The commendable impulse towards benevolence is encouraged by individual states, but barriers exist to the movement of benevolence across frontiers. Responses by states have been patchy, local protectionism is seen and any movement towards harmonisation is slow.
Europe illustrates these frictions in a microcosm. This article discusses the issues and explains those ‘milestones’ already passed towards the lessening of needless discriminations. The lessons learnt illustrate what needs to be tackled on the wider global stage.
I use ‘charity’ as a universal and imprecise term to denote any structure delivering philanthropy. This embraces philanthropic ‘foundations’ and some ‘not-for-profits’.
For brevity, I use A or Country A for the state from which funds flow, activities originate or where the entity is sited; B or Country B receives the funds, is the location of delivery or is the entity’s site. Every European country has developed its own delineations of ‘charity’ or ‘philanthropy’, as we will see. They necessarily differ in theme, degree and exclusions.
This article has had to be necessarily selective. My apologies for the consequent omissions.
This article was originally published in Trust Quarterly Review. To read the full article, please download the PDF.