Meeting the European Collaboration Challenge

As European integration evolves, foundations may increasingly benefit from — and thus be prepared to invest in — collaboration on issues that are decided upon or influenced by European level decision making: “There’s a link between the European and domestic developments on migration policy. There’s a competence that sits at the European level and a competence that sits at the national. As a local, national foundation, if you’re only focusing on the domestic, and not with an eye to try to also influence the European, there are things that you could be doing nationally that could be undermined or completely out of line of what’s going on in Europe, so you need to have an eye on both.”

In Europe, foundations historically have played very different roles when it comes to working with governments and influencing policies and public opinion. Reflection on these different roles and approaches will be needed when foundations increasingly join up to deal with European-level concerns, as one respondent explained: “As a collaborative we do not do advocacy, because not all foundations that are members are at ease with giving policy recommendations. But you cannot work on this theme, for example, without selecting an issue and focusing [on it]. Through that selection you indirectly set an agenda, even without actively advocating for policy change.”

Another respondent reflected that: “There is a cultural problem, to strengthen identification with Europe and to see that we are a common European society, European foundations will have to play their role. At times this role is to be played individually, but to live up to their potential, foundations in Europe have to be able to draw on their collective creativity and work well together.”

Takeaways are critical, bite-sized resources either excerpted from our guides or written by Candid Learning for Funders using the guide's research data or themes post-publication. Attribution is given if the takeaway is a quotation.

This takeaway was derived from Foundations in Europe Working Together.

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