Going global? The engagements of Danish private foundations in international development cooperation

During the past decade, private foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have received increased attention for their role in international development cooperation. This is not least the case because of the billions of dollars they are increasingly providing in development financing, with aid budgets often surpassing those of traditional donors.

Traditional philanthropy has long been characterized by reactive and hands-off grant-making processes. Novel approaches to grant-making are on the contrary guided by strategic social impact and hands-on approaches, with foundations active in not just funding, but in developing and monitoring supported projects. Some have described this as ‘philanthrocapitalism’ and argued that foundations are becoming more like businesses in the way they approach their development work.

These two processes, a steep increase in foundation giving to international causes, and a transformation in the way they approach such grant-making, have been identified in the context of some of the worlds largest foundations, but we do not know much about them at a far more micro level.

This DIIS working paper makes such a contribution by exploring the international activities of selected Danish private foundations. It finds that while the bulk of these continue to have a domestic focus, grant-making on global issues is increasing. In parallel, several of the foundations have undergone transformations in the organisation of and approach to grant-making, including the adoption of more specialised and strategic approaches. Many are building their capacity to be involved in not just funding, but also in project conception, implementation and evaluation, and thereby increasing their role in global issues. These foundations are not just becoming increasingly like businesses, they are changing towards something much more familiar – conventional development actors.