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I am in Paris to give a lecture at ESSEC as part of the French Professional Association of Fundraisers Certificate in Fundraising course. France has such huge potential for fundraising, not least because the tax regime is now so favourable. Donors get 66% tax relief on donations, with a ceiling of 20% of earnings. So a person earning say €250,000 can give a gift of €50,000 (20% of her earnings) at a cost of only €17,000.

But this is not making donors more generous. A study by the Centre d’Étude et de Recherche sur la Philanthropie [La générosité des Français, November 2005] shows that three successive tax reductions in 1996, 2003 and 2005 have increased donations by only 2% per annum, well below the rate of inflation.

So that’s another stick in the wheel for people who claim that people only give because they get the tax back.

Factary is active in France with programmes in major donor research and fundraising consultancy. For more details contact Chris Carnie (chris@factary.com)

Alliance Magazine, a recommended read for anyone involved in international philanthopy, carries a series of articles in its December 2005 edition on diaspora giving, now reckoned to be worth US$100 billion per annum, (twice the level of official development aid.) A research report by the International Network on Strategic Philanthropy estimates future potential. Diaspora groups have potential as partners for philanthropists who seek gearing for their philanthropic gifts, and the kind of networking that reaches right into the grass roots.

The size of this funding market was underlined in March 2006 by the most recent Inter-American Development Bank report on remittances to Latin America. Migrant workers from Latin American and the Caribbean sent home US$53.6bn in 2005, up 17% on 2004. These remittances total more than most countries receive in official development aid plus direct foreign investment. Latin America is the fastest growing and highest volume remittance market in the world.

Factary has carried out a number of research projects involving diasporas, most recently researching migrants from Poland for a UK NGO with a project in that country. For more details contact Elizabeth Dixon (elizabeth@factary.com)