The Fondation de Luxembourg, a joint initiative of the Luxembourg government and the charity Oeuvre Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, has been launched in the Duchy. It will inform philanthropists, further a culture of giving, and develop links between donors and charities that need their involvement. The move is apparently a result of the government’s determination to foster a culture of giving in Luxembourg, and follows a symposium last year at which Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said that it was time for the country to develop a philanthropy policy. In December last year, a number of significant changes to the tax treatment of philanthropy were ratified by the Luxembourgeois government. The size of donation that individuals can claim relief on doubled, and the controls on international philanthropy relaxed considerably. ‘In countries like Belgium, France and Germany, traditional heavy reliance on the state for social provision is now being supplemented by private sector philanthropic initiatives. We hope to start seeing this in Luxembourg,’ said Anne Canel, a philanthropy specialist at Banque de Luxembourg, who has been responsible for early development of the Fondation de Luxembourg.

Source

Philanthropy UK, 22 January 2009