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- Date
- Apr 28 - May 01, 2026
- Session no.
- S946-01
- Location
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Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Austria
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Finance & Governance
Expanding Philanthropic Infrastructure in Turbulent Times: The Need for More European Intermediaries
The global political landscape has become increasingly complex and volatile. Rising authoritarianism, shrinking civic space, polarization, and shifting geopolitical alliances are challenging traditional development and philanthropic paradigms. Nowhere, arguably, is this change more apparent than in the USA. There are many sectors that are being threatened in various ways, whether overtly politically, through financial pressure, or other mechanisms that make business as usual nearly impossible. Amid this shift, the philanthropic sector generally, and philanthropic intermediaries in particular, are facing growing pressure and political attacks that undermine and threaten their efficacy, in some cases their existence.
Philanthropic intermediaries have played an essential role in the philanthropy ecosystem for decades. They help to resource transformational social change efforts, providing a bridge between donors and charitable causes, especially innovators and frontline actors. They enable emerging initiatives and innovative projects to access philanthropic support without the burden of setting up their own organization. This democratizes philanthropy and catalyzes innovation by reducing barriers to entry for new voices and ideas.
Intermediaries take many forms and provide value by managing grants, building capacity, offering contextual intelligence, providing direct services to frontline actors, and facilitating innovation and entrepreneurial approaches. Fiscal sponsorship has become a critical service in recent years and has long been recognized as a legitimate legal construct to provide not only funding, but a full suite of services to philanthropic and social change efforts. The majority of intermediaries that can provide a full suite of fiscal sponsorship are located in the USA. While these services exist in other geographies, they are much more limited.
In the current context, where US-based fiscal sponsors - and the sector more broadly - are subject to increasing scrutiny and political pressure, donors are looking for alternatives to work with philanthropic intermediaries outside of the US, seeking to avoid the heightened risks they perceive of transferring or holding funds, and operating, in the USA. US operators are also considering changes to their approaches. Many donors are considering opportunities to expand philanthropic infrastructure outside of the US, which has long term benefits for the sector. Europe is a natural location, given a strong regulatory environment, diverse array of foundations and long history of organized philanthropy. But questions exist regarding how quickly the sector can adapt and expand, which countries offer relative benefits, what existing infrastructure can be (relatively quickly) evolved, what is the level of need, what types of services are needed, and what can be learned from the US and other existing fiscal sponsor models.
Date
Apr 28 - May 01, 2026
Session no.
S946-01
Location
Schloss Leopoldskron, Salzburg, Austria
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Additional Info
Salzburg Global, the Windward Fund, and Salzburg Global Seminar-Austria, will convene approximately 30-35 international donors, intermediaries, project representatives, and philanthropic experts to better understand the scope and scale of current challenges, explore opportunities, and seek to learn from what has worked well, and less well, in the existing models, seeking to innovate and improve in establishing new infrastructure and approaches.
The program will provide opportunity to share knowledge, ideas and experiences, and explore a number of critical questions.
We will share in advance of the convening commissioned research that describes the current landscape and potential scale of fiscal sponsorship in Europe, with a focus on eight different jurisdictions. The report will be reviewed and discussed at the program for further refinement before being more widely disseminated.
The program participants will explore a number of challenges and opportunities. The key questions to be addressed include:
- How do we understand this “moment”? What are the real, perceived, and pending risks in the US context? What outcomes are donors seeking in Europe that are not being achieved in the US?
- What infrastructure exists already in Europe and what is its absorptive capacity? What are the benefits of establishing new, or expanding existing, philanthropic infrastructure, specifically fiscal sponsorship, in Europe (or elsewhere)? What are the legal and regulatory requirements in key European jurisdictions? Does expanded competition come at a cost?
- What is the role of transparency in building trust in the sector? What are the legal requirements across key European jurisdictions for public reporting on philanthropic activities? How can donors navigate accountability in contested environments?
- How might shifting funding affect existing projects? What might be the implications for future innovation, global organizing and intersectional movements?
- In what ways can fiscal sponsors and intermediaries in both the US and Europe innovate on existing practices and approaches? How are evolving philanthropic approaches, including trust-based, equitable and participatory philanthropy, informing the work of fiscal sponsors in Europe and globally? How should they?
Over the course of 2.5 days, participants will have time to delve into these questions, and more; exchange experiences; ideate on new approaches; and identify opportunities to expand the philanthropic ecosystem in important ways. Participants have the opportunity to rethink and revise core practices, norms and procedures in this critical time.
- Facilitate open and frank dialogue and exchange among donors, intermediaries, hosted projects and philanthropy experts that are exploring or implementing diverse strategies and approaches.
- Explore the context in which changes in the sector are taking place, examining assumptions, understanding the benefits and possible drawbacks of new approaches that seek to expand and improve philanthropic infrastructure and services.
- Foster knowledge exchange and collaboration among diverse actors across the philanthropic ecosystem.
- Inform, provoke, and inspire new thinking that can lead to the testing and adoption of new strategies and approaches.
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