Unpicking the intellectual fruit bowl of philanthropic foundations - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Unpicking the intellectual fruit bowl

• f philanthropic foundations

Towards a typology?

Tobias Jung tj3@st-andrews.ac.uk

• What are foundations?
• How can we differentiate between

foundations?

Big names

Long and colourful histories….

…wherever you go, whatever you do…

…but, seriously:

‘when you have seen one foundation, you have seen one foundations’

Searching for foundation(s)

What’s in a name?

In academia, a foundations is…

• ‘a form of involvement in the public interest for the

wealthy’ (Ming and Yushan 2010)

• ‘a grantmaking institution that does not itself conduct

direct charitable activities’ (O’Halloran et al. 2008)

• ‘a permanent endowment, not committed to a

particular institution or activity, that provides a grantmaking capacity’ (Prewitt 2006)

From the Minnesota Council on Foundations’ (2016) classification…

• There are three basic types of grantmaking

foundations:

• Independent Foundations
• Corporate Foundations
• Community/Public Foundations
• There is also a type of foundation that does not

generally make grants, called an operating foundation.

…to that by Swiss Foundations (2016)

• Dachstiftung (‘umbrella foundation’, aimed at pooling smaller pockets of wealth)
• Familienstiftung (‘family foundation’)
• Förderstiftung (‘independent, endowed foundation’)
• Gemeinnützige Stiftung (‘public benefit foundation’)
• Kirchliche Stiftung (‘ecclesiastic foundation’)
• Klassische Stiftung (‘traditional foundation’, non-differentiated and now dated term to refer to all

independent foundations)

• Öffentlichrechtliche Stiftung (‘public foundation’, set up through a legislative act and usually funded

through public, governmental, funds)

• Operative Stiftung (‘operating foundation’)
• Personalvorsorgestiftung (PVS) (‘individual care foundation’, foundation acting like a pension scheme)
• Privatrechtliche Stiftung (‘private foundation’, i.e. the opposite of the above Öffentlichrechtliche

Stiftung)

• Sammelstiftung (‘collective foundation’, foundation pooling resources for smaller companies that

cannot operate their own PVS)

• Spendenstiftung (foundation with a small endowment aimed at leveraging further resources through

fundraising)

• Unselbständige Stiftung (‘dependent foundations’, frequently those set up within the above

‘Dachstiftung’)

• Unternehmensstiftung (‘corporate foundation’)
• Verbrauchsstiftung (‘limited life foundation’)
• Vergabestiftung (older term used to refer to Förderstiftung)

‘The term foundation has no precise meaning.’

Council on Foundations, 2016

Prominent metaphors

• Large body of money surrounded by people who

want some (Macdonald)

• Rich relatives (Weissert and Knott)
• Puzzle (Prewitt)
• Don Quixote in limousines (Whitacker)
• Giraffes (Nielsen)
• 800lb Gorilla (Moran)
• Black boxes (Diaz)

Key themes

• Legal structures and political contexts
• Approaches and roles
• Size and source of income
• Organisational and governance characteristics
• Industry and sector
• Geographic origin and reach
• -> Reflected in foundations’ own thematic networks

Taking a first step towards a typology…

Thank you

Tobias Jung tj3@st-andrews.ac.uk