The European Foundation Centre (EFC) celebrated 20 years of ‘moving European philanthropy forward’ at its anniversary conference this week in Berlin.

The EFC has grown from seven to 227 members since 1989. Foundations in the EU have seen dramatic growth since then. Noticeable examples of this growth include:

• Slovakia: increase from 103 to 338 foundations over ten years. This mainly reflects legislative changes in 2002 which required pre-registration of all foundations
• Italy: the number of foundations increased by 133% since 1994
• Germany: an increase of 103% of independent foundations in the past 15 years

In his opening remarks, Emílio Rui Vilar, EFC chair and president of the Portuguese Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, said that the Berlin setting of the conference two decades after the fall of the wall was a fitting backdrop to the 20th anniversary celebrations of the EFC: “The fall of the wall conveys the spirit of inclusiveness which the EFC developed right from the beginning in its approach.”

Raymond Georis, founding EFC chair, spoke about his wishes for the future of European foundations, “My dream is that they really continue to be adventurous and remain open to the outside world.”

The EFC also awarded its first-ever Philanthropy Compass Prize to William S. White, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The prize recognises outstanding contributions to the development of the EFC and the European philanthropic sector as a whole.

Accepting the award, Mr White expressed delight, saying “I made a lot of friends, met a lot of new people. I think we accomplished something.”

EFC members collectively manage over €140bn (£125 bn) in assets and have a total annual expenditure of over €7.7 bn (£6.9 bn).