Since the dawn of the first Danish foundations in the Middle Ages, they have, through their work, contributed to the development of society as it looks today. Foundations are an integral part of society, and in the future their contributions and activities will also have a great, and possibly even growing, impact on the development of society.

Foundations, with their status as independent players, can operate freely with regard to their special interests. In this way, they are uniquely situated to contribute to long-term development in society, both in Denmark and globally, since they can develop and initiate change as well as promote innovative solutions within their respective fields.

To meet the demand for transparency, and simultaneously ensure the continued contribution of the foundations to social development,
it is vital that the foundations retain their legitimacy, independence and integrity.

Furthermore, it is important to note that charitable foundations differ greatly – both when it comes to their varied aims, structures, cultures and activities, but also in their different interests and views. Despite these differences, the foundations have a number of common characteristics and interests. It is this common interest in openness and transparency that is formulated in “Principles of Good Practice for Charitable Foundations in Denmark”.

The principles only encompass the charitable activities of the foundations together with any derived activities, e.g. philanthropic investments carried out for non-profit purposes.

In other words, the principles do not apply to the pure business activities a foundation might have, i.e. in relation to meeting the bye-laws of their business subsidiaries. These activities are covered by other regulations, e.g. the Nørby Committee report on good leadership of listed companies.

In practice, the extent to which each foundation wants to and can incorporate the principles in their daily activities will vary. It is recommended that the foundations who only wish to incorporate a limited aspect of the principles, account for this with, for example, reference to the size of their foundation, which perhaps does not allow working with a very detailed foundation strategy with accompanying guidelines for granting awards, or perhaps due to the fact that there are special stipulations or obligations specified by the founder, or perhaps with reference to other grounds for not making grants completely public.

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Cf. Nørby Committee Report on
good leadership in Denmark, 2005