EPIM, the European Philanthropic Initiative for Migration, is Europe’s largest and longest-standing philanthropic collaborative working on migration, belonging and democracy. We fund and nurture alliances and partnerships, curate the migration ecosystem and cultivate a shared narrative for belonging and democratic resilience. Over twenty years, working alongside 41 foundations, EPIM has mobilised and redistributed more than €35 million across 400 organisations in 37 countries.

EPIM began in 2005 as a pooled fund hosted by the Network of European Foundations, and in 2021 we started rebuilding it as a humble experiment in bottom-up systems change. Foundation and non-foundation members now make strategy and funding decisions together and on equal terms, through the EPIM Forum, the Executive Council and our cluster committees, because we hold that a collaborative earns its place by taking the risks individual foundations cannot. 

Our grantmaking runs through three clusters: Dignified Work and Housing, Building Inclusive Societies in Central and Eastern Europe, and Shaping European Migration Governance, and is built on four pillars:  Centring Lived experience, Building Bridges and Strengthening Ecosystems, Changing Perspectives and Narratives, and Reimagining Funding. 

We start our work from the conviction that migration is a structural feature of European societies and a central aspect of a functioning democracy.