European Foundation Centre 19th Annual General Assembly (AGA) and Conference
Istanbul, Turkey, 29–31 May 2008

Emílio Rui Vilar, President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and newly elected Chair of the European Foundation Centre addressed its Annual General Assembly and Conference on the theme of ‘Fostering Creativity’, in Istanbul on 31 May 2008.

More than 550 attendees from a wide range of foundations met over three days to discuss such global issues as education and youth empowerment, the environment, migration and human trafficking and to promote innovation and creativity in their work.

Dr Vilar said that there are growing global challenges that neither markets nor the public sector can alone resolve. This underlines the need for a strong presence by the third sector, especially foundations. He called on the EFC and its members to continue to focus on the major transversal issues of our time, such as the climate change crisis, migration, poverty and global health.

Full text of speech:

Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen

First of all I must thank you for your confidence and also for targeting so acutely the place for the beginning of my chairmanship.

Istanbul is not only a very beautiful and vibrant city but also the hometown of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian. As a matter of fact he was born in this eastern city of Europe and lived his last years in Lisbon, the western capital of our continent. His life, personal achievements and philanthropic activities clearly represent the multi-dimension of bridging different people and cultures.

The wisdom of his oriental background and his international career are even more nowadays a source of inspiration and motivation.

Our General Assembly and Conference clearly benefited from the creative ambiance and harmony of Istanbul but there are no magic formulas or ‘how to guides’ for today’s problems.

Volatile financial markets, economic slowdown and rising inflation make our common path more challenging. Governments have become weaker and markets alone have proved to be less efficient in tackling new global problems. The current tensions regarding basic vital elements, such as energy and food, leave no one indifferent and are a good example of the difficulty in finding today an adequate and sustainable response.

This is also a context for new strategic approaches in philanthropy. When the public sector and markets do not respond, the third sector, and foundations in particular, are subject to more responsibility. There is a clear responsibility for us to define ‘where and how’ foundations can make a difference. We must be able to help in addressing global issues with global vision and thus, at the same time, enhancing more efficient local action. This will certainly require strong partnerships and solidarity among the philanthropic community.

In this perspective, the EFC members should continue actively to focus on transversal issues where foundations can play an underlying role in dealing with:

• the environmental crises, in particular the multiple aspects of climate change;
• human rights, migrations and intercultural dialogue;
• poverty in both developing and developed countries;
• the global health issues, namely HIV/AIDS;
• the promotion and support of scientific research and the technological translation of new knowledge;
• social entrepreneurship and innovation.

As Steve Gunderson, President and CEO of the Council on Foundations stated in the last COF Summit in Washington at the beginning of this month: ‘to be effective in the 21st century, philanthropy itself will need to become more a movement than an institution.’

Allow me to add that the success of this movement must rely on strong and agile institutions/actors/agents.

Within EFC, our priority tasks for the forthcoming years will for sure continue to be helping:

• strengthen our relations with the European Union institutions and establish new ones;
• work towards a European Foundation Statute (EFS) and closely follow up the results of the European Commission’s Feasibility Study, which is expected to be released at the end of 2008;
• deepen our transatlantic relation with our American partners (north and south);
• lobby for institutional improvement, by emphasising the importance of self-regulation and of a code of conduct that can guarantee a high level of public trust in the institutions we lead;
• invest in capacity building in order to improve the foundation sector’s effectiveness;
• contribute to attracting, mobilising and transferring know-how to a new generation of philanthropy leaders;
• facilitate and interact with current and new partnerships [such as the Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation (NEF), A Soul for Europe or the Donors and Foundations’ Networks in Europe (DAVNE)], as a means of leveraging and strengthening civil society institutions.

The dynamism of the Turkish foundation movement that we have witnessed over the past few days is a good example of a modern and effective social responsibility approach.

Last but not least, I would like to express our gratitude to Wilhelm Krull for his outstanding leadership as EFC Chair over the past two years. I would also like to thank the Programme Committee and the Host Committee – in particular Erik Rudeng and Üstün Ergüder and Gerry Salole and the eFC Staff – for making this Annual General Assembly and Conference a constructive experience and a crucial step towards the European foundation movement cohesion.

I look forward to meeting you next year in Rome for the AGA, and in Berlin to the twentieth Anniversary of the EFC.

Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow colleagues, I sincerely thank you for your overwhelming participation in this General Assembly and Conference and wish you all some time to enjoy Istanbul and a pleasant journey back home.