Financial donations to organized charities became fashionable among the middle class in the 19th century.

By 1869 there were

over 200 London charities with an annual income, all together, of about £2 million. By 1885, rapid growth had produced over
1000 London charities, with an income of about £4.5 million. They included a wide range of religious and secular goals, with the
American import, YMCA, as one of the largest, and many small ones, such as the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association. In
addition to making annual donations, increasingly wealthy industrialists and financiers left generous sums in their wills. A sample
of 466 wills in the 1890s revealed a total wealth of £76 million, of which £20 million was bequeathed to charities. By 1900 Lon-
don charities enjoyed an annual income of about £8.5 million.[12]: 125
Led by the energetic Lord Shaftesbury (1801–1885), philanthropists organized themselves.[13] In 1869 they set up the Charity Or-
ganisation Society. It was a federation of district committees, one in each of the 42 Poor Law divisions. Its central office had ex-
perts in coordination and guidance, thereby maximizing the impact of charitable giving to the poor.[12]: 125 Many of the charities
were designed to alleviate the harsh living conditions in the slums. such as the Labourer's Friend Society founded in 1830. This
included the promotion of allotment of land to labourers for "cottage husbandry" that later became the allotment movement. In
1844 it became the first Model Dwellings Company—an organization that sought to improve the housing conditions of the work-
ing classes by building new homes for them, while at the same time receiving a competitive rate of return on any investment.
This was one of the first housing associations, a philanthropic endeavor that flourished in the second half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, brought about by the growth of the middle class. Later associations included the Peabody Trust, and the Guinness Trust.
The principle of philanthropic intention with capitalist return was given the label "five per cent philanthropy."[14]

Switzerland[edit]
Main articles: International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and International Committee of the Red Cross

The Red Cross, after the Battle of Gravelotte in 1870

In 1863, the Swiss businessman Henry Dunant used his fortune to fund the Geneva Society for Public Welfare, which became
the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Dunant personally led Red Cross dele-
gations that treated soldiers. He shared the first Nobel Peace Prize for this work in 1901.[15]
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) played a major role in working with POWs on all sides in World War II. It
was in a cash-starved position when the war began in 1939, but quickly mobilized its national offices to set up a Central Prisoner
of War Agency. For example, it provided food, mail and assistance to 365,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers and civilians
held captive. Suspicions, especially by London, of ICRC as too tolerant or even complicit with Nazi Germany led to its side-lining
in favour of the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) as the primary humanitarian agency after 1945.[16]

France[edit]

Men and woman working in a classroom at the Institut Pasteur in

Paris, c. 1920
The French Red Cross played a minor role in the war with Germany (1870–71). After that, it became a major factor in shaping
French civil society as a non-religious humanitarian organization. It was closely tied to the army's Service de Santé. By 1914 it
operated one thousand local committees with 164,000 members, 21,500 trained nurses, and over 27 million French francs in as-
sets.[17]
The Pasteur Institute had a monopoly of specialized microbiological knowledge, allowing it to raise money for serum production
from private and public sources, walking the line between a commercial pharmaceutical venture and a philanthropic enterprise.[18]
By 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression, the French wanted a welfare state to relieve distress but did not want new
taxes. War veterans devised a solution: the new national lottery proved highly popular to gamblers while generating the cash
needed without raising taxes.[19]
American money proved invaluable. The Rockefeller Foundation opened an office in Paris and helped design and fund France's
modern public health system under the National Institute of Hygiene. It also set up schools to train physicians and nurses.[20]
Germany[edit]
The history of modern philanthropy on the European contin