Philanthropy & Universities
Philanthropic funding in European universities
European Universities are currently facing a series of challenges brought about by both a rapidly changing international environment and tighter funding conditions by national public authorities. Globalisation, demographic change and the demands of the knowledge economy imply an increased demand for mass higher education and life-long learning, at the same time as putting a premium on high-quality research activities. In turn, it leads to increased competition for faculty, students, reputation, and funding.
Philanthropy can be a substantial source of funding for universities. Nevertheless, its potential has not been fully released in this regard: except for a few notable exceptions, the philanthropic sector funds a lower share of university-based research activities in Europe than in the US today.
EC research project ‘Study to assess fundraising from philanthropy for research funding in European universities’
Since August 2009, both VU University Amsterdam and Kent University are involved in delivering an EC-commissioned research project ‘Study to assess fundraising from philanthropy for research funding in European universities’.
This study will assess the importance of philanthropic funding in European universities in general, and specifically in support of university-based research. It includes an identification of universities active in fundraising from philanthropic sources. Data will be collected and analysed notably in terms of their fundraising structure and cost, degree of success, forms of philanthropic support, funds allocation, strategies and tactics adopted to raise funds for research, positive and negative impacts associated with the receipt of philanthropic funding for research, success and failure factors.
With regard to this research project the researchers will collect data by means of an online questionnaire from research-based universities in the 27 EU countries. Data collection will start in Mid January 2010. At the moment we are trying to identify the person who has the most insight into the university’s fundraising activities at each European university.
For further information about this study, you can contact:
European Context
The need to improve knowledge on fund-raising of European universities from philanthropic sources was already discussed by the stakeholders at the conference on "Giving more for research in Europe", organised by the European Commission in co-operation with the European Foundation Centre in March 2006. As a result, the European Commission, Directorate General for Research, set up an independent expert group in 2007 to explore ways in which universities in Europe could raise more funds for research from philanthropic sources. The expert group, composed of high-level representatives from European universities and leading research foundations, identified and reviewed good practices and barriers to fundraising of universities from philanthropic sources in a national and an international context (see the expert group report ‘Engaging philanthropy for university research: fundraising by universities from philanthropic sources’).
During the work of the expert group, a public consultation was organised in order to gather more information on European universities' fundraising activities, especially those specifically designed to raise funds for university-based research. However, due to some technical constraints and time pressure, the response rate to the questionnaire was too low to draw meaningful conclusions. To fill this gap, it was decided to launch the ‘Study to assess fundraising from philanthropy for research funding in European universities’.