New ranking of top 50 European foundations published
Howard Lake | 9 February 2005 | News
Philanthropy in Europe magazine has published its second annual ranking of Europe’s top 50 foundations which together make grants of over €3.8 billion.
Philanthropy in Europe’s latest list ranks the top 50 European foundations by grant expenditure and the top 20 by assets.
The listing is once again dominated by foundations from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, although foundations from a further eight countries do make it into the list: Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.
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Top of the list is the Wellcome Trust, which is still by far the biggest spender amongst European foundations. Its grantmaking rose to ‚€806 million in 2003, up from over ‚€700 million in 2002, despite asset falls of approximately ‚€8.8 billion over the last four years. It is followed by Ireland’s Atlantic Philanthropies, founded in 1982 by Irish American Charles F. Feeney.
Philanthropy in Europe compared the top European foundations with their counterparts in the USA. In 2003, Europe’s top 50 foundations gave away over ‚€3.8 billion, while America’s biggest foundations gave ‚€6.4 billion. However, Europe’s foundations are significantly more international in their giving than their American peers: of the 40 top American foundations, only 14 made any grants outside the US.
Even the Italian banking foundations, traditionally parochial by statute in their giving, are beginning to extend their giving beyond regional or national borders. Italy’s oldest and wealthiest banking foundation, the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, is today funding HIV/AIDS prevention projects in Mozambique and Guinea Bissau, whilst the Unidea Unicredit Foundation, Italy’s newest banking foundation, is committed to spending 60% of its grant budget in Africa.
The top 50 European foundations by expenditure in 2003 are:
| 1. Wellcome Trust (UK) | ‚€806 million (2002-03) |
| 2. Atlantic Philanthropies (Ireland) | ‚€201.7 million (2003) |
| 3. La Caixa Foundation (Spain) | ‚€179.5 million (2003) |
| 4. Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Italy) | ‚€146 million (2003) |
| 5. Fondazione Cariplo (Italy) | ‚€144.1 million (2003) |
| 6. Stichting NOVIB (Netherlands) | ‚€134.7million (2003) |
| 7. Compagnia di San Paolo (Italy) | ‚€120.85 million (2003) |
| 8. Fondation de France (France) | ‚€116.7 million (2002) |
| 9. Fundacion ONCE (Spain) | ‚€112.1 million (2002) |
| 10. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€110 million (2003) |
| 11. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) | ‚€102.7 million (2003) |
| 12. Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse (Sweden) | ‚€100.3 million (2002) |
| 13. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€100 million (2003) |
| 14. Volkswagen Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€99.2 million (2003) |
| 15. Aga Khan Foundation (Switzerland) | ‚€76.3 million (2003) |
| 16. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Italy) | ‚€74.5 million (2002) |
| 17. Bertelsmann Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€65 million (2003) |
| 18. Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (Germany) | ‚€61.3 million (2002) |
| 19. HIVOS (Netherlands) | ‚€58.1 million (2002) |
| 20. Garfield Weston Foundation (UK) | ‚€54 million (2002-03) |
| 21. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo (Italy) | ‚€53 million (2002) |
| 22. Gatsby Charitable Foundation (UK) | ‚€52.5 million (2003) |
| 23. Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€48.7 million (2003) |
| 24. Technologiestichting—STW (Netherlands) | ‚€46 million (2001) |
| 24. Wolfson Foundation (UK) | ‚€46 million (2002-03) |
| 26. Vehbi Koc Foundation (Turkey) | ‚€44.4 million (2001) |
| 27. King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium) | ‚€43.2 million (2003) |
| 28. Fundacion Caja Madrid (Spain) | ‚€41.4 million (2004) |
| 29. Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation (UK) | ‚€39 million (2003) |
| 30. Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung | ‚€36.6 million (2002) |
| 31. Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales (UK) | ‚€36.3 million (2003) |
| 32. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Roma (Italy) | ‚€35.4 million (2002) |
| 33. Henry Smith’s Charity (UK) | ‚€34.3 million (2003) |
| 34. Fundacion Telefonica (Spain) | ‚€31.8 million (2003) |
| 35. Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (Italy) | ‚€31 million (2003) |
| 36. Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (Sweden) | ‚€30.9 million (2003) |
| 37. Health Foundation (UK) | ‚€30.4 million (2002) |
| 38. Van Leer Group Foundation (Netherlands) | ‚€29.4 million (2003) |
| 39. Avina Stiftung (Switzerland) | ‚€26.8 million (2003) |
| 40. Software AG Foundation (Germany) | ‚€26 million pa |
| 41. Suomen Kultuurirahasto (Finland) | ‚€25.4 million (2003) |
| 42. Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€24.4 million (1999) |
| 43. Tudor Trust (UK) | ‚€23.4 million (2002-03) |
| 44. ZEIT Stiftung (Germany) | ‚€22.36 million (2003) |
| 45. Bayerische Landesstiftung (Germany) | ‚€21.8 million (1999) |
| 46. Bernard van Leer Foundation (Netherlands) | ‚€23.3 million (2003) |
| 47. Fundacao Oriente (Portugal) | ‚€20.8 million (2002) |
| 48. Nuffield Foundation (UK) | ‚€17.4 million (2003) |
| 49. Fundación BBVA (Spain) | ‚€16.5 million 2003 |
| 50. Stichting Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (Netherlands) | ‚€16 million (2002) |
| Total | ‚€3.8 billion |
Philanthropy in Europe magazine doesn’t just look at expenditure: it has also investigated the wealth held by these top foundations. It has found that the top 20 wealthiest foundations held assets of an estimated ‚€61.2 billion in 2003, up from ‚€57 billion in 2002, and ‚€52 billion in 2000, whilst the top 250 foundations in Europe were worth approximately ‚€108 billion in 2003.
However, the magazine acknowledges that the figures “are muddied” due to the complicated share structures of two Swiss foundations (the Sandoz Fondation de Famille and the Fondation Hans Wilsdorf) and their corporate holdings, principally the pharmaceuticals giant Novartis AG and upmarket watch maker Montres Rolex SA. In addition the ‚€6 billion figure for the Bertelsmann Stiftung is based on the lower estimate of the market value of the foundation’s holdings, which could be as much as ‚€18 billion.
Top 20 European foundations 2003 (by assets)
| Foundation name | Assets ‚€million |
| 1. Wellcome Trust (UK) | 13,015,500,000 (2003) |
| 2. Fondazione Hans Wilsdorf (Switzerland) | 9,110,000,000 |
| 3. Compagnia di San Paolo (Italy) | 6,500,000,000 (2003) |
| 4. Bertelsmann Stiftung (Germany) | 6,000,000,000* |
| 5. Fondazione Cariplo (Italy) | 5,726,500,000 (2003) |
| 6. Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Italy) | 5,531,700,000 (2002) |
| 7. Sandoz Fondation de Famille (Switzerland) | 5,205,000,000 |
| 8. Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany) | 5,102,550,000 (2003) |
| 9. Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg gGmbH (Germany) | 3,027,000,000 (2003) |
| 10. Atlantic Philanthropies (Ireland) | 2,980,500,000 (2003) |
| 11.Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) | 2,214,600,000 (2003) |
| 12. Volkswagen Stiftung (Germany) | 2,144,547,000 (2003) |
| 13. Stiftung für Europäische Sprach-und Bildungszentren | 1,838,454,869 (1995) |
| 14. The Leverhulme Trust (UK) | 1,821,202,676 (2000) |
| 15. Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (Germany) | 1,604,848,000 (2003) |
| 16. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Roma (Italy) | 1,478,600,000 (2002) |
| 17. Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino (Italy) | 1,439,200,000 (2002) |
| 18. Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (Germany) | 1,400,000,000 (2003) |
| 19. Stichting VSB Fonds (Netherlands) | 1,300,000,000 (2002) |
| 20. Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (Italy) | 1,244,756,341 (2003) |
| Total | 78,684,959,000 |
Philanthropy in Europe is a bi-monthly magazine that providrd news and analysis on giving by Europe’s individuals, foundations and companies. The latest issue also includes a focus on the philanthropy of South East Asia’s richest individuals.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.