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26.06.2023 / Case studies

Author: Lutz Drieling M.A. Candidate

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Assifero, the Italian Association of Foundations and Philanthropic Organizations, is a Community Foundation Support Organization (CFSO) that supports more than 150 foundations, of which 31 are Community Foundations.¹ Assifero was founded in 2013 with scope to catalyze private resources for the common good. Twenty-two members of a National Council administer the Association.²

Assifero facilitates the exchanges between community foundations, cooperation organizations, and family foundations. In addition, it supports the foundations in North and South Italy working in totally different environments. While the political environment is not supportive of the operation of the community foundations, Assifero identifies the strengths of the community foundations in the different regions and shares that knowledge.

Assifero promotes Italian philanthropic work to become more visible and informed and tries to connect different actors within the philanthropic sphere. It focuses on human and sustainable development and shares information, good practices, and new approaches on national and European levels.³ The team consists of 10 staff members.⁴ Yearly reports since 2009⁵ are available on their webpage, including the newest reports from 2022 (in Italian)⁶.

Assifero implemented a 4C framework for evaluating their philanthropic support. It focuses on impact in four main areas, the Capability to strengthen the skills and know-how of its members, the Connections within the networks and partners outside of it, the Credibility of the Association and its values, and the Capacity to systematize the financial and non-financial resources of foundations and philanthropic entities.⁷ One essential tool for Assifero´s work is its Community Foundations Annual Conference. It focuses on strengthening the foundations and facilitating exchange and networking.⁸

Contributions to community sustainability and the role of SDGs

Nationally, Italy has a good engagement with the SDGs. It is the first country to build a national alliance to fulfill Agenda 2030 objectives in 2016. Assifero is part of that alliance next to public institutions, private companies, and nonprofit organizations.

More specifically, Assifero offered an SDG workshop to their local community foundations. The SDGs are part of many community foundations’ missions and are essential in grantmaking. Grantmaking focuses on projects which connect to the SDGs. Overall, community foundations’ participation in contributing to achieving the SDGs needs to be better structured. However, community foundations and Assifero are starting to professionalize their interaction with Agenda 2030. In addition, Assifero started to work on focusing endowment-related investments on the SDGs. As of now, investments are not following sustainability criteria.⁹

Italian community foundations mainly focus on Reducing Inequalities (SDG 10), Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8), and Quality Education (SDG 4). Due to the urgency of the Climate Crisis, they also focus more and more on Climate Action (SDG 13). One critical activity here is the installment of solar panels and wind turbines. Community foundations are investing in the installment. From these investments, local communities benefit through cheaper energy and a lower cost of living.¹⁰

Messina Community Foundation (Messina CF) in Sicily also focuses on the Climate Crisis. It is tackling Climate Change as a social and economic crisis. Messina CF is launching a venture philanthropy fund in the equity of green social enterprises, addressing areas such as North Africa, South Europe, Palestine, and Turkey, among others. Messina CF is also the founder of the Forum of Inequalities, a think tank that fights inequalities and educational crises by employing a comprehensive approach.¹¹

Furthermore, Messina CF is also focusing on impact evaluation. It has defined a broad framework for proving impact. Overall, project themes connect to the SDGs. Nevertheless, the evaluation is not focusing primarily on the SDGs. Community foundations do not set key indicators, as a culture of collecting data is not a given in Italy. National funds are available and focus on impact evaluation. However, the evaluations concern individual projects rather than the SDGs.¹²

Stakeholder Collaboration

Stakeholder collaboration differs between the Southern part and the Northern part of Italy. The North is the wealthier part of the country and has community foundations with an endowment of up to 32 million euros. Community foundations here are financial intermediaries which are offering funds. Lately, they have started to change their actions and aim to become a catalyst in local communities. This change implies opening their management boards to members of civil society organizations or offering micro funds to small communities and individuals to implement projects and changes on the micro level.¹³

In the South financial resources are scarce, and community foundations focus on grassroots approaches and social capital. The impact of community foundations is highly efficient. One year after its establishment, one community foundation in Sicily became the focal point for local community actions during the COVID-19 pandemic while having limited financial means. The South has a broader understanding of collaborative solutions due to its financial constraints and is quite successful.¹⁴

Assifero is advising CFs to avoid dependency on public administration. The CF must be a collaborative partner and should not be too close to local governments. The frequent electoral processes in Italy are undermining the ability of CFs to collaborate with local administration on the long-term. Public administration is less efficient in the South, and community foundations struggle to cooperate with them.¹⁵

Assifero, the Good Lobby,¹⁶ and the European Community Foundation Initiative (ECFI)¹⁷ are training community foundations to build solid and functional partnerships with local administration. Assifero also promotes collaboration between community foundations and cooperation and family funds. Here the CFSO is promoting community foundations as intermediaries that know well the local context and can direct investment toward local needs.¹⁸

Challenges in the Italian Context

The main challenge for Italian community foundations and Assifero is accessing SDG-related training. Creating expertise around the Agenda 2030 requires resources for understanding the SDGs and investment in organizational capacity. The SDGs are known to the community foundations but connecting them with community foundation strategies is challenging. Due to low budgets, communication around the SDGs is insufficient. An annual event on the SDGs is augmenting communication around the Goals; however, it is not sufficiently used. Nevertheless, impact evaluation around the SDGs is increasing as a practice among other community stakeholders, such as companies. This context helps Assifero and community foundations to identify areas in need and to focus actions on urgent local issues.¹⁹

Community foundations find solutions for local problems, and Assifero and its network of members scale up those solutions and implement them beyond the local community. The collaboration with “The Good Lobby” addresses that aspect. However, regular changes within the government are making this endeavor more challenging.²⁰

Conclusion

Assifero works among other types of foundations with 31 community foundations. Despite the differences in financial resources between the Italian community foundations, Assifero builds cooperation and knowledge exchanges. It encourages actions to improve living conditions for all communities. It supports its community foundation members to direct financial as well as non-financial resources where they are needed. Regular changes in the local administrations and governments are weakening the ability of Assifero and its community foundation members to build strong networks with the administration and improve the lives of the citizens. With support from international associations like “The Good Lobby” and the collaboration with cooperation and family funds and ECFI, Assifero is empowering community foundations to focus their work on the SDGs and to become drivers of change.

Endnotes

1. “Chi Siamo: Assifero: Associazione Italiana Fondazioni ed Enti Filantropici” (Assifero).
2. “Chi Siamo: Associati: Mappa interattiva degli associati ad Assifero” (Assifero).
3. Assifero, “Chi Siamo: Assifero.”
4. “Chi Siamo: Staff” (Assifero).
5. Accessible at:
6. Accessible at:
7. “Quadro strategico” (Assifero).
8. “Fondazioni di Comunità” (Assifero).
9. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
10. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
11. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
12. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
13. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
14. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
15. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
16. Accessible at:
17. Accessible at:
18. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
19. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.
20. Cf. Francesca Mereta, interview by Ianis Rusitori, March 13, 2023.

This case study was developed as a part of the project Increasing the Contribution of European Community Foundations to the SDGs, supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. We are grateful to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and all interviewees and partners who made the development of the case study possible.

Departments: Policy Analysis and Outreach Department, Research Department, Center on Global Affairs and Post Development, Society, Crisis, and Resilience Program

Regions: Europe

Themes: Philanthropy and Community Development, Civil Society, Democracy and Democratization, Sustainable Development Goals