Good news in the mail for Italian non profits

Over the past two months, Vita, Italy’s non profit weekly newspaper, has been engaged in a campaign to fight a law passed by the Italian government earlier this year, to eliminate a subsidy on postal costs for non profit organizations.

On May 19, 2010, the government reversed an earlier decision and reinstated special terms for postal costs to Italian non profits organizations.

The motion to reinstate favorable postal subsidies for Italian non profits passed with 163 votes in favor, 134 against and no abstentions.

The senate sent it back to the house after a second reading and after the Berlusconi government made the act within which it was contained a motion of confidence.

The act part of the Incentivi bill had already been assessed by the Chamber of deputies the week before.

It was in this way that this act became law and the state once again introduced a subsidy on postal services to the Italian non profit sector.

“For all cases,” wrote the government, “the value of the subsidy should not surpass 50 percent of the normal price and it must respect the maximum limit stipulated in the relevant paragraph of the act (€50 million).”

The leader of the movement to reinstate the subsidy, Gabriele Toccafodi (PdL), was pleased.

For Marco Granelli, president of CSVNet, “it was only a first step. For two reasons, the subsidy is only valid for 2010 and because non profits are still faced with the challenges of these poor economic conditions.”

To find out more read the blog post of Riccardo Bonacina.