Management staff implements the mission statement, runs the organisation on a day to day basis and ensures that operations are in line with the policy directives. As a consequence, many internal and external factors can determine the size, shape and nature of a foundation’s human resources. They include the foundation’s size, mission (multipurpose or subject specific) and strategic choices (operating or/and grant-making working method).
Foundation Staff Profiles
Foundations’ human resources can include not only staff but also volunteers, consultants and board members as explained above. For example, in Germany, small foundations with limited assets are often staffed by trustees1. In the long term, however, such a strategy is only possible for small foundations with a limited range of interests. Once programme areas become diverse or the foundation’s structure becomes more complex, professional staff is needed. This is an increasing trend in the European foundation sector.
Foundations face a long list of options regarding size and qualifications of their staff. The scale can range from a single professional programme manager to organisations of several hundred staff members. Foundations may require four types of staff members: financial experts, administration experts, programme experts and communication talents. Most programme officers are academically trained individuals who have had research or other working experience before joining the foundation. They may need scientific, medical, political, economic or other knowledge and they must be able to apply this to the particular task of managing knowledge rather than researching it.
Number of employees
Little statistical data regarding the European foundations’ staff number and profiles have been gathered2. The EFC Research Task Force 2003 survey of foundations in EU countries indicated that in 7 EU countries, namely Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, over 10,500 foundations surveyed were found to employ some 185,700 people, which equates to an average of 18 employees per foundation. This may, however, cover variations between foundations with over 100 staff members and those who employ less than 5. Such diversity in employment can be found in Belgium. The country has an average of 62 employees per foundation though the median average is 1 staff member per foundation and few Belgian foundations have over 100 - 500 personnel.
Gender issue
Little data is available at the European level on staff profiles and gender balance. Findings from national surveys have shown that women often form the majority of foundations' staff. This is the case in France where 70% of the staff in French foundations is women3. In a Danish study4, 21% of board members were women. In the administrations; the percentage of women is three times as high at 65%. About half of the administrative directors are women. Similarities to other voluntary organisations are striking. In Denmark, it seems that women relatively rarely take up positions as board members in voluntary organisations. This observation seems to be also valid among the EFC members5.
Staff remuneration
Few surveys have been carried out regarding the remuneration of foundation staff. A recent study in UK outlines that 4, 4% of staff employed by the Top 500 trusts earn more than £50.000 per annum, and this proportion has remained static from 2003/4. The average ‘top salary’ in the Top 500 trusts is £86.000 per annum. This has increased substantially (by 16% in real-terms) between 2003/04 and 2004/056.
Volunteers
The degree to which volunteers are involved in a foundation largely depends upon the type of foundation, its assets and its annual expenditure. In all the cases, the reason for including volunteers in philanthropy are the following7: they provide expertise which a foundation could not afford on a professional basis; the contribution of expertise is only needed for a limited period during the year, but the need is regular; a large number of people are required to process applications (often the case for foundations which award prizes)
The survey conducted by the EFC Research Task Force in 2003 confirms that volunteering is an important feature of the foundation sector. It covers a variety of people involved in the foundation, who participate without material or financial remuneration in the boards of directors of foundations, evaluation committees and in some cases fundraising activities. Some 10,000 foundations surveyed by the EFC Research Task Force in 6 EU countries, involved some 144,500 volunteers working for foundations, thus an average of 14 volunteers per foundation. The situation in the Netherlands is quite specific where some 900,000 volunteers are involved in door-to-door collections!
External Experts/Consultants
Foundations also work frequently with the support of independent experts/external consultants. Contributions to the running of existing foundations can consist of expertise that is lacking in-house: specific knowledge, evaluation, communications, personnel recruitment, new venture designs, restructuring foundation programmes or simply providing an outside view to help with decision making.
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[1] Foundations in Europe : society, management and law / Andreas Schlüter, Volker Then, Peter Walkenhorst (Ed.). - London : The Directory of Social Change ; Gütersloh : Bertelsmann Foundation ; Kent : Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), 2001, p 435, p 463.
[2] In Charity trends 2006 : the definitive annual income survey of the major fundraising charities / Cathy Pharoah, Catherine Walker, Liz Goodey. - Kent : Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), 2006, p 174, the following information can be found:
Results for the Top 500 Trusts 2004/05: there has been a small growth in the number of employees and the growth in the value of total employee costs reflects this. Among the 192 top trusts which have been surveyed, there is an average of 29 employees by trust, which is 4% more than the previous year.
[3] Enquête nationale auprès des fondations / Odile de Laurens (Ed.). - Paris : Fondation de France, 2005, p 39. http://www.fdf.org/download/2005_etude_fondations.pdf
[4] Foundations in Europe : Denmark / Ulla Habermann. - Copenhagen : Institute of Exercise and Sport Sciences. University of Copenhagen, 2004, p 58. http://www.ifi.ku.dk/download/?id=30&type=pdf
[5] Foundations and gender : are European women facing a glass ceiling? In Alliance, vol. 11, Nr. 4 (December 2006), p 39.
[6] Charity trends 2006 : the definitive annual income survey of the major fundraising charities / Cathy Pharoah, Catherine Walker, Liz Goodey. - Kent : Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), 2006, p 175.
[7] Foundations in Europe : society, management and law / Andreas Schlüter, Volker Then, Peter Walkenhorst (Ed.). - London : The Directory of Social Change ; Gütersloh : Bertelsmann Foundation ; Kent : Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), 2001, p 464.