The Philanthropy Tree of Community Foundations from Ancient to Contemporary Times. Roots and Branches of US and Italian Foundations

Abstract

Democracy, theatre and khoregia are key-words of classical Athens, where performing arts were combining creativity with the efficient management and matching grants of private sponsors, who were communities. From ancient to contemporary times, community foundations play the same role of khoregia for the survival of big and small communities in different geographies, from US to Italy. Community foundations are grant-makers whose aim is to engage citizens and communities, develop and improve their quality of life. Their fundraising has roots in relationships within relevant territories and communities. Their fund-giving has branches in any leading projects for their communities. They supply resources, and, above all, they support the creation of networks that put together main stakeholders in a specific territory with the classical benchmark of khoregia. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of khoregia in ancient times and community foundations in contemporary times, both of them supporting development and, foremost, culture: from education to heritage. The methodology includes the analysis of mission statements and reports, and a cluster analysis of 2013’s accounting data of the biggest USA and Italian community foundations. Thanks to cluster analysis, economic performances are highlighted together with fundraising and fund-giving. The result consists of the comparison between USA and Italian foundations for different performances and focus on culture.