Research Activities

Research is the focus of the training and information activity of Philanthropy Centro Studi. Through research it is possible to spread data, trends and new professional practices linked to fundraising and social responsibility.
Fundraising
Philanthropy Centro Studi is currently continuing and making the following research activities within the sector of fundraising for nonprofit organizations.

• Direct Mail Italia: every year, from 2009, we make a research, already published in 2006 (results), which studies the use of mailing by nonprofit Italian organizations. The research aims at understanding how much time do Italian nonprofit organization need to answer and solicit a gift made by Philanthropy Centro Studi. The research also aims at understanding which are the different methods and answer times of the “classic” gift (post office account, bank transfer) and of gifts through the web or credit card.
• Blackbaud Survey: from 2009 Philanthropy Centro Studi participates in the global research on the nonprofit sector and the situation of fundraising made by Blackbaud, world leader in the supply of software for nonprofit organizations management. The research aims at understanding the sector trends, the strong and weak points in the use of fundraising tools and at comparing different national experiences. Read here the result of the survey (2009 - 2010)
• Cfre Italia: thanks to the specific knowledge acquired within the training sector Philanthropy Centro Studi participates in the review of the acknowledgement methods of training courses and of the fundraisers certification according to the CFRE method (www.cfre.org). Click here to read the thank you lettere by CFRE Chairman to Philanthropy Centro Studi
• FRI: from 2009 Philanthropy Centro Studi participates in the realization of the index of confidence in fundraising (FRI). It is a research started in 1997 from the Center on Philanthropy of the Indiana University (USA) which aims at supporting professionals and donors in the fundraising field. The survey, submitted to a sample of fundraising professionals, is composed by 23 questions: satisfaction questions concerning fundraising in general, questions on the success or the failure of fundraising tools, questions concerning the capital raising and the optimism or pessimism towards fundraising. This index also includes another two indicators: the index of the current fundraising situation (FRIA) and the index of fundraising expectations (FRIAS). The first one studies the current fundraising environment, while the second one studies the expectations concerning the fundraising climate in the next 6 months. Thanks to this research Philanthropy Centro Studi aims at supporting the fundraising sector, in fact this indicator can be useful during campaigns planning, to assess development performances, to study the climate and the confidence inside an organization.
• Research on Italian fundraisers: in 2004 Philanthropy Centro Studi made its first research on the fundraiser profession in Italy. Click to download results and interviews. The ideal continuation of this research is the index of confidence in fundraising in Italy, which also measures the Italian fundraisers level of confidence in their profession.
• Glossary of Fundraising: read it all.
• Fundraising Code: partecipation to the writing of italian fundraising code made by Agenzia per le Onlus, download here the thank you letter

Social Responsibility
Philanthropy Centro Studi is continuing and making the following research activities in the corporate social responsibility sector:

• Research in cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development for the Circulation of the OECD Guidelines: this research aims at studying the strategic, practical and communication tools of the CSR of small and medium-sized Italian enterprises characterized by positive sustainability results, individuating interesting results. In fact, the SME, which develops the CRS tools from a lot of time…. Read more downloading the research at this link
• Research on Italian Ethic Funds: available as soon as possible
• Research of Ethic Committees within profit companies: available as soon as possible
• Glossary of Social Responsibility: read it all
• Bibliography on Corporate Social Responsibility - consult it
• Bibliography on Intangibles - consult it

Other materials produced by research projects

• Bibliography on Accountability - consult it
• Bibliography on Community Foundations - consult it
• Bibliography on Fundraising - consult it
• Bibliography on Nonprofit Companies Management - consult it
• Direct Mail for Nonprofit Organizations: Rhetoric Italian-English Intercultural Analysis: this research was made by Sabrina Fusari and published in CESLIC Occasional Paper I, 2005. It highlights that in both the languages, letters used by nonprofit organizations to raise funds feature seven rhetorical actions, but with important differences as for typology, frequency and length. Furthermore, data registered allow us to understand something about the communication dimension of the extra linguistic differences concerning the nonprofit sector in Italy and in the USA. Download the article
• American Community Foundations: Management, Fundraising and Grant making: download the article
• List of Italian and foreign magazines on Nonprofit Management: consult it