To move toward our vision as an organisation, we need strong supporting platforms, processes and policies that enable our staff to develop their competencies and deliver their work.
Supporting infrastructure, including our own
For years we have stressed the need to properly support philanthropic infrastructure. As a philanthropy infrastructure organisation ourselves, in 2025 we worked intensively on potential new financial structures which would allow us to flourish.
We are currently financed by the following income streams:
- Annual membership contributions
- Unrestricted voluntary contributions and general-purpose grants (“Core Funding”)
- Specific-purpose grants earmarked for thematic networks, communities of practice, and specific lines of work
- Registration income from events such as the annual conference
- Rental income from Philanthropy House in Brussels
We have been increasing our financial sustainability over the years by promoting cost recovery within our networks and communities; better management of project carry overs; and stronger engagement with our core donors.
Further steps in 2025 were taken to secure our long-term future:
- The new membership fee system, with tiered categories for the highest-fee-paying members, took effect during 2025 leading to an increase in the total amount of income from this stream
- An investment committee was set up to guide the management and investment of Philea’s cash reserves
- We secured a commitment from the European Commission’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme to support our work with our philanthropic infrastructure organisation members in 2026-2028
- Compagnia di San Paolo and Realdania generously donated their shares in Philanthropy House to Philea
At the Annual General Assembly we undertook a review of our financial model, which in its current format restricts our agility and responsiveness and reinforces silos between projects and networks.
More than a House... a home
Thanks to the incredibly generous commitments of Compagnia di San Paolo and Realdania in donating their shares in Philanthropy House, we now own just under 50% of the shares of the building, considerably increasing our longer-term financial sustainability. These shares will enable us to benefit from capital dividends from 2028 onwards.
Governance
2025 was a year of reflection, consolidation and planning for Philea governance. The Board and the Nominations and Governance Committee took the time to address our future during a dedicated retreat in March in Riga with the members of the team. These discussions, followed by further conversations with the Advisory Committee and consultations with the broader membership, resulted in the vision paper “Towards a stronger, more agile and more strategic backbone for the sector”, which was endorsed by members at the General Assembly 2025 in Lisbon. In particular, we started a collaborative process of benchmarking, building scenarios, putting forward propositions and engaging stakeholders to imagine a new funding model for Philea and made proposals for our internal set up as well as our role and positionality. Part of this is about collaborating with partners when they are better placed to deliver, allowing us to focus limited resources where we add most value; and avoiding increasing polarisation by embracing diversity and creating the space for different view points while still holding to our values.
We also flagged our need to do better in including diverse voices – including those from the central and eastern European philanthropy space as well as new and emerging forms of philanthropy. We asked the General Assembly to give Philea the mandate to explore a members’ fund for those for whom finance is a barrier to participation, and to reassess the category of associate membership to include other types of philanthropy.
To strengthen our ability to do "less better", we developed a list of 10 criteria for focus which we will use to evaluate new and current initiatives in the areas of strategic aims and impact; European dimension and positioning; as well as quality, adaptability and sustainability.
Managing knowledge, sharing knowledge
In our work to empower the community, our goals have been twofold: to support the Philea community in generating collective action and impact, and to strengthen Philea’s position as a reference point for shared thought leadership.
Central to this has been the development and implementation of our knowledge management strategy, including the roll-out of our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, Odoo. Key achievements in 2025 included real-time availability of membership and financial data, integrated survey tools, and dashboards for KPI monitoring. In parallel, this roll-out was supported by an organisation-wide approach that made knowledge management a shared responsibility with goals around learning and using Odoo written into performance plans for staff.
While our annual knowledge management survey showed that staff still needed support to use the ERP to its full potential and embed it more consistently into daily work, we nevertheless saw tangible progress in 2025 in being able to pool our collective expertise, improve coordination and build a more collaborative culture.
HR matters
In 2025 we launched and continually enhanced a dynamic HR Portal – a go-to space for everything all employees need, from policies and forms to support and essential resources – alongside a newly enriched onboarding page on our intranet packed with fresh, helpful content, all designed to make every interaction smoother and more intuitive. We also organised two workshops for our Executive Office and line managers called "Mastering Complex Conversations for Leaders and People Managers", aimed at strengthening dialogue, enhancing feedback practices, and fostering more meaningful interactions across the organisation, with colleagues and stakeholders.
Core funders
Core funding is an essential source of flexible funding for Philea, allowing us to use funds where they are needed most. It gives us the space to plan longer term, think systematically, respond to emerging needs, innovate and ensure that we continue to add value and remain relevant to the needs of our members.
To show our appreciation to our core funders for their vital support, we invite them to participate in our CEO exchange which organises two online meetings and one in-person meeting per year; we organise annual touchpoints to share advance information or invitations to exclusive activities; and we give our core funders visibility and recognition in key Philea fora.
Thank you to all our core funders, we couldn't do it without you!
“la Caixa” Foundation
Adessium Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
European Climate Foundation
European Cultural Foundation
Finnish Cultural Foundation
Fondation Chanel
Fondation de France
Fondazione Cariplo
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo
Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo
Fondazione CRT
Fritt Ord Foundation
Fundación ONCE
IKEA Foundation
King Baudouin Foundation
Kone Foundation
Körber-Stiftung
Laudes Foundation
Nordea-fonden
Oak Foundation
Realdania
Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Stiftung Mercator GmbH
VolkswagenStiftung
ZEIT-Stiftung
Infrastructure matters
From community challenges to global crises, philanthropy needs to be at its very best more than ever before – and that means investing in strengthening our sector's infrastructure.
If you believe in Philea's ability to do this, why not become a core donor, support more of our work and help the philanthropic community to build a better today and tomorrow.