The Netherlands

CBF, Toezicht op goeddoen (the Dutch charity regulator)

CBF is a charity Monitor/self-regulatory body and was established in 1925, with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Key topics of CBF are donor information and transparency, donor trust, charity assessment and accountability, self-regulation of the charitable sector, and development-oriented regulation.

(Research) questions guiding their work are, among others:

• How do donors’ sentiments, perceptions, and moral intuitions relate to factual information about charities, and how does this relationship affect trust and giving behaviour?
• How can the impact of the charitable sector be assessed at the macro level within a country, and which indicators best capture its societal contribution?
• How can risk-based monitoring models for charities be designed to balance accountability, proportional oversight, and sectoral development?
• What approaches to social impact reporting are perceived as legitimate, useful, and credible by charities, donors, regulators, and other stakeholders?

Giving Tuesday – Giving Tuesday Europe

Giving Tuesday Europe is a philanthropy infrastructure organisation and was established in 2024, with its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

Key topics of Giving Tuesday Europe are individual giving and volunteering, collective giving, generosity and philanthropic behaviour, civic engagement and civil society, and data on giving and generosity.

(Research) questions guiding their work are, among others:

• How is generosity understood and practised across different cultural, social, and institutional contexts, and how do these practices shape patterns of philanthropic giving?
• What role does everyday generosity play in shaping civic engagement and active citizenship across different European contexts?
• How does collective giving by individuals—across financial, time, skills, and voice-based contributions—strengthen civic and philanthropy ecosystems?
• Under which conditions does strengthening locally rooted actors foster generosity and enable cross-country learning within philanthropy ecosystems?
• How can data on generosity be generated, maintained, analysed, and interpreted to support credible narrative and practice shifts in philanthropy?

Goede Doelen Nederland

Goede Doelen Nederland is a philanthropy infrastructure organisation and was established in 1994, with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Key topics of the organisation are CSOs, associations and foundations, regulatory framework, fundamental rights and civic freedoms, and accountability.

(Research) questions guiding their work are, among others:

• How do legal and regulatory framework conditions shape the functioning and sustainability of civil society organisations and philanthropic activity?
• What is the societal added value of civil society organisations, and how can this contribution be meaningfully articulated and assessed?
• How can the fundamental rights and civic freedoms of civil society organisations be effectively safeguarded within democratic societies?
• How do fundraising regulations and financial integrity requirements affect the ability of civil society organisations to inform the public and mobilise support?
• Under which conditions can sector-led self-regulation function as a credible and effective alternative or complement to public legislation?
• How can civil society organisations measure and report social impact in ways that are proportionate, meaningful, and legitimate for funders and society?

Introduction to Philanthropy Research in the Netherlands

By Stephanie Koolen-Maas, Marlou Ramaekers, René Bekkers and Sterre van Tongeren

The Netherlands has a well-developed research infrastructure for philanthropy. The Center for Philanthropic Studies at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam conducts research on charitable giving, grantmaking, blood donation and volunteering. It also offers two post-academic programmes for professionals working in the Dutch philanthropic sector.

Since 1995, the Center has published Giving in the Netherlands, a biennial research series providing macroeconomic estimates of giving and volunteering by households, foundations, corporations and lotteries. Its Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey is the principal source for estimating the volume, characteristics and development of household giving.

Philanthropy research is also conducted at other Dutch universities. Relevant areas of expertise include strategic philanthropy and volunteering at Erasmus University Rotterdam, international development and nonprofit finance at Radboud University Nijmegen, sustainable finance at the University of Amsterdam, and patronage of the arts at Utrecht University.

The availability of recurring national surveys means that the Netherlands has relatively strong evidence on giving by individuals and corporations. Information on foundations and charitable bequests is less complete because there is no comprehensive foundation register and not all charitable organisations submit financial information to the Dutch Fundraising Regulator.

Overview of Giving in the Netherlands

Giving by individuals

Individual giving is measured primarily through two surveys. The Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey covers a representative sample of predominantly native Dutch households, while Statistics Netherlands’ Social Cohesion and Wellbeing survey is used to supplement these data for households with a migration background. The results are combined in Giving in the Netherlands to produce national estimates.

In 2022, 76% of Dutch households donated money and/or goods. The average amount donated was €352 per household.

Health was the most frequently supported field, with 63% of households donating to at least one organisation in this area. Environmental, nature and animal-related causes were supported by 44%, international aid, human rights and refugee organisations by 31%, and domestic public and social-benefit organisations by 30%.

Religious organisations were supported by only 22% of households, but donors to religion gave considerably larger amounts. The average donation to religious organisations was €374, compared with €91 for health, €96 for international aid and €90 for environmental and animal-related causes.

This pattern is also visible in the total amounts received. Religious organisations received €607 million, representing 28% of household giving in 2022. International aid, human rights and refugee organisations received €433 million, or 20%, while health organisations received €406 million, or 19%.

Environmental, nature, animal and climate organisations received €290 million, while domestic public and social-benefit organisations received €213 million. Culture received €58 million, sport and recreation €42 million and education and research €28 million. Total household giving amounted to approximately €2.188 billion in 2022.

The underlying household estimates are considered relatively robust, although giving by households with a migration background may be underestimated because the Statistics Netherlands survey uses a shorter donation questionnaire than the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey.

Bequest giving

Information on charitable bequests is substantially less complete. Because recognised charitable causes are exempt from inheritance tax, the Dutch Tax Authority does not systematically record charitable bequests. There is therefore no comprehensive national dataset showing either the number of bequests or their distribution across causes.

Estimates are instead based primarily on annual reports voluntarily provided to the Dutch Fundraising Regulator, CBF. As not all charities submit these reports, the resulting figures should be regarded as a lower-bound estimate.

Recorded charitable bequests totalled €368 million in 2022. Health organisations received the largest amount, €119 million, equivalent to 32% of recorded legacy income. International aid, human rights and refugee organisations received €95 million, or 26%.

Environmental, nature and animal-related organisations received €63 million, or 17%, while domestic public and social-benefit organisations received €50 million, or 14%. Culture received €29 million and religious organisations €12 million.

These figures almost certainly underestimate the total. Religious institutions, many sports and recreation organisations, local fundraising initiatives and smaller nonprofits are poorly represented or absent from the CBF database.

Corporate giving

Corporate philanthropy is measured through the biennial Corporate Giving in the Netherlands Survey. It includes both gifts, for which companies receive nothing in return, and socio-sponsorships, where companies receive some form of reciprocal benefit. Contributions of money, goods and employee time are all included.

In 2022, 31% of for-profit organisations reported making charitable contributions. The highest average contributions were made to religious organisations, at €1,984, followed by education and research at €1,909 and health at €1,520.

Total corporate giving was estimated at €1.751 billion in 2022. Sport and recreation received the largest share, €354 million or 20%, followed by health with €296 million or 17%. Other or unspecified purposes received €243 million, while religion received €192 million.

Culture received €150 million, domestic public and social-benefit organisations €148 million, education and research €139 million, international aid, human rights and refugee organisations €116 million, and environmental, nature, animal and climate organisations €113 million.

Monetary contributions represented 63% of corporate giving. Donations of employee time accounted for 29% and donations of goods for 8%. Socio-sponsorships represented 59% of the total, while 41% consisted of gifts without reciprocal benefit.

The survey provides the most comprehensive estimate available, but it is not a complete census of Dutch companies. Some economic sectors are excluded and estimates are extrapolated using company size and sector.

Foundations

Comprehensive information on the number and expenditure of Dutch foundations is not available because the Netherlands has no single central registry covering the complete foundation sector. Estimates therefore combine financial information from charitable organisations with a specially constructed database of larger endowed foundations.

Endowed foundations distributed an estimated €397 million from endowment income in 2022. The largest share went to domestic public and social-benefit causes, which received €136 million, or 34% of the total.

Culture received €59 million, or 15%, while international aid, human rights and refugee organisations received €49 million, or 12%. Education and research received €40 million, health €37 million, environmental and animal-related causes €25 million, religion €14 million and sport and recreation €3 million.

These estimates refer only to distributions financed from endowment income and exclude grants financed through fundraising. They should also be regarded as a lower bound because many smaller foundations do not publish detailed financial information.

The underlying foundation database contains information on 128 endowed foundations and was developed by the VU Center for Philanthropic Studies. It initially concentrated on foundations with annual expenditure exceeding €1 million, later lowering the threshold to €500,000. Smaller foundations therefore remain underrepresented.

Charity lotteries

Charity lotteries represent a substantial component of Dutch philanthropy. In 2022, six lotteries were operational and made charitable distributions to nonprofit organisations.

Together, they distributed €576 million. International aid, human rights and refugee organisations received €122 million, or approximately 21%, while domestic public and social-benefit organisations received €120 million, also around 21%.

Environmental, nature, animal and climate organisations received €101 million, culture €93 million, sport and recreation €87 million and health €50 million. Religious organisations and education and research received no lottery funding in 2022.

Eight national lottery licence holders were legally required to allocate part of their proceeds to charitable organisations in 2022, although only six actually operated lotteries during that year. The data are based on annual reports and accountability statements submitted to the Dutch Gambling Authority.

Sources of Contributions in the Netherlands

Total charitable giving in the Netherlands was estimated at €5.28 billion in 2022. Individual lifetime giving was the largest source at €2.188 billion, or 41% of the total. Corporations contributed €1.751 billion, or 33%. Bequests accounted for €368 million, foundations €397 million and charity lotteries €576 million.

When all sources are combined, health organisations received the largest amount of philanthropic funding, approximately €908 million, followed by religion at €824 million and international aid, human rights and refugee organisations at €815 million.

The Dutch figures for household and corporate giving are supported by established biennial surveys and are considered reasonably robust. Estimates for bequests and foundations are less complete because important groups of organisations do not report to the CBF and no comprehensive register of endowed foundations exists. These figures should therefore be treated as lower-bound estimates.

Source

Koolen-Maas, S., Ramaekers, M., Bekkers, R., & Van Tongeren, S. (2026). Philanthropy in the Netherlands. In B. Hoolwerf & J. Vamstad (Eds.), Philanthropy in Europe: Mapping Research and Data on Donations by Households, Bequests, Foundations, Corporations and Charity Lotteries (pp. 203–216). European Research Network on Philanthropy.

You can download the full publication here: Philanthropy in Europe.