EFC Annual Conference

Addressing the closing plenary of the European Foundation Centre 18th Annual General Assembly and Conference in Madrid in early June, Barry Gaberman spoke of ‘a buzz in the hallways’. The conference, New Challenges for Global Philanthropy, had put the critical issues of our time on the agenda, he said. Also important was EFC members’ agreement to an increase in fees, thereby committing themselves to supporting the organization adequately in the future.

Gaberman spoke of how foundations in the US and Europe can learn from each other in a number of areas. Supporting public policy and funding of research are two areas where Europe is currently paying more attention, though US foundations have gone much further in terms of diversity and trying to reflect society and the constituencies they serve. Two areas he felt would become increasingly important are impact, which he called ‘the new mantra’, and showing how assets held in endowments contribute to public benefit.

Global issues were prominent throughout the conference. In the opening plenary, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres forcefully described the plight of the world’s growing number of migrants, and urged foundations to fund advocacy and research as well as supporting people already affected. Pedro Alonso, of Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, urged European foundations to play a part in supporting medical research in order to help close ‘the 10/90 Gap’ – whereby only 10 per cent of the global biomedical research budget is spent on the diseases that cause 90 per cent of the global economic and social burden. At the plenary on climate change, Uday Khemka of the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation urged foundations to recognize that climate change will affect everything they do.

In the closing plenary, Rui Vilar of the Gulbenkian Foundation stressed the need for existing issues to be reframed in a global context. ‘Europe is a rich area,’ he said, ‘and needs to assume responsibility for supporting development in poor countries.’

The conference ended movingly with the award of the 2007 Raymond Georis Prize to Ray Murphy, who died earlier this year.