She is a well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist. How important did your family play in your choice to become a patron? Is there a particular person who inspired you?
«A huge weight. My family has always believed in philanthropy. My grandfather Elio Bracco, who founded our company in 1927, already carried in his genetic code of man, citizen and entrepreneur, a very strong sense of social responsibility, which he passionately passed on to his family. Born in Neresine, on the island of Lošinj, now belonging to Croatia, grandfather Elio has always looked after his countrymen, Italian refugees from Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmatia. My father Fulvio Bracco, then, was a pioneer in the field of what is now called corporate social responsibility, starting with the scholarships named after his mother which are somewhat the "ancestors" of our projects for young people. . This is why, like Bracco, we have always developed philanthropic initiatives and I personally had the honor of being the first president of Sodalitas, the foundation that introduced CSR in Italy and which represents a bridge between companies and the non-profit world in Italy".
How was your passion for music born?
«I have always had a very strong bond with music. In my family, music has always been “at home”, frequenting the Scala a habit since my youth: I still remember with deep emotion the evenings at the Opera with my parents and my sisters. From a young age I understood that music, by virtue of its cultural and social value, has an incredible ethical and educational value, and that the more you learn to listen to it, the more you love it. Taste is refined and educated with listening and habit. For this reason it is necessary to offer young people the keys to be able to know and appreciate music, and art in general. This family passion has translated into the many initiatives in the musical field of Bracco before and now of the Bracco Foundation: from support for the first symphonic and chamber concerts to publications dedicated to performers, from scholarships for young musicians to many opera evenings, from exhibitions, including the one dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi on the centenary of his death in 2001, to the great tours of the La Scala Philharmonic in Canada and the United States in 2007, in Asia in 2008 and the concert at Expo 2010 in Shanghai . Since 2011 the Bracco Foundation has then forged a special bond with the Accademia della Scala which today represents a unicum in the panorama of higher education in Europe.
The latest initiative dedicated to music, “I cantieri del Suono”, is of the highest cultural and scientific value: we supported the Municipality of Cremona and the Violin Museum in the restoration of Lorenzo Storioni's 1793 Piccolo violin. A true alliance of public and private partners, each bearer of specific skills: from the purchase of the instrument to the very interesting non-invasive diagnostic campaign, by the Arvedi Laboratory of the University of Pavia for the study of the materials and technical construction characteristics of the violin. Today this unique piece, thanks to the intervention of the Bracco Foundation, has fully entered the collections kept by this splendid Violin Museum and in the collective memory ».
What prompted you to set up the Bracco Foundation? Was there a particular event?
«The birth of the Bracco Foundation in 2010 crowned the philanthropic commitment of the family and the Group. For some time I had been thinking of creating a tool to pass on our values to future generations of employees and beyond.
Science, culture and society are the three macro-areas that the Foundation deals with, combining knowledge, disciplines, perspectives. Bracco Foundation, with a strongly international connotation, aims to train and disseminate expressions of culture, science and art as means for improving the quality of life and social cohesion. In this context, it promotes the enhancement of the national cultural, historical and artistic heritage, develops environmental sensitivity, supports scientific research and the protection of health, promotes the education, instruction and professional training of young people, develops initiatives of a assistance and solidarity to contribute to the well-being of the community ».
You are an advocate of strategic philanthropy, how does the Bracco Foundation live this challenge?
«From the very beginning we conceived our Foundation as a project partner of organizations and institutions to jointly carry out initiatives on topics of common interest. We are not and have never wanted to be a mere supply body.
From a "methodological" point of view, today it is essential to equip oneself with management tools capable of predicting the evaluation of the performance results and impact of projects, calibrating resources more accurately and constantly over time. In a word, we need to move to a more “strategic” philanthropy. Strategic philanthropy is not yet a widespread practice, but it is essential to manage the growing complexity of the world. A philanthropy guided by a “day-to-day vision”, and not by the concept of future sustainability, risks being ineffective and having an impact on the social reality that is inadequate with respect to the resources invested. In this regard, the Bracco Foundation and the Sodalitas Foundation, in collaboration with Paths of second welfare, have recently published a research that has mapped the business foundations present in Italy, taking an updated photograph of a very dynamic sector that always plays a role in the social sector. more important in support of public intervention. The last survey carried out in Italy on the world of corporate foundations dates back to 2009, and since then a lot has changed: in these ten years, business foundations have grown in number, centrality in the strategy of the founding company, awareness of their role, innovative capacity, effectiveness in contributing in a widespread way to the quality of life of people and to the well-being of communities. Faced with an inevitable downsizing of public welfare, in fact, private foundations have been able to become an important actor of the so-called second welfare, in practice, all those social policies developed with the contribution of private individuals ".
Will tomorrow's patronage still support individual projects or will it address issues in a structural way and start collaborative partnerships in a system logic that involves all stakeholders towards long-term sustainability?
«Never as today," networking "is the only possibility to really put yourself at the service of others, in a far-sighted and entrepreneurially sustainable way. There is no government, university, non-profit organization, foundation, business that can individually solve the increasingly heterogeneous and urgent problems affecting society. If it is true that unity is strength, it is necessary that all actors - public and private, academia and industry, for profit and non-profit - pool their tools and skills to experiment and identify solid solutions that last over time and can be of inspiration and help to others, in order to multiply the impacts. For this reason, one of the most important objectives of the philanthropic system - which is also discussed within the European Union - is to focus on a common effort and facilitate alliances of a strategic dimension. There are too many small foundations that often find themselves failing to achieve their objectives because serious planning is lacking which obviously also affects the economic sphere, compromising the indispensable continuity of means and resources to be able to move forward. The strategic approach allows for dialogue in an increasingly integrated system, even with larger public-private partnerships ».
What do you expect from the musical institutions you have been funding for years?
«The harmony with the mission of the Academy, which transmits knowledge from generation to generation, is getting stronger. This is an example of strategic and systematic philanthropy. Every year the students of La Scala experience the extraordinary opportunity to experience the skills acquired on the most prestigious stage in the world, guided by professionals who accompany them in an activity that is not only educational, but also productive, an activity to which the more and more frequent collaborations with authoritative organizations, in Italy and abroad. With them we have already conceived and implemented many initiatives, including exhibitions with set designers, stage photographers and theatrical tailors, concerts with the Orchestra and with the soloists of the Singing Academy in Italy and abroad and a training activity on principles of a healthy and complete diet created together with the CDI and addressed to the students of the Ballet School.
In the future we will continue to support Accademia, in its different and varied meanings declined on music, dance, stage, in a multi-year wide-ranging project, in Milan, in Italy and in the world. This choice of investing in the new generations in an institution of excellence like the Academy is an integral part of our commitment to young people. A commitment contained in our ProgettoDiventerò, a multi-year initiative launched 3 years ago with the aim of accompanying young people in their professional path and offering young talents concrete opportunities for training and work through an articulated program of internships and scholarships " .
We are talking about the rights of founders and patrons: in Switzerland the discussion is raging about how much influence the founder can and should exercise on the foundation he set up. What do you think?
"I am not surprised, given that Switzerland, on the other hand, is the benchmark country for the world of foundations: more than 13 foundations group assets of almost 100 billion francs, of which 2 billion francs are distributed every year (CEPS Basel). 30% of foundations indicate culture and art among their fields of activity. It seems to me that in Switzerland, but almost everywhere, some new trends in contemporary patronage are manifesting: there is more and more talk of partnerships, of working together, no more of mere disbursement of money; and foundations seek to acquire skills so that philanthropic projects generate value not only for the beneficiaries, but also for the community. As far as the rights of founders are concerned, states can certainly do a lot, as the experience of the United States teaches. But rights are not everything: I am convinced that generosity makes us happy ».
