It opens the year of celebrations of thirtieth anniversary of foundations of banking origin. Born between 1991 and 1992, following the "Amato Law", which separated the philanthropic activity from the credit one. Since their inception, the non-repayable resources made available by the 86 Foundations – autonomous and independent private non-profit entities – amount to 26 billion euros for around 20 thousand initiatives activated each year. An added value of the country whose importance we often underestimate, but which can translate into a competitive advantage to achieve the objectives of sustainability and inclusion. This is what emerged from Acri on the occasion of the opening of the year of celebrations, the event “30 come noi. Generations in dialogue” which has given the opportunity to tell the story of the Foundations over the past thirty years.
Francesco Profumo, president of Acri, declared: "As it is now widely recognized, the Foundations not only distribute resources, but dialogue with the territories, activate widespread partnerships with public and private entities, profit and non-profit, and experiment with social innovation practices, that they make available to everyone, so that they can also be replicated in other contexts and on a larger scale. With a view to subsidiarity, they do so in the various sectors in which they operate: from art to welfare, from research to innovation. What all these interventions have in common is the ability to imagine a future that guarantees everyone the right to actively participate in the construction of a more beautiful, just, supportive and sustainable country".
For the occasion, Acri and the associated Foundations have created the web series “30 Like Us”, composed of interviews with thirty-year-old boys and girls, protagonists of the projects promoted or supported by the Foundations. Each episode presents an intervention carried out in a specific field: from research to culture, from society to the environment, from education to music. There are currently 10 episodes, but the list is set to grow exponentially in the coming months.
The Foundations of banking origin are in fulfillment of the so-called Law Beloved, which separated the philanthropic activity from the credit activity of the savings banks. The regulatory process that traced the perimeter of intervention was rather articulated and contradictory, but culminated in the so-called Ciampi law of 1998 and in two sentences of the Constitutional Court of 2003 (300 and 301), which definitively sanctioned their nature as private subjects responsible for the care of the common good.
Today the Foundations, as written in article 2 of the Ciampi Law - are private non-profit entities, autonomous and independent, which, through the investment of the assets at their disposal, generate proceeds which are made available to the communities and the country exclusively for purposes of social utility and for the promotion of economic development. However, they remain financial players of particular importance because they have to manage the resources they still have in the best possible way. Theirs today cumulative assets is 40 billion.
The beneficiaries of these resources are citizens, through third sector organisations, local authorities, educational institutions, universities and research centres. In particular, it is estimated that around 70% of these resources go to Third sector organisations, either directly or through local authorities. But the Foundations also intervened during the health crisis, making more than 130 million euros available, including their own resources and fundraising activated in the territories.
