Stewarding the space in-between: The democratic role of philanthropy infrastructure

“When we speak to government, we don’t only speak as civil society organisations – we speak as 700,000 citizens[1].”

This is how Dana Pîrțoc from ARC Romania describes the power of the citizens who donate to their giving platforms – the donor base they have been building over the past two decades. In a country where civil society has faced sustained pressure, the argument is both simple and powerful: individual donors are not just contributors – they are active citizens and they are voters.

Three hundred thousand donors are more than a funding base: they are a constituency. Their participation signals trust and a willingness to invest in the society they want to live in and belong to. In this sense, philanthropy is not only about redistributing resources, but also about enabling civic voice.

Yet civic participation does not organise itself. It requires relationships, platforms, rules and networks that connect individual acts of giving to collective action and public influence. This is where philanthropy infrastructure organisations (PIOs) play a critical role. Operating between donors, public institutions, civil society and communities, they steward the ecosystem that connects giving, philanthropic organisations, civic participation and democratic life.

From neutrality to clarity

PIOs increasingly recognise their role in strengthening democratic participation and many are re-examining what neutrality means in practice.

For decades, neutrality signalled openness and inclusivity – the ability to convene across diverse perspectives. In today’s context, that understanding is shifting. As Dana Pîrțoc put it: “Neutrality is a luxury we don’t have.” This is not about becoming partisan. It is about acknowledging that staying neutral is itself a choice, and that today, even widely shared causes – from social justice to environmental protection – can be perceived as political.

In response, some organisations are moving towards values-based membership. Networks such as the Centre Français des Fonds et Fondations (CFF) have invited members to align around core principles – such as social-ecological transition and women’s rights – not as a constraint, but as a way to ensure integrity and coherence. In a similar spirit, Philea members, when shaping the organisation, committed to a vision for philanthropy to use its full potential to co-shape and support a pluralistic, just and resilient society that centres people and planet, and chose Climate and Environment, Equality and Democracy as cross-cutting themes.

The experience requires honest conversations. And it also creates something important: clarity of purpose and the conditions for more meaningful collaboration.

Making plurality workable

Yet values-based membership does not eliminate the need for pluralism. A single network can unite hundreds of organisations – from large foundations, corporate funders to community foundations, from international funders to local actors – each with its own priorities and perspectives. This diversity is complex, but it is also the sector’s strength.

PIOs make it possible to work within this complexity by:

• creating spaces for dialogue
• making tensions visible and navigable
• and identifying shared ground without erasing difference

PIOs, in this sense, help transform diversity from a source of fragmentation into a source of collective capacity.

Building resilience through advocacy

If civic participation is to endure beyond electoral cycles, it needs enabling conditions. This is where philanthropy infrastructure is critical: it shapes the legal and financial frameworks that enable civil society to remain resilient, for example through:

• regulatory frameworks for philanthropy and endowments
• systems for public collections
• diversified funding that reduces dependency on public sources alone

The Polish Donors Forum – an association of 31 Polish funders, provides a strong example. After six years of advocacy for public collections legislation, they secured stronger structures for civil society to withstand the political headwinds that followed. At Philea, we gather PIOs from across Europe in the Legal Affairs Committee to advance legal frameworks for philanthropy and wider civil society across the EU institutions and within EU Member States – including through implementing the European Philanthropy Manifesto, which lays out concrete recommendations towards policymakers.

This work is often invisible, but it is essential for long-term independence and sustainability. The ambition is not only to respond to constraints, but to help shape the conditions in which the sector operates.

From isolated excellence to collective power

If diversity is the starting point, collective action is the ambition.

Individual efforts, however strong, are not sufficient in the face of systemic challenges and external pressures. There is a need for collective power:

• joint initiatives and pooled funds
• shared advocacy positions
• coordinated efforts to strengthen civil society resilience

PIOs play a central role in enabling this shift. They provide the platforms, relationships and trust needed for organisations to move from exchange to alignment – and from alignment to action. The lesson from ARC Romania is that philanthropy’s strength cannot be measured only in euros or leus distributed or programmes funded. It is also measured in people choosing to donate, participate and act together.

At their best, PIOs make that participation possible. They connect resources with people, people with shared purpose and shared purpose with collective action. In times of polarisation and uncertainty, that connective tissue may be one of democracy’s most valuable forms of infrastructure.

[1] Number of donors using giving platforms managed by ARC