2023 Ariadne Forecast for European Social Change and Human Rights Funders

There is also a risk that foundations, in trying to respond to the short-term challenges before them, lose sight of their longer-term objectives and fail to invest in the systems change necessary to address the root problems of the current crises. [...] The paradox is that there are more opportunities: because of the absence of an absolute majority, the (left) opposition can get things done, in contrast to the tradition of the Fifth Republic, in which the president has had the absolute majority. [...] Although strategic planning is a growing focus for foundations, and part of the legislated reform of the third sector, in practice civil society organisations lack the time and space to effectively plan for the future and are unable to develop multi-year plans and visions. [...] The plan will bring additional resources into Italy, including funds for public-private partnerships for the redevelopment of the territories, and it provides a mechanism for the participation of philanthropic organizations, enabling them to amplify the resources of the PNRR for a particular set of grantees. [...] My hope is that this process can be consolidated and that a collaboration from a more systemic and structural point of view can also emerge as a practice less linked to direct contacts or personal acquaintances but to the desire to create networks of collaboration and management of funds available to the associations of the reference territory.