Community foundations are explicitly mentioned for the first time in an official Italian Government policy document as part of philanthropic fabric – specifically as a structural and enabling components of the social economy. Furthermore, the Italian National Action Plan for the Social Economy repeatedly emphasises the territorial dimension of the social economy thus reiterating the role of community foundations as connectors between a national policy framework and the realities of individual places. It provides Assifero and its community foundation members an opportunity to convert policy into practice.
In July 2026, Italy took an important step in recognising the social economy as a strategic component of the country’s economic and social development. The Italian Council of Ministers examined the National Action Plan for the Social Economy, developed in response to the 2023 Council of the European Union Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions.
During the development of the Plan, Assifero actively contributed to the consultation process, bringing the perspective of institutional philanthropy into the discussion. This contribution was also publicly recognised by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The Plan has not yet introduced operational measures or new incentives. Rather, it establishes a ten-year strategic framework that will guide future policies and legislative measures. This distinction matters: what has been adopted is a direction of travel and a shared policy framework, whose value will ultimately depend on implementation.
Yet the significance of this step should not be underestimated. The country has a rich and diverse social economy tradition: according to the figures included in the Plan, in 2022 the social economy comprised almost 399,000 organisations and 1.53 million workers, alongside more than 4.6 million volunteers. It represented around 8% of all organisations in Italy’s private economy.
What makes this particularly important is the shift in perspective. Social economy organisations are not described simply as providers filling gaps left by either the State or the market. They are recognised as actors capable of contributing to economic development, social cohesion, democratic participation and the response to territorial challenges.
The Plan itself stresses that numbers alone cannot capture their essential nature: these organisations share the characteristic of placing people and the communities in which they live at the centre of their action.
For Italian philanthropy, and particularly for community foundations, there is an additional reason why this document deserves attention.
Community foundations enter the picture, explicitly
For us at Assifero, one of the most significant aspects of the Plan is the explicit recognition of philanthropy as a structural part of the social economy.
It recognises the growing relevance of philanthropy in Italy and explicitly identifies a broad philanthropic ecosystem including family foundations, corporate foundations, long-established philanthropic organisations and – significantly – community foundations.
For the first time, community foundations are explicitly mentioned in an official Italian Government policy document as part of this philanthropic fabric.
This may appear like a small linguistic change, but recognition matters. Naming community foundations means acknowledging their distinctive place in the architecture of the Italian social economy and creating a basis from which their role can increasingly be reflected in future policies, partnerships and funding mechanisms.
The Plan recognises the dual role of philanthropy: philanthropic organisations are themselves part of the social economy, while at the same time acting as enablers of the wider ecosystem. The document describes philanthropy as both a structural and an enabling component of the social economy.
This is an important distinction.
Philanthropic organisations do not simply redistribute financial resources. At their best, they can take risks that other actors cannot take; provide patient and flexible capital; support experimentation; invest in organisational capacity; connect actors who would otherwise remain disconnected; and help initiatives move from isolated projects towards longer-term systemic change.
The Plan captures some of this potential. It envisages, for example, public-private matching funds, with philanthropic organisations potentially playing a role in both contributing to and managing these funds. It also proposes strengthening their role as “social investors”, including through revolving funds combining financial support with operational and strategic accompaniment for social economy organisations.
This is closely connected to a point Assifero has emphasised throughout the process: philanthropy can help create the enabling conditions through which public institutions, civil society and private actors combine resources, knowledge and capabilities around shared objectives.
Why community foundations have a distinctive contribution to make
Within this broader philanthropic landscape, community foundations occupy a particularly interesting position.
The Plan describes philanthropic organisations as increasingly adopting systemic approaches, addressing causes rather than only symptoms and contributing to social cohesion through locally targeted, proximity-based action.
Community foundations combine the enabling capacity of philanthropy with deep territorial knowledge. They can mobilise local resources, but their contribution goes far beyond grantmaking. They build relationships across civil society actors, local authorities, businesses and citizens; convene different perspectives; identify emerging needs and local assets; strengthen local organisations; and create opportunities for people to participate directly in shaping the future of their communities.
They can also act as local laboratories for experimentation: places where new approaches are tested in response to concrete needs, where different actors can work together, and where lessons generated locally can inform wider regional or national policies.
This becomes particularly relevant because the Plan repeatedly emphasises the territorial dimension of the social economy. It recognises social economy organisations as important actors in responding to demographic change, territorial inequalities, the challenges facing rural and inner areas, sustainable housing, culture, welfare and ecological transition.
Community foundations can therefore become connectors between a national policy framework and the realities of individual places.
They can help make public resources more responsive to local contexts. They can combine national or European funding with locally mobilised philanthropic capital. They can identify and support organisations that formal programmes struggle to reach. And, perhaps most importantly, they can help ensure that communities themselves are not simply beneficiaries of social economy policies but participants in shaping them.
Recognition is only the starting point
This is perhaps the most important opportunity opened by the Plan. Its value will not lie only in the organisations it names, but in whether that recognition translates into a different way of designing and implementing public policy.
For community foundations, this means moving from being recognised as part of the philanthropic landscape to being fully understood as territorial infrastructure for social change: actors able to connect resources with needs, institutions with communities, and local experimentation with wider policy agendas.
For philanthropy more broadly, the challenge is similar. Being recognised as an enabling component of the social economy brings with it a responsibility to use not only financial resources, but also independence, convening power, long-term perspective and capacity to take risks in support of stronger ecosystems.
For Assifero, this is where the work begins: helping ensure that philanthropy is not simply present in the architecture of the social economy, but actively contributes to making it more connected, more resilient and more rooted in communities. And for community foundations in particular, this moment offers a chance to demonstrate something they have long known in practice: that lasting change is strongest when it is built with communities, not simply delivered to them.
