Italy
Italy passed a law in 2005 on impresa sociali, to which the government has given form and definition by Legislative Decree, 24 March 2006, no. 155 Under Italian law a social enterprise is a private entity that provides social utility goods and services, acting for the common interest and not for profit. The first general aspect that has to be highlighted is that a social enterprise is neither a new legal form, nor a new type of organization, but a legal category in which all eligible organizations may be included, regardless of their internal organizational structure. Therefore, the eligible organizations could in theory be cooperatives (i.e. employee-, producer-, or customer-owned firms), investor-owned firms (i.e. business corporations), or traditional nonprofit organizations (i.e. associations and foundations). This is the so-called principle of “neutrality of the legal forms” adopted by the Italian law. Hence, social enterprise is like a legal “brand” that all eligible organizations can obtain and use in the marketplace. The requirements are: - being a private organization; - performing an entrepreneurial activity of production of social utility goods and services (The Law prescribes that this must be the main activity, that is, it has to account for at least 70% of the total income of the organization); - acting for the common interest and not for profit. In order to be defined as a social enterprise, an organization needs to simultaneously possess all these attributes. In an effort to develop social enterprises and meas
re social impact, the Italian governmental work placement agency - Italia Lavoro - has developed a method to calculate the social efficiency of their project, from an economic point of view. For example, they measure the economic value to the society of providing a job to a disabled person. Since 1997, Italia Lavoro provides work placements to people with mental, social, physical or health disadvantages. To this aim, they help people who have fallen out of the general work system to reintegrate society through the creation of small and medium non-profit enterprises.[21] Also intended to generate more social enterprises is the non-profit cooperative Make a Change. Make a Change provides financial, operational and management support to social start-ups. In 2010 they organized the first edition of a contest to elect the "Social entrepreneur of the year", as well as another contest entitled "The World's Most Beautiful Job". This year winner of the former was the social cooperative "Cauto", which manages the whole trash life-cycle in the Province of Brescia. Cauto's workforce has 1/3 disabled and disadvantaged individuals. Winner of the "World's Most Beautiful Job" prize was the project "Tavern of the Good and Bad" by the group Domus de luna from Cagliari. The tavern employs mums and children recently graduated from rehabilitation programs. The prize consisted of a grant of 30.000 euro and 12 months of professional consulting and support. The prize-giving ceremony was included in the program of the Global Entrepreneurship Week.