1 October 2022: 10th European day of Foundations and Donors

Established in 2013, on the European Day of Foundations and Donors foundations from all over Europe are invited to showcase their work and raise public awareness about the important role that philanthropy plays in building fairer and more sustainable societies.

To celebrate its 10th edition, numerous Italian foundations, Fondazione Cariplo among them, participate to #benitornati, an initiative promoted by Acri and Assifero that puts at the center experiences of local regeneration that are carried out by foundations and their communities. 

In 100 different event sites throughout Italy, the celebrations’ protagonists are the regeneration actions led by non-profits, neighbourhood associations, social cooperatives, citizen groups and committees: they account for nearly 7 million people in Italy that devote part of their time to looking after their communities, improving the environment and people’s quality of life.

The #benitornati [“returned goods”] may refer to neglected spaces that have been recovered and given back to the community, the reuse of assets confiscated to criminal organisations for social purposes, the creation of new parks or planting of forests in abandoned areas, laboratories for scrap recycling, unsold food rescue and distribution, education to sustainability programmes, and so forth.

Fondazione Cariplo has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary: since its establishment in 1991 the Foundation has contributed over 3.6 billion euros in grants to support its communities, funding nearly 36,000 projects of non-profit organisations, several in the regeneration field. 

More about these regeneration experiences on the Italian section of our website: Giornata Europea delle Fondazioni 2022 - Fondazione Cariplo