Overview
In cooperation with the community foundations in its network and the research partner AICCON, Assifero published the second edition of the Guide to Italian Community Foundations (2023). The Guide offers a comprehensive analysis of the development of the community foundation field in Italy. It presents data and brings to life the value added and impact of the growing movement through stories and experiences showing how it has evolved. Key issues are highlighted and are enriched by comment from others in the Third Sector and beyond who have, over the years, had the opportunity to get to know and explore the potential of community foundations and have wished to offer their unique contribution on their added value with respect to their own areas of expertise. The Guide is testimony to the growth and maturation of the movement in Italy and the commitment of Assifero to its development. It serves also to show how strategic intentional national and international networking has contributed to this success story.
In 2023 there were 52 community foundations in Italy, with three new ones (Fondazione Comunità Pistoiesi, Fondazione Comunità Benevento, and Fondazione di Comunità della Provincia di Rimini) established in the last year. They are spread across 39 provinces in 11 regions, and serve at least 18 million people (almost one third of the population of the country). The field continues to expand into new areas with support from Assifero and the appeal of community foundation is steadily increasing. For instance, as a final “outcome” of several national funded processes on specific topics (like educational disadvantage) there has been interest in establishing a community foundation to provide a stable and permanent infrastructure to coordinate efforts and to adopt a holistic approach at a local level.
With no one size fit all recipe, community foundations in Italy work on different models and approaches, depending on their location and their establishment process. Those in Lombardy and Piedmont, supported by Fondazione Cariplo, serve entire provinces and have substantial endowments (the largest approx. € 32 million) and they have a strong focus on grantmaking. In recent years they have been also thinking about how to deploy their non-financial resources and especially after the pandemic are considering what additional role they could play. Others in Piedmont, Liguria and Valle D’Aosta have different geographic scope (neighbourhood, valley, wider provinces) are less endowed and are more local community oriented. They are supported by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo which gives core support and matching funds for fundraising efforts. In the South of the country, Fondazione CON IL SUD has been a strong supporter of the growth of community foundations, taking inspiration from the Cariplo model of doubling the endowment in 10 years if a specific threshold is achieved. Given the wealth inequality between North and South, these community foundations focus on and lead policy development at the local level and build social capital. They are supported by many private foundations from across the country and they seek funds through EU projects since they must be able to catalyse the financial resources outside the community. The role of the church is prominent in many cases. In the Veneto region, Fondazione Venezia was a strong supporter of community foundations at first. Subsequently coalitions among local administrations and public entities led to the constitution of several community foundations (Fondazione Comunità Vicentina, Fondazione Sinistra Piave). Lately, new partnerships between local savings bank foundations and initiative groups led
to the establishment of community foundations.
The Guide shows how the movement in Italy has engaged with the SDGs, addressing multiple Goals (often simultaneously), the most common being 1,3,4, and 10.
Three axes of analysis of the Italian community foundation movement
The Guide presents three key axes of analysis:
1. Strategic horizon
On average, it is three years, with a maximum of ten years. In part, this can be linked to the analysis behind the foundation’s mission: analysing the responses of the 22 community foundations involved in writing the guide, it emerges that the main drivers for the creation of a community foundation are the desire to create new territorial alliances and to act as a philanthropic intermediary, to create value that is not dispersed.
2. Topics
The most common topics are community and youth involvement, collaboration and empowerment of social enterprises, arts and culture as driver for local sustainable development, gender equality, and the fight against educational disadvantages. Community foundations in Italy place themselves as important link between local action and global challenges and, according to the survey and the desk research, they all state that they strive towards more than two Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Internal processes
- Governance: the average duration of a foundation’s governance is 3 to 4 years. Its composition varies widely, with an average of 11 representatives on the Board of Directors but with organisations reaching as many as 27 members. The estimated average age of people in the governance is between 51 and 65 and is still uncommon, but greater than in the whole philanthropic system, the practice of including people
with lived experience. - Funding strategy and methods: the most popular route is to work through calls for tenders, especially in Northern Italy. In the south, instead, CFs are usually leading development policy first hand, going beyond the simple grantmaking strategy. They also access more the EU funds to drive international financial resources to deprived areas.
- Asset size and management: the community foundation with the largest asset is around EUR 32 million. Others handle much smaller sums and rely on flow through funds, but still manage to achieve positive results and impact in the area.
In general, organisations supporting community philanthropy can play a pivotal role in pooling together learning and experience regarding internal processes. This is useful for other community foundations, for newcomers and for entities aiming at becoming such.
September 2023
