Deepening Philanthropy’s Connective Tissue in Europe

Sampriti Ganguli, an independent advisor who works with donors and fiscal sponsors, identified today’s pressure in the U.S. as a deeper crisis of legitimacy in the philanthropy and charitable sectors. She believes public trust has eroded amid frustration with wealth inequality, skepticism about billionaire donors, and disinformation against progressive philanthropy.

Fiscal sponsors face particular scrutiny because large amounts of capital move through them and their programmatic role is not widely understood. Behind the scenes, she said, they are handling media attention, personalized attacks on staff, and rising legal, insurance, and service costs. “We have a trust deficit right now that we are operating under,” she observed.

Science-based initiatives can also struggle when they rely on government co-funding. Sampriti identified climate as especially difficult to fund when government policy is actively hostile to mitigation work. As risk management and compliance dominate, she worries that long-term vision and development of the next generation of leaders fall off the agenda.

Lynn McNair, president of the Windward Fund, likewise described the U.S. environment as increasingly adversarial to foundations and NGOs. “The entire political tenor as it relates to working with nonprofits has shifted and changed, putting private foundations on guard as they try to determine the best way to engage and support the work they have taken time to build. Foundations and nonprofits have also become political targets, creating further uncertainty up and down the food chain,” she said. This compounds the challenge that funders may shift their priorities every three to five years, making sustained work harder to plan.

Sampriti sees an opening in all this, as it could be "an opportunity to have these kind of global structures meet the global moment and global opportunity as opposed to only being U.S.-centric."

For Lynn, Europe offers promise but noted that the operating environment varies from country to country: A structure that works in the Netherlands or the United Kingdom may encounter different rules in Belgium. "While laws may be different across European countries, it could be an advantage, as you have the option to operate based on the laws and policies within each of these countries - some complex while others straightforward, allowing flexibility as the terrain is navigated for each," she said.

She also sees opportunity in the fact that fiscal hosting in the European context is still emerging and rapidly evolving. Less established infrastructure can mean less institutional resistance to experimentation and more influence over its development. Operating under European law also allows fiscal hosts to operate "out of arm's reach of the U.S. government" and make room for longer-term thinking.

Sampriti approached Europe’s potential from the perspective of access. She urged intermediaries to ask: “Where is it the hardest to get resources to and how can fiscal sponsorship be a pathway to doing that?” European hubs can help support transnational partnerships and move resources closer to the people they are intended to serve. At the same time, she cautioned against treating Europe as the only answer. There is a need for stronger regional hubs in Africa and Latin America and examples of innovation are already present in places like in Singapore. Fiscal sponsorship, in her view, should "serve the global majority.”

Anna Lee, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Wellcome Trust in the United Kingdom, framed the present disruption as evidence of overreliance on U.S. capital and funding vehicles. She emphasized the need for a more diversified and resilient funding ecosystem, and the role philanthropy can play as a catalyst, unlocking other sources of funding, while working in partnership across foundations, sectors, and borders.

Anna argued that impact depends not only on how much capital is available but also on whether a strong enough system exists to deploy it effectively. “Investing in trusted intermediaries, collaborative platforms, and ecosystem capacity may not always be the most visible use of philanthropy, but it can be one of the most effective ways of increasing the reach, resilience, and impact of funding across the wider system,” she said.

She believes European philanthropy is strong and diverse, and the real work now is connecting its collaborative vehicles and platforms and mobilizing cross-border funding at scale. She favors building on organizations, networks, and intermediaries already operating in the field. "European philanthropies have an important role to play in supporting global public goods, fostering collaboration, and helping to catalyze solutions to shared challenges," Anna noted.

Climate philanthropy provides an early indication of this growth trajectory, according to Anna. Climate funders have worked in politically volatile environments for years, built infrastructure networks, and adapted quickly. Their experience can inform other sectors, while Europe can learn from collaborative vehicles in Asia and locally rooted, trust-based, and participatory models in Africa and Latin America.

But the legal and operational capacity of philanthropic actors means nothing without trust. Sampriti called on the sector to reduce technical jargon, become more inclusive and transparent, and become "strident in the defense of the work we do." Anna similarly argued that transparency and accountability are essential to legitimacy, and to directing more capital toward underfunded areas.

Anna believes that "Europe can play a stronger role in helping to build the global philanthropic infrastructure needed to respond to the collective crises we face. But that will only happen if philanthropy treats infrastructure as a strategic priority, investing funding, and using our convening power and influence to help build a sustainable, accountable, and distributed network of intermediaries that strengthen global action."

Europe should not replicate U.S. fiscal sponsorship wholesale. Its regulatory environment, philanthropic traditions, and institutions demand approaches designed for their context. As Sampriti noted, "fiscal sponsorship will not look the same in Europe because philanthropy is not the same in Europe and the regulatory environment is not the same... I am excited about fiscal sponsorship within the European theater and context because I think it holds a whole new set of promises and possibilities."

There is a clear case for Europe to expand its fiscal-hosting capacity while strengthening what already exists and remaining connected to other regions. If funders treat this infrastructure as a strategic priority, they can connect capital, knowledge, policy, and communities around shared challenges.