A couple of weeks ago I returned to Europe (Croatia) to participate in the annual Forum of Philea, the association that brings together and represents the philanthropic organizations of the old continent. Conference with around 700 people mainly from European countries, who for a week discussed emerging trends – not only in Europe but also globally – with regard to public and private funding to programs of social utility.
I work for an Australian University that has a global presence, having campuses in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Italy, and has a history of working with major philanthropic organizations in Australia, Asia and the United States. The European panorama is relatively new to us, given that we have only been recognized as a European Research Foundation for a few months, which entitles us to access various forms of funding in Europe. I therefore approached this conference as an enormous opportunity to study, analyze and interpret how European philanthropy, in its various forms (from the traditional one, passing through the various forms of blended finance until’impact investment), can constitute a strategic and complementary lever for strengthen and expand the impact of public investment in the social and research fields.
An absolutely fascinating experience: the European panorama is extremely refined and with a variety of tools, approaches and modalities which – when compared to the Australian, Asian and, albeit to a lesser extent, American ones – confirm once again how the idea of a united European continent and cohesive, in spite of all the criticisms and challenges it has had to face, that’s a brilliant idea and highly futuristic.
European philanthropic foundations have in their DNA the natural tendency to work together. I often found myself in bilateral meetings with the major foundations in the sector discussing potential opportunities for collaboration with my university, and the standard phrase that was addressed to me was: “On this specific issue, we have created a coalition of donors together with other Foundations operating in Europe, and we support initiatives through a specially created pool of funds”.
I left with the distinct impression that hardly anyone works “on their own” anymore, but all tend to form alliances and networks to combine financial resources and support large-scale programs, which really have the potential to make a difference in terms of social impact. I have lived in Australia for 10 years and only recently have some philanthropic organizations embarked on a similar path of coalition building, facing obstacles and struggles that make them pale in comparison to how their European counterparts have operated for many years.
And this made me think, broadening the discussion and raising the point of view, to how much the European project has accustomed its citizens to think and plan transnationally. We often debate the value of the European Union only from an economic point of view, migration management, foreign policy, etc. and we forget how the great merit of this idea was to have stimulated an unconscious and positive brainwashing in the majority of the European population, who think and work as a collective. Of course, there are still nationalistic pockets of resistance in every country (as it should be), but the incredibly positive effects of this way of thinking and acting in a global way are noticeable in various sectors of society.
Ironically, once back in Australia, one of the first work meetings focused on the difficulty of working with a team based in another Australian city, due to the distance, the time zone (which here varies national borders) and the significant cultural differences (??!!) existing between the two cities.
Young Europeans face multiple challenges and a panorama of economic and political uncertainty for the years to come. But they are inherited from previous generations this incredible gift of a mindset coached to work in teams with people and organizations from countries which, although different in terms of culture and traditions, share a common unified and cohesive approach education and work which, in my opinion, makes the European project one of the most extraordinary success stories in the history of man.