Country profile
Norway
Definition
In Norway, a foundation is understood as a capital asset made available by testament, endowment or other lawful act to be used independently for a specific purpose of a non-profit, humanitarian, cultural, social, educational, financial or other nature. A legal entity that meets the conditions laid down in the first sentence is a foundation pursuant to this Act, regardless of whether it is designated as a legacy, institution, fund or otherwise. However, the Norwegian Government is working on revising the Norwegian foundations legislation. The figure included for the number of foundations was taken from a 2022 report which recorded the total number of assets that year.
Norway’s philanthropy profile
€20,000 million (2022)
Pool of assets
€5100 million (2022)
Total expenditure
No data
Total employment
Norway’s foundations
6332 (2022)
foundations
Although there is a register that continually updates the number of foundations in the country, the above figure was chosen to maintain continuity for Norway’s data. Data on assets and expenditure were taken from the Foundations’ annual accounts delivered to the Norwegian public annual account register (Regnskapsregisteret). Data on expenditure include the sum of operating costs, labour costs and commodity costs.