Banks operating in Italy play a decisive role in the field of social investments and culture, in fact, in the two-year period 2014-2015 have provided over 516 millions of euro against at least 50 thousand interventions a year in the territory. In 80% of cases, the institutes have operated mainly at local and regional level, demonstrating the close link with the territories and local communities.
These are the main data contained in the Abi research, carried out by prof. Guido Guerzoni of Bocconi, which examined the set of investments and donations of banks operating in Italy in favor of organizations, individuals and initiatives with social and cultural benefits.
The research, carried out through the involvement in the 2016 of a sample of banks that is more representative of the sector, with 77% in terms of assets and 82% of the total number of branches, shows that in the social sector the interventions focused mainly on activities and cultural heritage, voluntary work and charity, secondly education, education and training and then on sports and creative activities, support for young people, local development and active employment policies.
Another significant aspect that emerges from research is the evolution of intervention tools. The banks carry out these interventions through: offices (in 52,1% of cases), departments or dedicated company functions (28,1%) or through foundations, associations or non-commercial ad hoc entities (16,7%), the project dimension increases (almost the 80% of the interventions is the result of design strategies that are increasingly monitored and evaluated).
The Research also highlights a trend shift from the traditional concession model adopted in the past, in which banks provided resources for the implementation of micro projects conceived by third parties, to the action model in which they develop, in collaboration with various partners, projects that have a deeper and more lasting magnitude and impact, with an approach that increasingly echoes the logic and philosophies underlying "impact investing" (investment models that operate with the aim of generating a measurable social impact compatible with an economic return). Disbursements or sponsorships now seem weak levers, not very incisive and controllable: the result is a marked orientation towards own initiatives or in equal collaboration. Banks, in fact, prefer to conceive and manage many projects internally, with their own staff and resources, programming them over multi-year horizons, in order to identify the ideal interlocutors in time.
In Research there is also a specific focus on the investments of banks in the cultural sector, over 250 millions every two years. The areas of intervention involved temporary exhibitions, restoration of monuments and works of art, literary competitions, conferences, seminars, local festivals, concerts of classical or pop music, film festivals and dance performances.