UBI Banca announces the issue of a solidarity bond loan to contribute to the implementation of the “Crossing the Threshold” program of the L'Albero della Vita Onlus Foundation. The project was one of the winning initiatives of the 2017 edition of Sodalitas Social Innovation, the program created by the Sodalitas Foundation, with the contribution of UBI Banca, to improve the planning capacity of the Third Sector.
The project and the reference context
ISTAT estimates for 2016 show 1 million and 619 thousand families in Italy in conditions of absolute poverty (i.e. families able to support a monthly expenditure lower than or at most equal to that necessary to acquire essential goods).
The "Crossing the Threshold" project fits into this context, which was created to counter the economic and relational poverty of families with children, such as job loss or adult unemployment, the risk of losing one's home, the impossibility of cope with the expenses and scholastic and educational difficulties of minors. The families participating in the program start from a condition of chronic or temporary social and economic exclusion and, together with the operators of the Albero della Vita Foundation, build and implement their own path to escape from this condition of difficulty and vulnerability. Since its launch, the "Crossing the Threshold" project has given support to 1.058 beneficiaries, 661 of whom are minors. To date, the project is developing in the suburbs of Milan, Genoa, Rome, Palermo and Catanzaro and is also in the start-up phase in the city of Naples.
The measurement of the social impact of the project through the SROI
As has already happened in the case of contributions linked to previous placements, the value of the social benefit for the recipients and for the community linked to the Social Bond will also be calculated by the Fondazione l'Albero della Vita for the “Crossing the Threshold” project. The method chosen for this quantification is the Social Return on investment - SROI, the most widespread and appreciated by the international community. The SROI aims to quantify, in economic terms, the social or environmental value generated by a project, an initiative, a social organization. An SROI analysis aims to "capture", in monetary form, the value of a wide range of expected or generated results, adding a numerical index to the account of how an organization creates value for certain categories of interlocutors (stakeholders), from the beneficiaries aimed at the local community, from public institutions to supporters. SROI evaluates change, taking the perspective of the people and organizations that benefit or contribute to it.
To support the process of quantifying the social results of projects in monetary terms using the SROI tool, UBI Banca makes available some methodological, operational and technical assistance supports, provided in collaboration with the Human Foundation as an independent third party company. In the case of the "Crossing the Threshold" project, the Albero della Vita Foundation has estimated ex ante that every euro invested in the project will produce approximately 5,16 euro as the economic value of the reduction of socio-educational expenses by families and those for the child care and assistance service, as well as the economic value of the services generated by the involvement of volunteers.
The bonds, issued by UBI Banca, have a minimum subscription amount of 1.000 euro, a 3-year term, a six-monthly coupon, a gross annual rate of 0,55% (0,407% net per annum). They can be subscribed from 04 September 2017 to 29 September 2017, subject to early closure or extension of the offer period.
UBI Banca will donate to the Association a contribution equal to 0,50% of the nominal value of the subscribed bonds. The total contribution donated by UBI Banca to the L'Albero della Vita Onlus Foundation as a donation can reach up to 100.000 euro in the event of subscription of the entire nominal amount of the bonds involved in the offer.
“Collaboration between Profit Companies and Non-Profit Entities also demonstrates its usefulness in supporting and promoting the desire for redemption of those who are going through difficult moments”, says Frederik Geertman, Chief Commercial Officer of UBI Banca. “The Social Bond, an instrument that combines rational allocation of savings and social aims, proves to be increasingly able to favor development opportunities for incisive and sustainable projects, far from a welfare approach and indeed able to gather energies and skills capable of producing true social innovation, punctually accountable.”
"The continuous increase in poverty of the population, especially among the most vulnerable groups (one in eight children today lives in absolute poverty) of our country is a matter of great urgency that requires timely intervention and different from that proposed up to now", says Ivano Abbruzzi, president of the non-profit L'Albero della Vita Foundation. “The collaboration between profit and non-profit entities appears to be an increasingly effective alliance for pursuing objectives of social interest with sustainable profitability because it is capable of self-sustaining. The methodology applied with Crossing the Threshold, which aims at enhancing people's potential, can represent a central approach to combating poverty".
From April 2012 to August 2017, the UBI Banca Group issued 85 UBI Community Social Bonds, for a total value of €913,2 million, which made it possible to donate contributions by way of donations amounting to €4,2 million aimed to support initiatives of social interest and were subscribed by over 32.000 customers of the UBI Group. In addition, plafonds have been activated for loans of over 20,5 million euros intended for consortia, businesses and social cooperatives.
