LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS - The European Foundation Centre

chapter 1
founding the efc
23
The early days
While the EFC was using the changing situation
in central and eastern Europe as a catalyst
to attract more members, there were initial differences
of opinion about the EFC’s role and what services it should provide.
As Richardson explains: ‘There was an internal debate in the EFC at
the time, as there were people who had a technical notion about what the
EFC should do because that had been the original idea: to set up information
systems and become like the New York
While the EFC was using the changing
Foundation Center. There were other people,
situation in central and eastern
like me, who wanted to have a political thrust for
Europe as a catalyst to attract more
the organisation, which was about building civil
members, there were initial differences
society.’ Ultimately the second approach prevailed,
and the EFC jumped into the deep end
of opinion about the EFC’s role and
what services it should provide.
with ambitious activities.
Notably, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Fondation de France
jointly funded and drove the EFC’s flagship New Europe programme, whose
main thrust was to build civil society in central and eastern Europe with a
range of organisations, not confined to foundations, from across Europe.
The partnership was apt, given the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation’s
growing interest in the region, and the fact that Tsyboula was, according to
Francis Charhon of Fondation de France: ‘Very convinced of the European
vision at that time.’
Both organisations remain ardent EFC supporters, which White says is
because he witnessed how hard it had been to develop the US philanthropic
infrastructure in the 1970s: ‘I learned from the American experience
that it took a long time to gain support for such organisations and
I brought that thinking with me . . . The EFC was a good thing for Europe,
foundations needed a central place to gather and to advocate for a statute,