February 12, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Philanthropy in Europe: A Rich Past, A Promising Future
edited by Luc Tayart De Borms and Norine MacDonald
European foundations are rich in diversity, but as philanthropy grows on the continent, laws will need to be standardized, write Luc Tayart de Borms, managing director of the King Baudouin Foundation, in Brussels, and chair of the Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation, and Norine MacDonald, president of the Gabriel Foundation and managing director of the Mercator Fund, a foundation in Paris.
As background to that suggestion, this book profiles 13 foundations in Europe and explores how the socioeconomic and cultural history of their home countries shaped each. For example, the Institusjonen Fritt Ord (or Free Word) foundation in Norway, dedicated to literature, journalism, art, and the freedom of expression, grew out of the repression that came from Nazi occupation and later the Cold War and the looming possibility of communist totalitarianism.
The book also includes six essays about the history and future of charity in Europe.
Publisher: Alliance Publishing Trust, 25 Corsham Street, First Floor, London, England; 44 207 608 1862; fax 44 207 608 1862; alliance@alliancemagazine.org; http://www.alliancemagazine.org; 320 pages; free; ISBN 978-0-9558804-0-7.
