Dr. Arthur Gautier spoke at a Roundtable Discussion on the State of Giving Research in Indonesia and France on 26 October

Dr. Arthur Gautier, Executive Director of the ESSEC Chair in Philanthropy and Research Fellow at ESSEC Business School, spoke at a Roundtable Discussion on the State of Giving Research in Indonesia and France on Monday, 26 October 2015 at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The Roundtable Discussion was organized by the Institute of International Studies, Department of International Relations, and the Sociology Research Center (SOREC), and aimed to stimulate more academic dialogue about philanthropy among academics.

The State of Giving in France

During his presentation, Dr. Gautier presented an overview of philanthropy research in France along with key facts and figures on the practice of giving in the country. A total of € 6.2 billion were donated in 2013 in France (about 0.3 per cent of GDP) and this figure has slowly increased each year since 2003. Individual donors tend to be older, wealthier, more educated and religious than the average population, and they donate to causes such as poverty relief, health and medical research, child care and protection as well as religion and churches.

Corporate giving is widespread among the largest corporations and very concentrated in terms of budget: 2 per cent of corporations donate 56 per cent of all donations (about € 1.8 billion in 2013). Top  causes for corporations are poverty relief and social welfare, health and medical research as well as arts and culture. Finally, more than 2,300 foundations distributed roughly € 1.6 billion in 2013. The number of foundations doubled in France since 2000.

As a conclusion, Dr. Gautier noted that there is a renewed interest for philanthropy, but research in this area remains diverse and scattered among academic disciplines such as history, anthropology, sociology and economics. The other speakers offered insights on the variety and renewal of Islamic giving in Indonesia (Dewi Cahyani Puspitasari), the nature of CSR practices of oil and gas companies (Bahruddin), and the rise of social entrepreneurship among ASEAN youth (Atin Prabandari).

The ESSEC Philanthropy Chair

The ESSEC Philanthropy Chair contributes towards scholars and practitioners’ understanding of contemporary philanthropy, promotes more clear-sighted, strategic and effective philanthropy, and reinforces philanthropy’s contribution to today’s pressing social problems.

Website: http://philanthropy-chair.essec.edu/

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