europe initiative culminated with a large conference in Jerusalem on "Religion and Democracy in Contemporary Europe". A compendium collecting all the material from the Jerusalem symposium has been published by NEF and the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. Click on "Read more" for a copy of the publication.
Mapping of Foundations working on Religion and Democracy
As part of the activities of the NEF initiative on Religion and Democracy in Europe, The European Foundation Centre - EFC has carried out a mapping exercise of the foundations working on ‘Religion and Democracy'. The mapping aims to inform the community of stakeholders of what foundations do in this field and to pool ideas so as to help foundations to better define their priorities and approaches.
This exercise takes stock of the initiatives developed by the foundations which are member of EFC. The report gives an overview of 22 foundations working on religious issues both at the national and international level.
The mapping is available on both NEF and EFC websites.
NEF has launched in April 2006 a cooperative effort between European foundations and the Roma Education Fund, the objective of which is to help to close the gap in educational outcomes between Romas and non-Romas. This Fund was created at the initiative of the World Bank and the Open Society Institute and is designed to contribute to meeting the social inclusion commitment agreed by the governments in the framework of the Decade of the Roma Inclusion 2005-2015.
The Steering Committee set up by NEF for this purpose is chaired by Christian Petry of the Freudenberg Stiftung, who will also represent NEF (and the EFC) on the Board of the Fund. In this first phase of cooperation, the other foundations involved are the Barrow-Cadbury Trust, the Evens Stichting, the Stiftung "Erinnerung, Verantwortung und Zukunft", and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The group has prepared a special contribution to the Roma Summit taking place in Brussels on September 16th, 2008. It is called the Weinheim Declaration. Read more about the project to find a copy of the document.
This project, which was launched in January 2007, seeks to improve the management and leadership capacity of philanthropy and help realise the development potential of European foundations by (1) identifying high impact strategies, approaches and projects in the current practice of European foundations and (2) understanding the external and internal conditions, and management and leadership characteristics that lead to high impact philanthropy, including leverage effects.
An initiative of the Network of European Foundations, the Mercator Fund was launched in June of 2003. Supported by the King Baudouin Foundation and Gabriel Foundation, this Fund's objective is to deal with matters related to Europe 's role in global social issues. It hopes to act as a catalyst for programmes or initiatives in areas where European foundations could form partnerships with each other, and in cooperation with others around the world on pressing global issues.
New book on philanthropy in Europe
Numerous books have been published on American philanthropy - its origins, its heroes, its achievements and its shortcomings. But philanthropy in Europe has been largely neglected. A new book, Philanthropy in Europe - a rich past, a promising future, edited by Norine MacDonald and Luc Tayart de Borms, will start to fill this gap. Click here to read more about the book.
The future of Europe is of great importance, especially for today's young population. They will soon decide on what kind of Europe they want to live and work in and what role the EU-institutions should play. Young Ideas for Europe aims at establishing a European network which fosters a European dialogue about questions concerning the future by giving young people across the EU the opportunity to exchange their opinions about European political issues.
The project is chaired by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and it will be carried over to 2009, concluding with the parlementarian European elections.
For more information, please visit www.young-ideas-for-europe.eu
The Youth Empowerment Partnership Programme launched in September 2001, aims at establishing an innovative European transatlantic partnership of foundations, independent funders and governments which targets disadvantaged youth.
This is achieved by sharing and pooling expertise and resources, transferring and combining best practice, creating new initiatives leading to joint action and coherent sustainable strategies in a number of selected sites across various European countries that are designated as "Centres of High Intensity". This project is a joint initiative of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Compagnia di San Paolo, the Evens Foundation, the Bernheim Foundation, the Freudenberg Stiftung, the Ford Foundation and the Irish Youth Foundation. The external evaluation of the YEPP programme is carried out in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the implementation of the programme, including organisations of transnational events and conferences is carried out by the International Academy at the Free University of Berlin (INA).
