The new board was voted in by members at a meeting in May, following the sudden resignation in October of former president Andrea Romboli, followed by three other board members.

Michela Gaffo, who had been made interim president in November, has now been confirmed in the role. Giulia Barbieri has been elected vice president.

The board, whose members will serve for three years, is completed by Pietro Addis, Alberto Almagioni, Claudia Costa, Anna Fabbricotti, Federico Petruio, Alessandro Silipigni and Eleonora Spalloni.

The new board has outlined its aims and strategy through the ASSIF Futura programme, which consists of six pillars:

1. Growing its member base, and improving how it listens to and involves members, including through regional and local activities
2. Producing research and data which will support the organization and the profession as a whole
3. Launching an Advocacy Board and strengthening the organization’s external relations work
4. Offering a range of networking and training opportunities
5. Strengthening governance, with member participation and transparency as key tenets
6. Building a plan for the long-term sustainability of the organization

Speaking to Italian third sector magazine Vita in November, Gaffo said that “active and democratic participation of members is fundamental” to ASSIF, and that the organization had perhaps become disconnected from its membership during recent times.

Gaffo currently leads fundraising for Tender to Nave Italia, a charity supporting people with disabilities through sailing and maritime activities.

She first joined the ASSIF board in 2020, and has previously worked in fundraising and marketing roles for the Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla (Italian MS Society); Helpcode, an education and children-focused NGO; and sector-wide organization Italian Non Profit.

Barbieri currently works for COSPE, an international cooperation NGO. She previously sat on the ASSIF board between 2014 and 2019.

Picture by Sergio Agazzi

Ferragni, whose career began as a model, has more than 37m followers across her social media accounts. Ahead of Christmas 2022, she promoted a specially-branded pandoro (cake), implying that sales would raise money for the Regina Margherita hospital in Turin.

In December 2023, Italy’s competition authority AGCM issued fines of nearly €1.5m to companies connected to Ferragni, and to Balocco, the company which made the cake. AGCM found that Balocco had made a single donation of €50,000 to the hospital, but that this would not increase based on sales.

Ferragni has become increasingly vocal on various social issues including violence against women, and she and her musician husband have frequently criticised the country’s Government.

Her high profile meant that the story made national and international headlines, and gained further traction when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a veiled criticism of her.

Ferragni soon admitted to a “communications error” in an Instagram video, and pledged a €1m donation to the Regina Margherita.

ASSIF: two main issues

A statement published on the website of ASSIF in late December suggests that there are two fundamental issues that led to the scandal.

The first is the evolution of influencers as a category. Famous people lending their support to charitable campaigns is “nothing new”, it points out. However, these engagements “now form a part of the marketing strategy of the influencers themselves”, it adds. This has implications for the motivations and objectives for such campaigns, which fundraisers must work to understand and balance against their own targets.

The second is that the trend of fundraising for public organisations, in particular hospitals, grew significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic. ASSIF says that in many cases, hospitals may not have fundraising skills in their staff, and have struggled to understand how best to manage such activities.

ASSIF says that an expert fundraiser would “certainly” have been able to anticipate the issues in the Balocco-Ferragni campaign, adding:

“We hope that this affair can be the starting point for more informed and appropriate conversations about the role of fundraisers in public organisations.”

In January, it emerged that Ferragni faces a criminal fraud investigation. Media reports say that brands such as Coca-Cola have now paused campaigns which included Ferragni.

Picture by August Columbo on Pexels

But leaders at the organisation say that the country’s nonprofits “are very resistant” to such changes, and that the long-term trends are positive, in particular as NGOs strengthen their partnerships with the for-profit sector.

The Noi Doniamo (English: We Donate) report cites data from national statistics agency Istat, which shows that the number of people giving money to charities dropped to 12% in 2021. The figure had previously risen from 13% in 2019 to 14% in 2020. Rates of giving were higher in the richer Northern regions of the country than in the less privileged South.

The drop in donations to NGOs was partly mitigated by an increase in so-called ‘informal giving’ – donations made for example during a collection at a church service, or directly to a person in need, for example because of homelessness.

In total, 36% of Italians made an informal donation in 2021, up from 33% in 2020, according to data in the report from fundraising agency BVA Doxa. The average informal gift was €32 (€36 in 2020), according to BVA Doxa, compared to €61 (€80 in 2020) for formal donations, BVA Doxa says.

Stefano Tabò, president of the IID, said the decrease in donations in 2021 was expected, following the solidarity and increased generosity experienced during an extraordinary 2020. He said it was clear that third sector organisations “are very resistant” and that they are well-positioned to continue “their role of calling citizens to get involved”, and continue the positive, long-term trend for donations in Italy.

Cinzia Di Stasio, secretary general of the IID, highlighted the fact that 33% of nonprofits, up from 20% in 2020, had increased their total income during the year. She said: “This is linked to the number of NGOs improving their corporate fundraising during the year – the number of NGOs getting increasing donations from business went from 6% in 2020 to 26% in 2021, demonstrating that collaboration and support from the for-profit sector is increasingly important for the third sector.”

The report also shows that medical and scientific research remains, by a considerable margin, the most popular cause for Italian donors. Nearly half (48%) said these organisations are the ones they would be most likely to donate to, with the next most popular being: poverty in Italy (16%); animal rights and welfare (12%), emergency humanitarian aid (11%), and global poverty (9%).

Volunteering is also in decline, with participation dropping from 10% in 2019 and 9% in 2020 to 7% in 2021, according to Istat figures used in the report. The number of blood and organ donations both increased between 2020 and 2021, but remain below 2019 levels.

Promoting fundraising as a vehicle of development, the four-day national event saw 40 speeches and 16 workshops led by art directors, social communicators, companies, small and large nonprofit organisations, foundations, volunteer service centres, and storytellers, as well as copywriters, consultants, service providers, communication agencies, volunteers and artists. Each spoke about the meaning of giving – and fundraising – and how they can pave the way for a different, more inclusive and equal society.

The event was coordinated by fundraising consultant and ASSIF member Letizia Bucalo, supported by the ASSIF Board and a group of 30 member volunteers.

“Every face, every voice, every meeting was decisive in the construction of Fundraising to Say,” said Bucalo. “We responded to the need for an event that could be an inspiration for everyone, not only for fundraisers, but for every profession that supports and works with nonprofits, and meet a desire to share, to network, and to work more closely together.”

More news and pictures from the event can be found on the ASSIF Facebook page, with the next edition of Fundraising To Say due in 2023.

Gathering the findings of a number of third sector studies, the report provides an overview of donations of time, money, and the biological gifts of blood and organs given by Italians last year.

The studies include an IID survey on fundraising conducted in collaboration with CSVnet; BVA Doxa’s Italians in Solidarity research, which surveyed 2000 individuals, and its weekly Tracker which questioned adults with Internet access on the pandemic’s impact on their lives; an Istat survey of 25,000 Italians in 800 municipalities, and research by Solidarity Testament.

The report finds that while Italian generosity increased in 2020 due to the health emergency, this was largely directed at the many initiatives aimed at containing it, with other causes struggling.

BVA Doxa’s Italians in Solidarity report showed that the majority (55% of donors) supported health and research related causes. In second place, 3 in 10 of donors supporters nonprofits linked to the coronavirus emergency and civil protection.

Financial support

In terms of how much people give, the average donation size for donors interviewed for Italians in Solidarity was €80 (up from 2015’s €59 and 2019’s €66), while the average size of informal donations (those not given directly to a nonprofit organisation, such as via a collection during Mass or to homeless people on the street) is €36. Looking specifically at online donations, in 2021 research by Solidarity Testament found the average size to be €90, up from €77 in 2020.

Unsurprisingly, with less opportunities to do so, 2020 saw a slowdown in people donating informally. The Italians in Solidarity survey by BVA Doxa shows that in 2020, 33% said they made informal donations, down from 41% in 2019. Fewer also donated directly to nonprofits, falling from 26% to 21%. These findings are supported by the IID’s own research, where 82% of its sample of around 350 charities said they had raised fewer funds.

The IID’s research found too that only 15% of nonprofits have not seen any change as a result of the pandemic. While 28% of the nonprofits it surveyed saw online donations rise in 2020, 55% raised less money overall in 2020. 45% saw a drop in donations from individuals while 36% saw companies give less, and 15% received less income from foundations. This has continued into 2021 with 43% of organisations estimating that they will end the year with a moderate or substantial decrease in revenue.

Volunteering

Volunteering has also been impacted by the pandemic with lockdowns halting this activity for many. According to the AVQ Istat survey, volunteers dropped from 9.8% to 9.2%. The IID’s study found that 45% of the organisations interviewed were forced to stop volunteer activities with a further 23% substituting them with online activities.

Biological donations

On the biological donation front, the number of those donating blood in 2020 fell by 3.4% compared to 2019, according to data provided by the National Blood Center, with new donors down by 2%.  The health emergency has also caused a decline in organ and tissue transplants.

Commenting on the report, IID president Stefano Tabò said:

“The health emergency has absorbed Italian’s generosity, partly diverting resources that were traditionally destined for nonprofit organisations. The share of those who donate money, give biological donations or volunteer is always a minority and has been experiencing a slow decline for many years. Reversing this course is one of the crucial challenges for the nonprofit and the period we are facing will test its ability to raise awareness among citizens and attract their generosity.”

Image by Orna Wachman on Pixabay

The reform includes 135 legislative acts, including rule changes, and new tax concessions and financing opportunities.

To understand the impact of the changes, the “Reform in Movement” survey, from Terzjus Observatory and Italia non profit with the involvement of ASSIF and other partners, questioned 1,671 third sector organisations, working mainly in the areas of personal services, cultural recreation and education, and education and training.

It found that 86% think the reform process is too long, while not everyone understands the changes, which include the introduction of a nonprofit register RUNTS and a new reporting tool, the Social Report, both of which are designed to improve the sector’s transparency.

Also being introduced is a new tax system, including changes to the 5×1000 rule, and legislation that will enable nonprofits to obtain and renovate unused public properties. For the first time too, third sector organisations, social enterprises and fundraisers are being given legal definitions, with the aim of bringing greater recognition of their role and work.

However, the study found that:

– Just under 1 in 3 are unaware of the opportunities RUNTS will present in terms of making all essential data from organisations accessible to all

– 40% are not aware of the newly introduced possibility of being able to support activities other than those of general interest

– Only 1 in 4 are aware that the reform has also affected 5×1000 income tax

– 1 in 4 organisations do not know about new tax benefits for donations introduced by the reform, while more than half of those who are aware have not yet shared the news properly with donors

– There is a lack of understanding over which organisations the new Social Report applies to, with it perceived as an obligation by just under 50% while 17% are unsure if it affects them.

– Few organisations are ready to adopt the new budget formats

– There is a lack of understanding over which organisations the new Social Report applies to, with it perceived as an obligation by just under 50% while 17% are unsure if it affects them.

The full report can be downloaded from Italia Non Profit’s site.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels

Organisations in Switzerland have until September 2022 to stop using the country’s orange and red payment slips and fully adopt the QR-bill. The new standard has been introduced to modernise and simplify payment transaction processes – including donations – and to meet anti-money laundering regulatory requirements.

Swissfundraising’s survey on the changeover shows that less than 1 in 10 (8%) have sent QR-bills so far. Almost a third of respondents have yet to start the process, while planning is in progress for 56%, and a further 4% have started the process.

One barrier to switching over shared by respondents is concern over how older donors will react. In addition, organisations that have already carried out tests with QR-bills state that there remains a need for education, with many members of the public still unfamiliar with them.

However, the survey responses also highlight a number of positives: more information is automatically transmitted with the QR-bill for instance, such as the reason for payment, which makes it easier to allocate payments made via this method. Respondents also feel the country’s increased use of digital payment technology could help with take up – popular Swiss mobile payment app TWINT, for example, uses QR codes and now has more than 3 million registered users.

Questions raised by survey participants included what scope organisations have to customise the QR-bill. According to Swissfundraising, this is possible to a certain extent, but the QR-bill must comply with certain standards.

Another question was on how QR-bills can be issued. According to Swissfundraising, they can be sent physically on paper, electronically as an eBill, or as a PDF, and the payment part with the receipt can be placed at the bottom of the page or printed on a separate sheet.

To help further, Swissfundraising is compiling a catalogue of questions and answers on the topic, which is accessible on the Swissfundraising site and continuously updated.

Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

The 5×1000 scheme, which allows Italian taxpayers to designate a small percentage of tax monies to a nonprofit organisation of their choice, appears to be losing favour with donors. It requires them to add the fiscal code of the organisation into the relevant section of their tax return. The list is published the following year, enabling nonprofits to work out how many people have given using the scheme and how much has been raised.

Despite the drop in donors using the scheme, the amount given through the scheme has reached the state-imposed limit of €520 million, prompting Nicola Bedogni president of ASSIF – the Italian Fundraising Association, and other nonprofit representatives to urge government to raise that limit:

“There has been a decline in signatures”, Bedogni says: “we have lost 600,000 choices; perhaps due to the particular circumstances of last year, people did not have the time and desire to look for the organisation’s tax code”.

“From now on, we need to make an appeal to government to raise the ceiling on donation levels: we have constantly exceeded the cap since 2018.”

The Italian Government has been gradually increasing the donation cap from €510m in 2019 to €520m in 2020 and €525m in 2021. However, Bedogni reports that even the €525m limit is already being exceeded. To encourage supporters to keep on using the scheme, the cap needs to be raised even higher.

The data also reveals trends in people’s charitable giving choices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the popularity of health research has risen, with sport and scientific research remaining stable. However, there was also a significant increase in the public’s support for culture and conservation, including national parks and the sea).

Related news:

https://efa-net.eu/news/pandemic-sees-income-fall-for-many-italian-ngos-as-donors-choose-covid-related-causes

Overall, the crowdfunding sector in Italy has grown by 75% in the last year, raising over €399 million in total in 2020, while in France it raised over €1 billion for the first time. While all categories of crowdfunding are growing in France, with online fundraising skyrocketing during the pandemic, donations saw particularly high growth in the country, having sat at around €80 million annually since 2017.

The figures come from Mazars and Financement Participatif France’s Alternative Financing Barometer. Published for the second consecutive year, it reveals that €1.02 billion was raised overall in 2020, split between the categories of donations, loans, and investments. This is 62% more than 2019’s €629m, and equates to a growth of more than 600% since 2015.

In the donations category, while up until last year campaigns that offered rewards for giving were the most successful, in 2020 this switched and those without rewards saw the greatest increase. The French gave €146m to these campaigns, and €72.5m to those incentivised with a reward. For the non-incentivised campaigns, this is a growth of 550%.

In comparison, loans, which takes the biggest share of crowdfunding, accounted for €741m in 2020, a growth of 45%, with investments, which raised €59m, growing by nearly 43% compared to 2019.

The pandemic saw the social sector raise the most in donations, with and without rewards, reaching €82m last year compared to €21m in 2019. The cultural sector also saw strong growth. It collected €32m in donations in 2019 rising to more than €71m in 2020. However, the economic sector also performed well, raising more than €65m in 2020 compared to nearly €26m in 2019, which the report suggests was probably driven by support campaigns for traders and businesses affected by the restrictions on opening during the pandemic or the economic crisis.

In terms of who gives to crowdfunding campaigns, donors to campaigns offering a reward were, on average, 40 years old, while those donating without this incentive were a little older, at an average of 46 years. The average contribution also rose in 2020, at €249 for the donation without reward category (versus €93 in 2019), and €76 for the donation with reward category (versus €58 in 2019).

Crowdfunding in Italy

In Italy, the Crowdfunding in Italy Report 2020 from Starteed also splits crowdfunding into three types: donation & reward, equity, and lending. Out of last year’s €399m total, crowdfunding in the donation and reward category accounted for €31 million, which is equal to one third of all funds raised in this category between 2015-2019. It’s also an increase of 38% compared to 2019.

The figures in the report are based on the best performing Italian platforms. Overall, the top five for crowdfunding performance in 2020 were Forfunding, Rete del Dono, Kendoo, Produzioni dal Basso, and Eppela. Specifically in the donation and reward category, Forfunding saw the most raised in 2020, at almost €9.8m, while Rete del Dono raised just over €4m, and Kendoo, Produzioni dal Basso and Eppela each raised around €3.5m.

While some of 2020’s growth came in response to the pandemic, the report points out that other campaigns also did well:

“It’s important to emphasise that growth in 2020 linked to the pandemic hasn’t stopped other campaigns from reaching interesting results.”

Overall, since Starteed’s first report in 2015, crowdfunding in Italy has raised more than €778 million.

Photo by Mica Asato from Pexels

The study, carried out by market research company Doxa, shows that the number of people who made at least one donation dropped from 45% to 36% overall last year, with those giving to charities falling from 26% to 21% and those giving donations informally, such as to people’s crowdfunding campaigns, from 41% to 33%. However, the average donation size rose from €66 to €80 for those who donated to NGOs, and from €29 to €36 for informal donations.

Overall, an estimated 13-15 million Italians donated between March and April last year. The greatest proportion of donations went to public organisations such as hospitals, with 22% going to NGOs. Over one quarter (27%) went to the country’s civil protection department (the national department in charge of emergencies), almost one fifth (19%) each to hospitals and crowdfunding initiatives, while 13% went to initiatives directly supporting doctors and nurses.

Commenting on the findings, Gaia Relucenti, member of ASSIF’s working group on research, said:

“The majority of donations were given to help purchase masks and emergency equipment, as was widely requested during the very first months of the pandemic, with a boom in collections on crowdfunding platforms by personal fundraisers as people sought to help others directly, rather than through an NGO. Due to this new way of giving and despite an increase in donation value, many non-profit organisations have seen a drastic drop in their income and have had to review their processes to adapt to the emergency in progress.”

Some NGOs have suffered more than others, with the most significant decrease in donations seen among those supporting environmental protection and animals, as well as less recent emergencies.

In total, 2020 saw €785.55 million donated in cash, goods or services for the coronavirus emergency, mapped by Italia Non Profit. €130 million came from foundations between March and August, while crowdfunding donations reached around €25 million euros. €17 million was donated through GoFundMe, with the top five campaigns raising €8.5 million overall.

The Italy Giving Report also includes data provided by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance on donations deducted in tax returns in the 2019/20 tax year. This reveals that the total amount raised by this particular means rose to €5.5 billion, up 3.9% on the previous year, and was in part influenced by 2019’s introduction of new tax breaks on higher donations.

In addition, Italy’s Art Bonus tax credit brought in an additional €500 million euros thanks to donations from 18,393 patrons (11,143 individuals, 2,487 foundations and other non-commercial entities and 4,763 companies).