Foundations’ lobbying in Brussels? Unearthing the political role of foundations

With the exception of a few studies on prominent foundations such as the Belinda and Bill Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation (i.e. Moran and Stevenson 2013, Youde 2013), the study of foundations as actors of policymaking has eluded scholars’ attention. Allegedly, foundations in Europe have been mildly aware of their role in politics and uncertain about their capacity to carry it out (Daly and Anheier 2006) . Nevertheless, foundations’ participation in politics takes place on a more regular basis than it is usually accounted for (Ferris and Mintrom 2009). For instance, by the end of 2015 among the 2184 non-governmental organisations that signed the EU Transparency Register (TR) to contact the Commission and the Parliament, more than 200 are foundations. Although the registration is voluntary, it assures access to EU politicians and eventually differential treatment in consultations and committee hearings (Greenwood and Dreger 2013). With access, the organisations get first-hand information on policy and the opportunity to voice their interests and concerns in the policymaking process, which are key elements to define their strategies for action (Chalmers 2014). Foundations are, in principle, free to ignore politics (Daly and Anheier 2006). Nevertheless, factors such as the networking age and the technocratic state are pushing foundations to play a more active role in politics (Anheier 2013), as the EU example shows. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to examine foundations’ lobby activity in the EU. What kinds of foundations are interested in EU politics? How is the policy environment in which they operate? These are some of the questions discussed after an examination of the EU TR and foundation’s activities that involves descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. The research is still in progress, but a preliminary examination shows that foundations’ are a relevant part of the register with a total turnover of € 6.9 billion (slightly more than 30 percent of all registered non-governmental organisations). This study not only seeks to establish the strategies that foundations display to engage in politics in a concrete environment, but also seeks to discuss the implications for the study of interest groups –where foundations are usually lumped with NGOS and associations-, and international governance –where the role of philanthropy is increasingly gaining prominence and is sought by international institutions and organisations as means to improve their capacity (Nickel and Eikenberry 2010).