Today's Society

In today's society the need of giving increases. This development is reflected by more and more philanthropic foundations coming into life, which enable investing in a broad variety of social concerns. Due to the wide range of giving possibilities, donators face the agony of choice in which foundation to invest. To come to a proper decision requires knowledge and detailed information about the foundations' measures and goals. It is for this reason that along with the rising number of foundations, the landscape of consulting companies has dramatically developed during the past decade.

In one part of my research paper, I would like to analyze the development of philanthropic consultancies and what kind of services they offer within the third sector. As the consultancy services comprise not only providing advice to individual donors but also providing strategic and management advice to organizations, I would like to examine which kind of consultancy service is requested most and underlying reasons for this trend. In addition to profound literature research, I would like include one or two interviews to support my studies. Persons of interest would be philanthropic consultants, who can provide useful insights into their consultancy spectrum. Additionally I would like to interview organizations or foundations requesting the consultancy services and thereby getting to know the essential reasons.

In the second part of my research paper, I want to focus on country specific differences, which influence the development of philanthropic consulting. Especially the cultural difference in the U.S. and Europe will be in the scope of my research. What are the reasons that services of consultancies in the U.S. are more required than in Europe? Is it the consultants' superior performance or are these services not yet of interest for the European third sector. Again I will base my studies on literature research and would like to complement my studies with interviews. Ideally I would like to interview representatives of a U.S. consultancy company that is successful in the U.S. but also offers its services in Europe. Thereby I get country specific insights and can identify key challenges of each country, with which consulting companies have to deal with.

After all my research goal is to get a profound understanding of the consultancy business in the framework of Philanthropy. What kind of obstacles do they face and is their development