Foundations in Switzerland: Between the American and the German Cases

This article considers the current state of the Swiss foundation sector in relation to both its own historical development and its counterparts in Germany and the United States. Through a descriptive analysis of the database of the Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) of 11,619 foundations and a case study of 2,679 foundations in 7 cantons, we show that despite the similarities to Germany in historical growth and to the United States in asset distribution Swiss foundations are unique in density and fields of activity they pursue. In terms of roles Swiss foundations are close to the U.S. foundations in their emphasis on complementarity, but in terms of approach are close to Germany with a significant number of grant-making foundations. Overall, it is found that despite some socioeconomic transformations in Switzerland the categorization of the foundation sector close to a liberal model has not fundamentally changed.