EPIM's Process of Change

Set up in 2005, in response to the growing centralisation of legislative and political power on asylum and migration at EU level, the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) was created to pool foundations’ resources and networks to strengthen activities, collaboration and mutual learning on migration and inclusion issues across the civil society landscape in Europe. To this day, EPIM remains the only and longest-standing philanthropic collaborative working on issues of migration and inclusion in Europe. For the past 18 years, we have supported more than 250 civil society organisations – from grassroot organisations to larger European umbrella organisations – by building their capacities and advocacy efforts and through support for strategic litigation, peer learning, service provision and evidence gathering.

Over the past two decades, various geopolitical and societal developments have changed the European migration and asylum landscape drastically, calling for a different and nimbler response from philanthropy, as a key actor within the ecosystem, in order to live up to these new realities. At the beginning of 2022, we initiated a series of conversations with several partners to reflect on the way forward as a collaborative fund. In Spring 2022, after our board green-lighted the start of the Process of Change, we began with a rethink of EPIM’s WHY, HOW and WHAT. Over the course of 18 months, we are rethinking our mission, vision and values (WHY), how we set priorities to engage, intervene and make decisions (HOW), the goals we will pursue and the resources and tools we employ to achieve our mission (WHAT). EPIM’s Process of Change is set to conclude in the Autumn 2023. We are certain that this period of revisioning EPIM will bring new perspectives and added value to the migration eco-system.

A transition period like this is also linked to questions our partners will have – about the future role of EPIM, the priorities in grant making, or what this means for individual organisations. While it is still too early to share the very details of what EPIM will look like post-2023, we imagine an EPIM, with its partners and networks that intentionally works towards building trust and bridges across different actors and stakeholders working on migration issues directly and indirectly across Europe, to create a shared big picture, whilst centring lived migration experience.

At this stage of the process, we can share some insights into what this means for our partners:

• EPIM’s grant making continues through the Process of Change and we continue working towards the existing Thematic Fund goals. We have in fact funded several new partners since the start of the Process of Change through two open calls, as well as continued support to a number of existing partners.

• Through our Ukraine Response as part of our Opportunity and Response Fund, we have further expanded our partners and geographies of intervention – something that is expected to continue through 2023 and 2024.

• For grants coming to an end in 2023 and 2024, we will be in close communication with our partners before and after Autumn 2023 to discuss in a bespoke and transparent way about the individual implications of the Process of Change for each partnership.

We will communicate about EPIM’s new strategy after the Process of Change culminates in Autumn 2023. We expect 2024 to be a year of transition during which we will embark on a process to unfold and implement the new strategy, with a learning approach, including many voices from our partners and the wider field.