Giving Compass' Take:

• The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI recently released a report that shows the landscape of global philanthropy. While there have been improvements among many regions, political volatility remains a barrier.

• Should investors focus their efforts in economies where the environment is favorable to nonprofits — or work to improve those that are still unstable?

Read all about the new urgency to fund global health security commitments.


The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI released the 2018 Global Philanthropy Environment Index (GPEI), the first such report since 2015. It is the world’s most comprehensive initiative to equip policy makers, philanthropic and nonprofit leaders, the business community and the public with a clear understanding of the environment for global philanthropy.

The 2018 GPEI reveals that while the regulatory conditions for philanthropy showed improvements in six of the 11 regions from 2015, the overall philanthropic environment in about 40 percent of countries and economies evaluated remains restrictive. The political environment presents significant challenges to philanthropic activity. The average score measuring the political environment (3.41 out of 5.0) was the lowest average score of all five factors studied. The Middle East and Northern Africa ranked lowest on political environment among the 11 regions studied, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. More positively, economies with favorable philanthropic environments are linked with higher economic indicators such as per capita GDP.

Key findings include:

  • While three-fifths of economies studied have a generally favorable philanthropic environment, about two out of five economies have a generally restrictive environment.
  • The political environment is a critical challenge facing the philanthropic sector. The political environment — even more than the regulatory environment — can greatly undermine the work of philanthropic organizations, especially in the Middle East and Northern Africa (2.63), Sub-Saharan Africa (2.75), and Latin America (2.88), where political uncertainty is particularly acute and scores fall below the global average (3.41).
  • Regions with favorable environments are linked with higher per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Economies known for enabling philanthropic activities tend to see correspondingly strong levels of per capita GDP and economic development.

Read the full article about political uncertainty as barrier to global philanthropy at IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.