The refusal by the Bambin Gesù hospital, a private hospital owned by the Holy See, a foreign state, of a donation of billion and a half euros by Leonardo for the purchase of a Pet, dating back as reported by Republic to last December, is an opportunity for a broader reflection on donations and their sources. In this case, behind the refusal of the gift there would be the need to “avoid embarrassing the Holy See precisely in this period in which the world is grappling with bloody wars that the Pontiff denounces every day”.
Leonardo is an Italian public company operating in the defense, aerospace and security sectors. In this case, the decision would be dictated by reasons of expediency and would convey a positioning message.
Who, like the Child Jesus, takes care of children, but without donations he would not be able to act is one charity as the Telethon Foundation. We talked about it with Francesca Pasinelli general director of the Telethon Foundation, who immediately makes it clear «from Leonardo we receive, and this is the fifth consecutive year, 40 thousand euros a year for a scholarship intended for a young researcher as part of the international research doctorate course in molecular medicine at the San Raffaele University of Milan.
The study is aimed at developing advanced therapies for rare genetic diseases. We never thought of refusing this donation, Leonardo is a strategic company for our country which repudiates war, with strong investments in research and development and, in any case, appears in the United Nations Global Compact list with a good rating of sustainability” [Lista di aziende valutate per l’impegno nella promozione dei Dieci Principi del Global Compact e il contributo al raggiungimento dei Sustainable Development Goals dell’Onu].
Research thanks to donations
Telethon Foundation lives on the donations of individual citizens and on the donations of what it calls “partner companies”, precisely because of the long-lasting relationship that binds it to them, the list of which is available on the Foundation’s website. «We have different types of partnerships and the relationship with the industry is fundamental. All the money we receive unconditionally comes from individuals and companies who, in their corporate social responsibility operations, decide to contribute to research on rare genetic diseases” explains Pasinelli. «We are very grateful to them because they contributed a lot. The guarantee of continuity that they guarantee us and on which we can count makes the difference because it allows us to have a strategy, to plan activities and not run the risk of wasting investments already made, as would happen if we could only rely on occasional donations” explains Francesca Pasinelli. «Research takes a long time, it cannot be improvised. Allocating your donation to a different organization every year, despite being a legitimate choice, removes responsibility with respect to adhering to a result for which commitment and continuity are needed”.
The 2022 social budget: 61 million from companies and individuals
As stated in the 2022 Social Report, «Private supporters and partner companies contribute to biomedical research projects with their donations, always with a predominant weight of private supporters. In 2022, individuals and companies donated a total of 61 million euros, 80.7% of the Foundation’s total proceeds.”
Don’t think that attention and control are lacking. In the past, the Telethon Foundation has refused donations: «We do not accept funding from those who produce weapons, ammunition and anti-personnel mines or from those who work in pornography. Other cases have not occurred.” The final message remains the most important: «The continuous donations of our partner companies are very precious, think of the BNP Paribas group which has been with us since 1992, and we were born in 1990, and has accompanied us all these years. The donations from all of them are invaluable, instrumental to our success. We make good use of it with detailed reporting.” And the goals, or rather the records, of Telethon cannot be said to have been missed in 2023 and others will be achieved in 2024.
In the opening photo, by Danilo Balducci for Sintesi, DNA sampling in the Tigem laboratories of Telethon in Pozzuoli (Na).