About us

Our story from 2002 till today

• 2002 Creation of Philanthropy Centro Studi (www.philanthropy.it) thanks to the cooperation of Valerio Melandri with some professors of the University of Bologna, professionals and students interested in the nonprofit sector, in fundraising and in social responsibility.
• 2003 The first phase of research on Italian fundraisers involving the commitment of the research team of Philanthropy Centro Studi interviewing the most important Italian fundraisers. These interviews are published in the book “Viaggio nel fund raising” (buy it online)
• 2004 Philanthropy publishes the first research on the fundraiser role in Italy deriving from an attentive statistic research on fundraisers within Italian nonprofit companies (buy it online). During the same year, after a deep analysis and research work on the accountability methods of Italian nonprofit companies, there is the publication of the book “Accountability e aziende nonprofit” by Valerio Melandri (buy it online)
• 2005 Creation of the first blog: www.valeriomelandri.it, managed by Valerio Melandri and aiming at highlighting fundraising and the fundraiser profession. Development of other tools: the fundraising portal (www.fundraising.it), the website for people in search of a job (www.nonprofitlavoro.it) and the website about reviews on the best books for people who want to manage a nonprofit organization as well as possible (http://librinonprofit.philanthropy.it).
• 2006 Development of another project aimed at supporting nonprofit and fundraising operators: the Edizioni Philanthropy series (http://edizioni.philanthropy.it), collecting practical books on how to raise funds and use at best fundraising tools. Philanthropy Centro Studi also organizes a free course on 5 per 1000 (a procedure which allows to use a part of taxes to be paid for socially relevant causes) in cooperation with the Master of Fundraising and the business consultant Andrea Rava, in order to explain to nonprofit companies how to register and receive the 5 per 1000.
• 2007 The research sector of Philanthropy Centro Studi participates in the writing of the book “Il fund raising in Italia: storie e prospettive” (buy it online), which presents the first data of the research concerning the fundraising history in Italy from the Middle Ages till nowadays, in order to learn form history how to apply the best strategies to raise funds today.
• 2008 Philanthropy becomes an Association of Social Promotion, which aims at becoming a national centre on fundraising and social responsibility. Furthermore, during this year, the first mailing database for fundraising is created; it is a collect of hundreds of examples provided by the most important nonprofit organizations: http://mailing.fundraising.it
• 2009 Philanthropy Centro Studi widens its research field by cooperating autonomously with foreign groups to carry out two important researches in order to evaluate the fundraising situation in Italy: one of them is focused on penetration degree of fundraising techniques in nonprofit organizations, whereas the other one is focused on the professional fundraiser condition. Another step in order to know more in depth fundraising and social responsibility.
• 2010 Philanthropy became a member of EU Consult (the European Association of Consultants to and about Not-for-profit Organisations), the European network of professional consultants for the nonprofit sector. The EU Consult is an important proof of professionalism and qualification of our teachers. The renewal of the certification of quality CFRE (Certified Fund Raising Executive) is arrived as evidence of the high level of quality achieved by the advanced courses that we organize. Philanthropy is the only institution in Italy to receive such recognition. During this year it was also published "The costs of fundraising" a book born from a research realised by the Centro Studi, an innovative tool to monitor and evaluate fundraising activities.