Aims

Mission and Aims

Mission

The mission of ERNOP is to advance, coordinate and promote excellence in philanthropic research in Europe.

Aims

In order to work on this mission, ERNOP has formulated the following aims that will contribute to its mission.

Open for all academic researchers

First, ERNOP aims to be an international and interdisciplinary network open to all European academic researchers studying philanthropy. ERNOP studies philanthropy, but acknowledges that philanthropy has a different meaning across Europe, because of the large variation in the historical, social and legal background of philanthropy. ERNOP finds all these different perspectives as a strength,  and aims to include all perspectives in the study of philanthropy. Both individual researchers and institutions are actively invited to join as member.

Spanning the European continent

To establish ERNOP as a leading innovative and knowledgeable network of European interdisciplinary philanthropy researchers, spanning the European continent. Academic researchers studying philanthropy are scattered across disciplines and research centers. By inviting individual researchers to join ERNOP, researchers will become aware of their fellow European colleagues and will be enabled to study philanthropy from a philanthropy focused perspective.

Acquiring structural funds 

To secure the continuance of ERNOP, by acquiring structural funds and support for ERNOP and collecting membership fees. ERNOP facilitates and stimulates knowledge exchange between researchers studying philanthropy in Europe. To continue working on its mission ERNOP is constantly looking for funds to and partners that want to join ERNOP in achieving its mission. 

To establish a Giving Europe

To establish a Giving in Europe research project and to strive for the development of a database of European Philanthropy. Besides in the Netherlands, data on giving is not collected in a structural way. Current data sets lack comparability and differ in their methodology and comprehensiveness. ERNOP aims to start a Giving in Europe dataset, making possible international comparisons for the first time.

To coordinate joint research projects

To make ERNOP a successful coordinating body of joined European research proposals, projects and publications. In order to stimulate cooperation between European philanthropy researchers, ERNOP aims to function as a knowledge hub. By bringing together individual researchers in writing joint research proposals and by redirecting members to other members with a same research background, ERNOP aims to stimulate writing articles from a more European focused perspective.

Making the ERNOP Conference as the leading philanthropy conference in Europe

To organize the ERNOP conference as the leading philanthropy conference in Europe. Since its inception in 2008, ERNOP organizes a biennial conference in an European city. During this conference, researchers studying philanthropy in Europe present their state-of-art research, exchange ideas and meet their colleagues. The conference aims to contribute to the creation of a European philanthropy researchers identity.

To cooperate with philanthropy journals

To seek cooperation with existing philanthropy journals. ERNOP members actively publish their research in a large range of mono- and interdisciplinary scientific journals, from economic journals to marketing, and from social policy journals to historical journals. As ERNOP, we are proud that our members are actively involved in the academic philanthropy community world wide, also as editor of the main specialized philanthropy journals (NVSQ, Voluntas, JPM and VSR).

Putting and keeping philanthropy research on the agenda

To represent the study of philanthropy in Europe and to influence policy making at national and European level. Knowledge is of utmost importance for policy making and this is not different for philanthropy. As there is no structural and comparable information about philanthropy between European countries, ERNOP aims to put philanthropy research on philanthropy the agenda of national and European policymakers.

Closer cooperation within Europe

To  encourage  cooperation  between  members of  the  Association  and  the  development  of effective networks. By establishing working groups, a Linked In Group, mailings, and by working together on themes related to philanthropy, ERNOP actively invites its members to work together.

Partnering with the rest of the world

To develop partnerships in philanthropy research between Europe and the rest of the World. ERNOP collaborates with other global research networks like ISTR and ARNOVA and collaborates with other European professional philanthropy networks, such as, CEV, EFA, Philea and the EVPA.