Operative und fördernde Stiftungen: Anmerkungen zur Typologie

Private Funds, Public Purpose

“…The dominant focus on grantmaking has also led to an underappreciation of operating foundations in the international foundation debate (Toepler, Chapter 8;Strachwitz, 1998). However, in many countries, we find a quite strong presence of such organizations.…”

“…Importantly, this definition classifies foundations by their source of capital, which says little about how they achieve their goals (i.e., by making grants to third parties, organizing award competitions, or operating their own programs or institutions). Although such differences in foundation activities can have significant impacts on organization, management, and public relations, they are not reflected in the prevailing U.s. definition of foundations (Strachwitz, 1998). In dealing with the u.s. definition, it should therefore be kept in mind that it originated in an environment that put more emphasis on issues concerning the control of (grantmaking) foundations rather than the organization of foundation work.…”

“…The main problem surrounding governmental foundations established under the private law concerns the issue of accountability, as these organizations lie outside the direct parliamentary budgetary oversight to which other state agencies are subject. This lack of accountability in the government's use of foundations has been criticized in countries as diverse as the United Kingdom (Chapter 5), Germany (Strachwitz, 1998), Poland (Kurczewski, 1997, p. 254), and Brazil (Landim, 1997.…”

“…While this is the case with the U.s. Foundation Center's definition, which was developed to specifically target grantmakers, similar approaches were chosen by the European Foundation Centre and the Asia Pacific Philanthropic Consortium (Strachwitz, 1998). Although operating foundations are historically the older form, the surge of grantmaking foundations in the twentieth century-and among them, towering institutions such as the Ford, Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations-has directed most attention and research toward the grantmaking aspect.…”

On the Problem of Defining Foundations in a Comparative Perspective

“…Such foundations are a means of preventing power struggles among heirs or large inheritance taxes that would break up the company. Indeed, the option to bring companies under the control of foundations is seen as a major incentive, and much recent growth in the foundation field is attributed to it (Karpen, 1980;Strachwitz, 1994).…”