Another exciting year is coming to an end. In France, foundations have continued to develop fast, to professionalize and to experiment new forms of interventions for the public good. As the largest philanthropic network in our country (25 programs and 828 hosted funds; 175 million Euro distributed annually), Fondation de France is seeing five main challenges for us as a sector.

The first challenge is to keep the environment in which we operate open and free. Since it was founded at the end of the 1960’s, Fondation de France has put constant effort into building a favorable framework for philanthropy.

With important success: the French legislator has designed a legal and fiscal framework which is among the most favorable in the world, and the relations between public administration and private philanthropic actors are more and more of mutual respect and consideration.

But at a time when borders tend to close in Europe and elsewhere in the world, when the shrinking space for civil society is a real threat for many of our European neighbors especially in Eastern Europe and Russia, we must remain mobilized to preserve this essential space of freedom, which is a vital condition for philanthropy to grow and bloom.

This implies regular and honest dialogue with our governments and elected officials, to show them the specifics of philanthropic intervention and its added value for society.

Read the full article about French philanthropy by Axelle Davezac at Alliance.