President of the German Marshall Fund (GMF), United States.

A year after the beginning of the financial crisis, how do you perceive the situations of American and European Foundations?
US Foundations came through this crisis in worse shape, mainly because they had riskier asset management strategies that put them in a more vulnerable position. They were also penalised by their legal obligation to give away at least 5% of their assets every year, no matter what the situation is, and  in difficult times, they're much more expected to respond to the crisis, by providing a range of  social services…

Are there lessons Americans and European foundations could learn from each other?
US Foundations can shape public policies by supporting initiatives that might have an impact on how the government acts, at a level of engagement that is not so common in Europe… Maybe that is something European Foundations could look into. As for American Foundations, they definitely could learn from European foundation’s more careful approach to asset management!

And what is the outlook for foundations?
Next year is going to be even harder. We all assume that we're not going to see interest rates of 10% a year again. We are moving to a long-term view. This crisis has also been a very humbling experience for US foundations: we realised how limited our resources are compared to what the government can muster. Even so, I think that if foundations show creativity, rethink their whole organisation and their role, they can still seize great opportunities.