A distinctive actor of the Third Sector, with the purpose of providing money, goods or services, including investments, to support categories of disadvantaged people or activities of general interest
Philanthropic organisations are a distinctive subject of the Third Sector, which may take the form of a registered association or foundation, with the purpose of providing money, goods or services, including investments, to support categories of disadvantaged people or activities of general interest. (Article 37 of the Code of the Third Sector)
They are able to catalyze and activate not only financial resources but also social, human, and real estate assets and offer them according to the needs and different stages of development of the organisations and/or programs they support, the so-called continuum of capital.
Funded by private resources, foundations and philanthropic organisations have the ability to have access to them by taking risks and potentially investing in innovation to pursue their mission.
Enable them to make decisions and support social change in unique ways. Working in partnership with the private and public sectors, foundations can take risks and invest in initiatives and organisations whose goal is social impact, before financial impact.
Foundations and philanthropic organisations are entities that are born to last, adopting a long-term view in their actions.
Philanthropic organisations are the only new subject within the Third Sector Code, introduced with the 2016 Third Sector Reform thanks to Assifero’s work, in order to have their unique specificities recognized legislatively.
The constraint of legal personality is dictated by the need to have adequate patrimony. To obtain the status of a philanthropic organisation, it is necessary to register in the appropriate section of the Unified Register of the Third Sector.
Assifero identifies among philanthropic organisations some particular types of foundations, which, despite not having a specific legal form, have similar characteristics in terms of governance, source of financial and non-financial resources, and strategic structure:
