In recent years, foundations and the third sector in general have stepped up their efforts to develop a more structured dialogue with public authorities at the local, regional, national, European and multilaterals on regulatory issues and policy developments.

National developments

Some national governments have set up special departments or councils that serve as an advisory and opinion-forming body to the government in matters that are of concern to non-profit organisations. In some European countries cooperation agreements or compacts at local and/or national level exist with the aim to improve and in some cases formalise the interaction between public authorities and the non-profit sector as a whole.

The British Compact

In 1997 the British Government set up a written agreement (“Compact”) aimed at developing a new concept of relationship between public institutions and the third sector. In 1998 separate Compacts for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland were established

Civil dialogue in Estonia

In 1999, Estonian non-profits recognised that a partnership agreement between the public sector and the non-profit sector to improve their relationship would benefit both parties. After a process of 15 months, involving numerous roundtables, negotiations, seminars and awareness work, a document called the Estonian Civil Society Development Concept (EKAK) was born. The general aim of the document is to examine the different roles of the public sector and the nonprofit sector, which supplement each other, and the co-operation principles in developing and implementing public policies and building up the civic society. The Estonian Parliament adopted EKAK in 2002 and the Estonian Government approved the first implementation plan of 2004-2006 of EKAK in April 2004.

Polish Public Benefit Council

Another example can be found in Poland, where a “Council on Public Benefit Activities” was created by law on 2003. The Council’s tasks include: issuing opinions on the implementation of the law on non-profit organisations and on governmental draft laws concerning public benefit and volunteer work, as well as on the process of commissioning public tasks to be performed by NGOs; assisting in case of any dispute between the public administration and public benefit organisations; participating in audit procedures concerning public benefit organisations; and creating mechanisms for communicating standards for carrying out public benefit work.

Italian regional framework

Italian foundations of banking origin are required by law to pursue activities for regional and local development. The Tuscany region has drawn up a “Regional Programme of Development for the period 2003-2005”, which includes the cooperation between the Region and foundations of banking origin for the reinforcement of cooperation in sectors of common interest for local development.

• Dialogue between the German Foreign Office and foundations

In summer 2004, the German Foreign Office set up a task force for dialogue and cooperation with foundations and corporations in the field of foreign cultural and educational policy. It aims at supporting a better mutual understanding between public and private partners in international cultural relations and education and at creating new public private partnership programmes. This initiative was supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation by seconding one of its project managers to the Foreign Office for one and a half years to contribute the experience of a private foundation to the task force.

Multilaterals

Multilaterals have started to review partnerships as well.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

The OECD has released a publication of foundation development and cooperation to inform bilateral aid agencies about the origin, nature and work of foundations active in the development field (see bibliography).

United Nations (UN)

Over the past five years, regular meetings and consultations between foundations and representatives from different organisations of the UN system have taken place with the aim to increase mutual understanding; exchange information about key issues in the field of global development and approaches to address these; provide input to policy documents; and identify opportunities for cooperation. Areas of cooperation focused, in particular, on increasing European funding for HIV/AIDS. At the EFC's Annual General Assembly (AGA) and Conference held in June 2003 in Lisbon, the Centre adopted a statement in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and committed to establishing a special programme – Europe in the World – to mobilise foundation leadership and resources for global issues and in support of the MDGs. For more information please check the EFC website.

World Bank

The World Bank engages with the foundation sector and in the European Foundation Centre (EFC) in a range of areas including country dialogues, which bring together governments, Bank officials and local foundations and civil society representatives in the countries concerned; the Roma Education Fund; and community philanthropy issues. The World Bank has a dedicated contact person for foundations. It also set up a website to enable the foundation community and the World Bank to interact, share information and knowledge in pursuit of poverty reduction and sustainable development.

For more information, please check the EFC website.

Specific World Bank Group initiatives have also reviewed partnership issues. The CEERD programme works to promote civic engagement, empowerment and respect for diversity in the following fields: voice through Media; Legal empowerment; respect through diversity through Education; traditional knowledge and empowerment; and value-based participatory planning. CEERD programme Principles for Coalition examines the complementarities and advantages to partner with foundations both to support pilots technically and financially and to take stock of existing bodies of knowledge, e.g., through existing networks. 

EU bodies

Few formal policy and consultation fora are actually devoted to non-profit organisations and foundations as such at EU level.

A number of foundations are represented on the European Economic and Social Committee, which is the Commission consultative assembly of the various economic and social components of organised civil society. For more information, please check the Committee’s website.

At the level of the European Commission, foundations participate in expert groups or fora on selected issues according to their area of expertise, culture, education etc. Recent initiatives include the European Commission experts group on research foundations set up in 2004 to recommend concrete policy measures to promote the role of foundations in boosting Research and Technological Development (R&D) investment both at European and Members State levels.  The report is to be published in October 2005

Policy work is also developed through the all-party groups of the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) with special interest in specific issues e.g. people with disability, social economy organisations.

Since 1995 the EFC has developed “Eurobriefing” information-exchange and action oriented meetings between EFC Members and Commission representatives on issues/regions of common interest. They take place on an annual basis. More information can be obtained from the EFC website.

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