by Beth Breeze, Iain Wilkinson, Theo Schuyt & Barbara Gouwenberg

This report (in which I declare an interest as co-author) presents the results of the first large-scale study of philanthropic funding in European universities, both for general purposes, and specifically in support of research. It covers individual donors, charitable trusts and foundations and private corporations, analysing the wide range of contextual and institutional factors affecting success and failure in fundraising from philanthropic sources. It also explores the distribution of efforts and outcomes of fundraising activities, ways in which philanthropic contributions are used to support research, and the positive and negative impacts of receiving this source of funding. The wealth of data gathered through this study provides a much-needed basis for any future enquiries in the field of fundraising from philanthropy for research in European universities.

European Commission: Brussels, June 2011. 178pp. Softcover. ISBN 978-92-79-18784-1. Available online at http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/docs/en/fundraising-from-philanthropy.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=none