Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell'Amore

Fondazione Social Venture Giordano Dell'Amore is a Milan-based Italian foundation created in 2017 to promote impact investing culture and facilitate social innovation in Italy. The institution was formed through the consolidation of two historic non-profit organizations established by Fondazione Cariplo: Fondazione Giordano Dell'Amore and Fondazione Opere Sociali. Operating with a capital endowment of approximately 8.5 million euros, the foundation follows a social venture capital approach in the impact-first segment, providing patient capital to third-sector organizations and social enterprises engaged in measurable social and environmental impact. The foundation has deployed a total of 10.2 million euros across 48 investees, covering sectors including financial inclusion, cultural heritage preservation, food waste reduction, and job inclusion. A flagship initiative is GDA Invest, promoted jointly with Fondazione Cariplo, which has made more than 60 million euros available to support Italian social entrepreneurship. Investment sizes typically range from 100,000 to 500,000 euros at pre-seed and seed stages, directed primarily at Italian enterprises and organizations. The foundation's mandate explicitly focuses on additionality: it deploys capital where institutional investors typically do not reach, whether due to economic sector, geography, or lifecycle stage. The objective is to enable social enterprises to grow to a level where they can attract additional mainstream financial resources. This patient, mission-first approach fills a gap in the Italian social economy, providing the earliest institutional support to organizations whose impact goals may precede their commercial viability.