The warm heart of banks

In 1990, banking foundations were created in Italy, through the implementation of the Amato-Carli law, which aimed to separate the banking and the socially responsible activities of Saving Banks. Banking foundations (BFs) are corporate foundations representing the philanthropic part of banks. Their legislative and historical background has made them a specific case of corporate foundations both in terms of their relationship with the parental banks and the activities performed. They are economically, managerially and operationally independent from the respective banks and they perform two main activities: the collection of artworks and the investment in philanthropic activities. The implementation of these activities and the strong ties they have with the territory make them key organisations in the Italian socio-economic context. In that respect, they may influence the cultural and economic development of the local area in which they have their headquarters, supporting the state in areas of market failure, such as investments in education, research and arts. The aim of this thesis is to identify the determinants of the two main social activities of banking foundations, i.e., the collection of artworks and investments in philanthropic donations. To do so, the literature on Corporate Social Responsibility will be investigated as it represents the closest and broader literature that can be applied, particularly focusing on corporate philanthropy. Organisational and contextual variables will be analysed. However, since the contextual variables analysed for corporations are unsuitable for the context of the banking foundations because they are tailored to analyse the context of profit-oriented companies, the characteristics of the community will be considered, analysing different types of capital. The variables will be studied by constructing two models, one for each of the activities conducted by banking foundations, and applying a robust regression method. Data were manually collected from the foundations' website, ACRI’s website and ISTAT, and a panel was constructed considering the period from 2015 to 2021. The results of the research highlight that BFs’ activities are influenced by both organisational and contextual factors, such as the size of BFs, the presence of a mission statement and the artistic supply of the region.