European Foundation Centre and Dafne – Donors and Foundations Networks in Europe have published a broad, comparative overview of the diverse legal and fiscal environments of foundations, across 40 countries, as well as identifies relevant trends and developments.
The report looks into how philanthropy in Europe is regulated from a comparative perspective, what legal requirements exist to establish a foundation, whether foundations can pursue only public-benefit or also private purposes, what governance requirements are set out, what forms of tax incentives exist to encourage philanthropic organisations and giving and how this differs across the continent or what impact anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism legislation has on the European philanthropy sector.
In 1988, the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti commissioned a comparative study of the foundations belonging to the Hague Club, which was then published in I Quaderni della Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, with the title Les fondations culturelles en Europe: starting from the analysis of the Statutes, the study was focused on commonalities and differences between the philanthropic organisations of an increasingly growing Europe.
