Regulating European grant-making foundations. Lessons from the USA experience?

Grant-making foundations are private institutions that distribute their income to deserving organisations.In the USA, they enjoy fiscal incentives, but have to comply with complex rules securing that incentivesare well deserved. In contrast, European countries have an embryonic legislation. This paper investigateswhether the different tax rules adopted in the USA for independent and community foundations influencethe grant-making behaviour of these organisations. Our econometric investigation underlines the existenceof a large heterogeneity in the activities of both types, suggesting that the introduction of new regulationscould benefit from a careful analysis of the nature and the features of these organisations.