Non profit
Encouraging new partnerships
An Italian Foundation launches a call to all non profit organisations. Winners will secure funding.
di Staff
By Carmen Morrone
Profit making and non profit making organisations don’t always communicate well. Which is why Sodalitas Foundation has created a system to encourage dialogue between charities and businesses. “Often non profit organisations and for profit organisations don’t understand each other, which is probably why they don’t interact more. We decided to find a way that made it easier for them. The result is a questionnaire that outlines the principles behind each organisation’s activities so that companies have a clearer idea of what they do”, explains Ugo Castellano, spokesperson for Sodalitas.
The project was presented on April 19 during a conference called ‘Sodalitas social innovation: towards new partnerships’ held in Milan at the Cariplo Foundation’s headquarters.
“The questionnaire is useful for charitable organisations, especially on a project to project basis, as it is a kind of social business plan that explains the social and economic aspects of an organisation and highlights its organisational capacity”, explains Castellano.
However, it is useful for enterprises too. “Companies can interact with non profit players as partners, participating in innovative social projects and not just donations”.
Foundations will also find the questionnaire useful as it is a tool which enables donor organisations to identify interesting projects to fund. Non profit organisations can fill out the questionnaires on the Sodalitas website (or write to sotialinnovation@sodalitas.it) until July 2011, then they will be evaluated by a group of experts. Selected organisations will receive funding from the partners involved in the project.
