Snam Foundation

"Con i bambini" is a social enterprise established on 15 June 2016, based in Rome and wholly owned by the Fondazione Con Il Sud. It manages the activities of a Fund for combating child educational poverty, and this Fund has been fed by some Foundations of banking origin with a consistency of 120 million euros a year for three years (2016, 2017, 2018).
Fondazione Snam responded to a call launched by "Con i bambini" for the selection of projects to be co-financed aimed at fighting educational poverty and its idea was selected.

The idea presented aims to combat the educational poverty of children and to prevent forms of hardship, promoting an alliance between schools, families and local actors, in particular third sector bodies, and contributing to the removal of obstacles of economic, social  and cultural nature that prevent the use of educational processes.
The project also aims to define a model of collaboration, between schools and third sector bodies, for the implementation of integrated educational services for minors in the area, scalable at national level. Having defined this single model objective, Snam Foundation has started a participatory co-planning process that has involved various third sector organizations (CGM, Spazio Aperto Servizi, Beyond Lampedusa, Cooperativa Al Rèves, Cooperativa Eridano), 3 schools and 3 municipal authorities in 3 different Italian cities: Milan, Palermo and Brindisi.
The actions planned in the design phase are:

• for each reference reality, definition of a common educational project between school and third sector organizations that responds to the educational needs of the reference target and the specific neighborhood;
• through the collaboration of the third sector school and institution, definition of a model of school space management in curricular and extra-curricular hours, also envisaging the infrastructural adaptation of school spaces;
• services management experimenting with an organizational model that links the world of education with the world of social services, enhancing the form of social enterprise;
• systematization of experiences carried out at local level, for the purpose of disseminating them at national level with replication in other contexts.

In 2017 Fondazione Snam, together with other important Italian foundations, promoted "Welfare che impresa!", the contest that aims to encourage the emergence of project ideas of young people under 35 on welfare issues for the communities, able to promote social cohesion , development and networking.
Of the 155 projects presented in this second edition of "Welfare che impresa!", given that it highlights the growth of interest in new services able to contribute to improving the social fabric of the country, the 14 finalist projects participated in a two-day training workshop , promoted by foundations, during which the participants were able to acquire useful skills and information to increase their design skills.
Among the four winning design ideas, Fondazione Snam has awarded "Tripmetoo", a start-up in Salerno that operates in the tourism sector. It is a web booking platform that allows the traveler to customize his travel experience based on the different needs and operators in the sector to enhance the offer, by including it in the Tripmetoo network.

Fondazione Snam participated also the “special prize” that was awarded  to the "AGRIshelter" project: a temporary home for emergency situations built with local resources and natural materials. Its constructive and innovative technology guarantees environmental, economic and social sustainability. A low-cost but quality house to give to people more dignity.
Also thanks to the participation of Fondazione Snam, the competition has awarded a total prize in money of 300 thousand euros. The participation in the competition has also doubled compared to the previous edition; a data that highlights the growth of an interest in new services capable of regenerating the social system of the country.

In 2018 the Foundation followed the winners of Welfare, che impresa! Tripmetoo and Agrishelter, supporting them in the incubation process and accompanying them in the subsequent start-up and consolidation phases of the activities and renewed its participation in the new edition of competition. The new edition, in addition to the promoters of the past editions (Italian Accenture Foundation (FIA), Bracco Foundation, UBI Banca and Snam Foundation) sees the participation of Fondazione Con il Sud, a private non-profit organization born twelve years ago from the alliance of foundations of banking origin and the world of the third sector and volunteering, to promote the development of the South through the promotion of paths of social cohesion.
Participants in the competition will have to present innovative projects, capable of generating social impact.

In December 2017, Snam Foundation and Confagricoltura signed a collaboration protocol for the promotion, development and implementation of social farming projects.
The agreement was born from the common desire to favor the spread of innovative and solidarity practices in the agricultural field that promote the protection and enhancement of the territory and the environment.
With the signing of the agreement, the initiative was launched.
The idea of ​​Tesori is based on the social enhancement of corporate assets, local experiences and skills and on the strengthening of relations with the territory.
In this logic, the initiative provides Snam lands, spread over 8 regions and 18 locations (around 40 hectares), to third sector entities for projects in the agricultural sector that work on inclusion, produce a social impact on local communities and are sustainable, enhancing the aspects of innovation and experimentation.
In 2018 two calls for tenders were opened and made available to local communities, 6 lands (about 11 hectares) adjacent to the Snam plants, spread over the national territory: Ronco All'Adige and Palù (in Veneto), Rimini (in Emilia Romagna ), Camerino and Recanati (in the Marche) and Messina (in Sicily).
The competitions included the awarding of the winning projects with a free ten-year loan for the land, financial support and funding for participation in the online Master in Social Agriculture organized by the University of Tor Vergata, for a representative of the winners.
The prizes are intended to promote and enhance the initiatives as well as to support the third sector operators in strenghtening the network of skills and relationships in the development of activities.
By means of the initiative, projects were identified on 5 of the 6 lands made available. In particular, the projects on Camerino and Ronco all'Adige were selected and detailed assessments are being carried out on the land projects of Rimini and Recanati. The Messina land, on the other hand, was assigned through a direct partnership with the Messina Community Foundation.
The projects range from a variety of areas, from pet therapy and hydroponic agriculture to psychic rehabilitation and school education, to community aggregation and environmental education activities, to composting and community agriculture combined with the implementation of innovative systems irrigation; but they all share a strong social, educational, inclusive, innovative and environmental connotation.

Free Energy is the programme of initiatives, started in April 2018, which Snam Foundation dedicates to all the company's people - employees and collaborators - designed to "free up the energy" of the social activities of individuals. "Connect to build opportunities" is one of Snam's values and thanks to the Snam Foundation project it is possible to give greater strength and wealth to the connections of the social network. The project was organized in 4 thematic areas:

• “Double your contribution”: the Snam Foundation contributed with a donation of the same amount to the organization benefiting from the donation made by the Snam employee;
• "Report a project": the Foundation evaluated the project and supported or included it in its programs;
• "Propose an" idea ": Snam Foundation helped the idea to come true.
• "Report your commitment": Snam Foundation has included the social reality reported in its initiatives.

The initiative was attended by around 70 people with around 100 proposals submitted. In particular:

• 32 as part of "Double your contribution" for which the Foundation has disbursed ~ € 17k;
• 17 on «Propose an idea»;
• 21 on «Report a project»
• 11 reports for «Report your commitment» - some of the organizations reported were involved in the volunteering day.

The Volunteering Day was also organized, during which Snam employees dedicated a working day as volunteers to third sector organizations identified by Snam Foundation.
300 people (more than 10% of the company population) participated to this day, choosing between three types of activities:
• operational: manual work activities
• relational: activities in direct contact with the beneficiaries
• of competence: activity with commitment of the participants to work on a business case / challenge that the organization is facing
Approximately 50 different activities were carried out at 23 non-profit organizations located in around 30 different locations in Italy.