Italy: a special agency raises confidence in donations

To help the genuine organizations that work for the public good, and to give the public reassurance that they can make donations with confidence, many countries have developed national accrediting bodies that inspect public interest bodies and, if they meet high standards of probity and integrity, will award a public certificate confirming that the organization is well-run and deserving of support. In Italy there is the Istituto Italiano della Donazione (IID), a charity monitoring agency born last year on proposal of three important Italian non profit organizations, Forum del Terzo settore, Sodalitas and Summit della solidarietà.  During its first year of activity, the IID has promoted and fostered transparency, integrity, fair management practices and ethical conduct in non profit organizations. It has therefore certified 8 organizations as “excellent”, while 13 are now under examination and 134 were involved in specific programs to improve their transparency. The 8 accreditated non profit organizations are: Airc, Mani Tese, Cooperativa A.La.T.Ha, Fondazione Asphi, Ciai, Amref, Cooperativa Esagramma, Fondazione piemontese per la ricerca sul cancro.  The accreditation process is based on the “Carta della donazione” as a code of conduct for fundraising in the Italian non profit sector. On april 2006 IID was welcomed as a new member by the International Committee on Fundraising Organizations (ICFO), the association of national monitoring agencies. www.istitutoitalianodonazione.it