Testing foreign waters?

‘European foundations taking leadership on global issues’ was the title of the second European Foundation Leaders Summit, held in Brussels at the beginning of April. With the best will in the world (which one can’t always assume), it’s not always easy for foundations working at national level to start to work at European or global level. One way to begin must surely be to work with others. For those who do want to spread their wings, it was clear from the Summit discussions that there are a growing number of ways to do so.

Joining an EFC interest group is a way of sharing information and ideas with your peers working in the same area. This can also happen at a more informal level: the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) meets regularly with a group of Dutch foundations that wanted to work overseas and weren’t sure how to go about it. Talking about the new European HIV/AIDS Funders Group, Peter Laugharn (BvLF) emphasized the value of sharing information and knowledge. ‘In the field of international grantmaking more than any other,’ he said, ‘networking should not be dismissed as a talking shop. Where knowledge is hard to come by, it is a precious resource.’

Working through NEF

If two or three foundations in an interest group want to work together on a joint programme, they can do this through NEF (Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation), which was explicitly set up as a platform to help foundations launch joint projects and find partners.

NEF has recently been boosted by the formation of the European Mercator Fund (EMF), which initiated the Brussels Summit. EMF was set up to cooperate with European foundations already working on public policy issues relevant to Europe and the rest of the world. The endowment comes from Stephan Schmidheiny, founder of Avina Foundation, who first put his toe in the European public policy water by supporting NEF’s European Drug Policy Fund, set up three years ago to examine European drug policies. Schmidheiny’s awareness of the problems caused by inappropriate drug policies arose largely from his experience in Latin America, where Avina works. As keynote speaker, he gave a fascinating account of how he came to set up Avina. Norine MacDonald of EMF described the Summit as ‘part of the Fund’s “consultation phase”’.

Europe in the World

Europe in the World, explained project leader Michael Brophy, is yet another attempt to engage European foundations in the wider world, this time at a global level.[1] The Europe in the World website will present data about what 100-200 European foundations are doing internationally, linking direct to the relevant information on their websites. Brophy described it as a ‘marketplace’ where foundations can exhibit their activities outside Europe, thereby inviting participation or partnerships. The site will also link to statistical information provided by organizations like OECD and Eurostat.

Brophy also presented the findings of the initial survey carried out under the project.[2] Encouragingly, most foundations feel they should be doing more internationally and don’t feel their legal deeds presented a barrier to doing this. However, the difficulty of ensuring that funds are well used and a concern about high costs are seen as serious barriers.

Beyond the stumbling blocks

But subsequent discussions made clear that these are not the only stumbling blocks. Foundations were challenged to devote 5 per cent of their assets to international giving. But, it was objected, it makes no sense to spend 95 per cent of your money on local programmes and 5 per cent on something completely different. The best way to achieve results is to do what you’re good at. This is undeniably true, yet … Money goes a long way in developing countries, and you have to start somewhere.

For those considering working outside their national boundaries, four civil society speakers suggested areas in which foundations could collaborate at European level or higher. One speaker suggested that foundations could play a valuable role in raising public consciousness about the realities of climate change. Another suggested trying to promote more positive perceptions of migration. If Europe is to be a competitive, dynamic, knowledge-based economy, it needs greater investment in people, their skills and versatility. The US, Canada and Australia, it was pointed out, all see migration in much more positive terms than Europeans tend to. Another panel featured four foundation leaders describing the international work of their foundations.

If foundations are interested and willing, there is clearly no shortage of opportunities to test ‘foreign’ waters.

1 Last summer NEF agreed to fund a project called Europe in the World to look at why European foundations seem to be doing less in terms of funding outside their own countries than one might expect.

2 See Alliance, Vol 8, No 2, March 2003, p7 for a fuller report.