by Gianluca Federici, chartered accountant specialized in sustainability economy.
Italy is a country in default, saved only by Europe.
This is not an exaggerated statement, but what any economist would say comparing birth rates and public debt.
In this context, the old welfare state is forced to anticipate the transition to community welfare, where the public effort is supported by the private sector.
Despite the fact that 70% of consumers prefer sustainable products, donations exceed 6 billion euros, in a few years bequests without heirs will reach 8 billion euros and over half of savers wants to invest their savings (for a total of approximately 4000 billion) in civil and social development of the country, there is often a lack of projects capable of attracting capital.
Previously, ideal-motivated activities easily struck the sensitivity of the citizen, now rightly, people want to combine ethics with efficiency.
In fact, there are frequent cases where donations or public money have been used in an unwise manner.
How can a public hospital or a school become a sustainable business model improving its social impact?
How to convince a citizen to donate time and money to a museum or an archaeological site?
Fundraising exists for this, it is in fact an economic discipline born for helping non-profit activities that usually operate in the social, environmental, cultural, school, sports, health, religion and politics sectors.
Its founder, Henry Rosso, defined fundraising as “the science of the economic sustainability of social causes”. Actually, Fundraising literally means an increase in capital both economic and especially human.
This is not only because the signature, the transfer, the active participation are made by a person, but mainly because the donating action is stimulated by a deep human involvement.
So, obviously we must select, communicate and plan the implementation of valid projects, but we often forget to report them accurately, penalizing relationships that could become partnerships.
Through the right tools, you can obtain important results: you can start from 2,5,8×1000 (an average of €20 per signature), and then you can engage big donor campaigns, art bonuses, associations, legacies, major events, crowdfunding, social bonds, social venture capital and, above all, corporate fundraising, i.e. “calls to action” focused on companies eager to tie themselves to a serious non-profit interlocutor.
The used techniques allow to optimize performance but also to create lasting relationships with donors who seek transparency, real results, reliable reports, but sometimes also a minimum economic and image return. In this context, the cultural sector is very fertile field for fundraising.
Sustainable economy
As a world superpower, Italy has mind-boggling numbers: more than 8,000 libraries, 4,500 museums, 1,800 theaters, 58 UNESCO sites, an army of over 10,000 public employees and over 60,000 non-profit organizations operating in the cultural sector. These data presuppose very high maintenance and management costs. The technological (digitalization and AI) and socio-environmental (17 ESG objectives) changes must be added to the obvious structural problem, all these aspects require further investments.
How can we find the needed resources and participation for providing the necessary continuity to this management? How can we convince the various “cultural bureaucracies” to make a gradual but radical change? To demonstrate that the path is much simpler than expected, we can highlight some case studies about cultural fundraising in Italy.
For example in the corporate sector, Diego Della Valle donated 25 million euros for the restoration of a part of the Colosseum, but only because he found suitable interlocutors and proposals. The Palazzo Madama Museum raised around 100 thousand euros with a crowdfunding campaign to bring the D’Azeglio ceramic collection back to Turin, thanks to its excellent database.
Among the structured cases, we can mention the MUST, “MUSeo Territorio Vimecartese (Vimercate in the province of Monza and Brianza, MB). After only 2 years from the beginning of the fundraising process, it has achieved the following results: revenues from commercial activities + 50% compared to 2021. Turnover from rental spaces for events + 53% (2 million euros). Direct fundraising campaigns + 111% (€98,500). Fundraising campaigns through foundations €2,092,000 (private individuals, companies, foundations, public institutions).
Then, if we then want to analyze some data relating to 5×1000, for example, a small non-profit Association, “Amici del Teatro”, was able to increase the signatures from 50 to 6,500, bringing the collection from around €1,000 to €142,000 in a few years. Finally, with regard to another instrument by law, “the art bonus”, in 2023, , the Municipality of Perugia in 2023 managed to carry out 24 restorations without burdening the municipal budget with a single euro. Equally significant are the cases where a cultural center plays a touristic driving force function by enhancing a location that does not have particular appeal (such as the Museum of Monza, the Egyptian Museum of Benevento).
Professional fundraising produces certain results that soon repay the investment and allow you to improve your image, earnings and database but, above all, change your mentality. The State will no longer be able to guarantee pensions, healthcare and obviously not even the support of culture. So, either you soon enter this mentality as many realities have already done or you can only hope to prolong the agony.
Optimizing the management of our heritage means respecting the role of culture, enhancing its social function and highlighting its usefulness, aiming to ensure the survival of a fundamental asset for the economic and social development of the country. Fundraising is the right tool that governance must use to provide ethics to profit and efficiency to non-profit, perfecting the synergy between the three sectors and thus producing the desired economic sustainability.