Public authorities are among the many partners and donors of foundations. Some foundations can act as an intermediary to manage public schemes/services and redistribute public funds reaching out to the grassroots.
The Local Network Fund for Children and Young People in the UK is an example of a seven-year social regeneration programme for children and young people that public authorities have “handed out” to a network of community foundations and local organisations.
In Hungary non-profit organisations including foundations have been increasingly involved in the promotion of public services in the field of education, social welfare and health care. The law on public benefit organisations introduced a special category of non-profit organisations that undertake state or local government responsibilities, and are contracted by a state organ to provide them.
This intermediary function can also be found in re-granting European Union funds and managing EU programmes.
The Community Foundation for Wiltshire & Swindon’s Progress Fund initiative was made possible due to the foundation’s successful application to the European Social Fund (ESF) and enabled the Community Foundation to grant more than 550.000 euros to 57 different local groups and projects to help those in long-term unemployment, elderly people and families in crisis, among others over the period 2002 – 2004.
The Fundación ONCE manages the “Programa Acción” - a programme for the integration of people with disability through employment in Spain as an integral part of the multi-regional Operational Programme on “Fight against Discrimination”, one of the action of the European Social Fund (2000-2006).
As part of its training activities the Fundación Luis Vives is also working as an intermediary body, managing an ESF global grant in the context of the Operational Programme on “Fight against Discrimination” 2000-2006. During this period, it will manage 13 million euros targeted at Spanish NGOs working on the labour insertion of groups at risk of exclusion in Spain.
The European Cultural Foundation was one of the first foundations to run EU schemes, The Foundation was closely involved with some major European educational programmes: ERASMUS and EURYDICE on behalf of the European Commission and closely cooperated with the Commission on the TEMPUS programme.
Prior to EU enlargement, the Open Estonia Foundation managed a EU support programme for civil society in Estonia.
However co-funding partnerships for the long term bring a series of challenges. Currently foundations have faced barriers -mainly due to public administrative and financial regulations restrictions- when they wish to maximise co-funding partnerships with the EU to set up joint endowments or funds to secure sustainable action. The issue has come up at several occasions over the last years where proposals were made to set up special funds for regional action e.g. special initiative for Africa; the Northern Ireland peace initiative. Using joint financial resources to endow intermediary grantmakers would be a way of ensuring long-term continuity of funding for structural changes.
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