What are foundations doing in response to the refugee crisis?
Executive summary of a recent EFC survey
1. Background
From September to October 2015 the European Foundation Centre (EFC) surveyed its
members and other philanthropic organisations regarding the refugee crisis to ascertain what
they see as the most critical issues and how they plan to address them.
Our objective was to improve awareness of what’s going on, share this with the philanthropy
community, make sense of it and stimulate thinking and action on what we can do to move
beyond urgent and immediate needs. We believe this is an important moment to signpost the
added value of philanthropy and the distinct role it can play.
To date, 65 organisations have responded, most of these being foundations with a long track
record of working on migration and integration. However the gravity, depth, and long-term
implications of the crisis have prompted a number of foundations that have not previously
worked in this area to take action. As we believe that many more foundations will follow suit
and put resources into dealing with the refugee crisis, we plan to keep the survey open and
update our findings on a regular basis (see point 6 of this summary for next steps).
This executive summary outlines the main critical issues that were identified through the
survey as well as ongoing and new initiatives to address them. Via the following password
protected link http://www.efc.be/survey/ you can access the full report of the data we gathered
(note: the password, which will only be shared with members, can be obtained by contacting
Jennifer Fitzsimons [email protected] or Ali Khan [email protected]).
2. A snapshot of where foundations stand
The survey started with several simple yes/no questions to get a feel for where organisations
stand on this issue:

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
Are you considering something specific or new as a result?
46 of the 65 surveyed said yes.
Would you be willing to pool resources with other foundations to address these issues?
37 said yes.
Would you be interested in working with other foundations on these issues?
52 said yes.
3. Identifying foundation strengths and assets
Before thinking about critical issues and how to address them we felt it was important for
respondents to have a think about what the most important assets are that they as foundations
can bring to resolve the issues. Respondents were asked to select from a pre-set list what
they believe are their top three strengths/assets.
Executive summary: EFC survey on what foundations are doing in response to the refugee crisis
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Foundation assets/strengths
Act as an intermediary / inform / listen to EU citizens views
and concerns
5
Provide support / training for media and journalists on the
issues
5
Provide space for opinion leaders outside of the
political/government sphere
15
Provide an independent / objective perspective on policy
issues
16
Have strong relations with local authorities
16
Support and/or carry out research on the issues
17
Create specific targeted funds inareas such as education,
childcare, trauma support etc
18
Allocate resources that are not tied to operations and can be
mobilised for experimentation
19
Support individuals and groups (“public opinion leaders”) that
can drive change in communities
30
Convening role: connect stakeholders and build networks
42
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Executive summary: EFC survey on what foundations are doing in response to the refugee crisis
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4. The most critical aspects of the crisis
The crisis has multiple facets and in order to maximise impact and efforts it is vital to
understand what the issues are and how foundations, with their unique role, resources, longterm horizons and independent status can address them either as individual organisations or
in collaboration.
The full data (http://www.efc.be/survey/) gives an overview of the critical issues identified by
respondents. The most frequently mentioned can be clustered into the following themes.
Immediate/short term
Medium/long term
 Improving living conditions /
humanitarian aid
Immediate relief and humanitarian
assistance covering food, shelter,
medical assistance, legal advice and
immediate access to education.
 Coordination between the many
different stakeholders
Coordination of NGOs, politicians,
researchers, government organisations
and others and building networks
between all relevant stakeholders.
 Public discourse and public opinion
Raise awareness and change
perceptions towards migrant
populations; to overcome prejudice and
xenophobia, but also to listen and
understand the concerns of citizens.
More understanding of cultural
differences and the political situation in
the countries of origin is needed. The
media has a large role to play here.
 Changing and influencing policy
Advocate for a fairer, more
comprehensive migration/asylum policy
at EU level with a stronger focus on
human rights. Foundations can offer
proposals that are grounded in best
practice through their use of research
and evidence gathering.

Funding / resources
Foundations’ funding and resources alone will not be sufficient to deal with this issue.
However they can give financial support to organisations, for both basic care for refugees
and integration initiatives. This may become increasingly important if governments are
reluctant to fund this.
Philanthropic funding’s flexibility allows for testing and experimentation and finding
creative solutions to deal with issues.
5. Ongoing and new initiatives
Most respondents were foundations who have a track record of working on migration and
integration. Numerous foundations are planning to include measures to deal with the current
crisis and with the flow of newcomers into existing projects and programmes. A number of
foundations are also setting up new initiatives to respond specifically to the current situation.
An interesting observation is that the foundations who are experts on migration and integration
are focused on how they can incorporate this work into their existing initiatives. Whereas
Executive summary: EFC survey on what foundations are doing in response to the refugee crisis
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foundations new in the field are interested rather in relieving the immense pressure on the
ground. This is a general observation and does not apply to all. There are also foundations
such as the King Baudouin Foundation who have a longstanding programme on migration and
integration, but are also unlocking significant funds for an emergency programme.
A remarkable initiative that addresses very well the critical issue of funding mentioned earlier
is what the Open Society Foundations are setting up. They are supporting the creation of a
fundraising team/person within the European Programme for Integration and Migration
(EPIM1) to unlock new donors/funds for humanitarian aid and human rights organisations in
Italy, Greece, and the western Balkans. This team will raise awareness and funds on the
refugee and migration situation with new donors, and the funds will be managed by an EPIM
fund.
For more information on the initiatives mentioned above or information on the new initiatives
identified by respondents please access the full data (http://www.efc.be/survey/, password
protected).
6. Next steps
This is not a static piece of work that will be finished after this report. Things are continuously
evolving and the EFC plans to keep track of these changes and remains open for additional
and new input. We will be collecting this information online in an easy to access way.
With this we aim to provide a better overview of what is happening and who’s doing what. The
EFC will facilitate both individual contacts as well as more in-depth focus meetings on specific
critical issues wherever needed (for example at the EFC’s Diversity, Migration and Integration
Thematic Network’s recent meeting in London).
7. Contact
If you have any questions about this work, would like the password for the full data or would
like to be connected to a particular foundation please contact Jennifer Fitzsimons
([email protected]) or Ali Khan ([email protected]).
For more information on the EFC, visit www.efc.be
1
http://www.epim.info/
Executive summary: EFC survey on what foundations are doing in response to the refugee crisis
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