The European Cultural Foundation and the Allianz Kulturstiftung for Europe invite you to imagine European philanthropy for a common future.
Interpret Europe is represented in the European Commission Expert Group on Cultural Heritage (Cultural Heritage Forum) and the study, Imagine Philanthropy for Europe, was shared with us in January. It is published by the European Cultural Foundation and the Allianz Kulturstiftung for Europe and invites discussion on the proposal of European philanthropy for a common future.
There is a lack of philanthropy with a Europe-wide purpose. Private money for public good does play a huge role in supporting projects, to an estimated 60 billion euros annually, with the aim of enabling greater European solidarity. However, much of this is at a national, regional or even just local level, despite the fact that some benefactors and large organisations providing funding say they have a European (or even global) reach.
This study looked at ways we could imagine philanthropy for a European purpose, to bring about better European-wide integration. It includes a set of ideas for discussion, based on a literature review and 20 interviews with cultural activists, policy makers, academic experts, leading foundation staff and representatives of philanthropic umbrella organisations. These ideas will form the basis of a follow-up exercise to develop a blueprint with more concrete instruments for the future.
Some aspects of the study are related to points we highlighted in our 2017 publication, Engaging citizens with cultural heritage’, which was our award-winning contribution to the European Year of Cultural Heritage. It’s great to see that some of the ideas we strongly believe in are becoming more widely adopted.
The study can be downloaded from this link and the European Cultural Foundation invites comment: https://culturalfoundation.eu/stories/imagine-philanthropy-for-europe
Marie Banks is IE’s News Coordinator. When not volunteering for IE, she runs her own interpretation and proofreading business, www.zebraproof.uk. She can be contacted at: marie.banks@interpret-europe.net.
To cite this article: Banks, Marie (2021) ‘Philanthropy for Europe’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2021, 32.
Available online: https://interpret-europe.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Newsletter-Spring-2021.pdf
