The Philanthropy Environment in Europe

This joint Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and Philea briefing provides information on the philanthropic landscape in Europe, putting the findings of the 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index 1 (published in March 2022 by IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy) in context with Philea’s 2022 publication, “Comparative Highlights of Foundation Laws.”

The Lilly Family School of Philanthropy research takes the approach of creating an index based on the scores of contributing experts across six factors for an enabling environment for philanthropy, including regulatory, political, economic, and socio-cultural considerations. The Philea publication offers a comparative perspective across 40 in-depth country profiles drafted by national-level legal experts, which describe the national legal and tax rules governing philanthropic organisations and outlines key trends across all countries. In addition to the 33 European countries covered by the Global Philanthropy Environment Index, the Philea publication contains information for Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia.

These complementary approaches offer timely and publicly accessible information about the environment in which philanthropy operates to different stakeholders: policymakers; philanthropic and non-profit leaders; and the business and research communities. These research ef forts can help national and European philanthropic sectors to advocate for a more favourable operating environment, for example along the lines of the key recommendations from Philea’s European Philanthropy Manifesto.