The foundation that coordinates and orientates the activities of Etimos network in Italy and in the world. It acts as a social investor and incubator of innovative projects and companies.

Born in 1999, in 2009 Etimos Foundation became a participatory foundation: an organisation open to membership by anyone who shares its principles and objectives. It currently has over 300 member organisations in Italy and worldwide, which qualify the foundation as a true international body. Etimos Foundation believes that economy and finance can be instruments for sustainable development. This idea generates a dual challenge: at the international level, in response to the great theme of the fight against poverty and the Millennium Development Goals; and in the Italian context, in relation to the problems of the economic crisis, unemployment, and lack of innovation.

Since 2013 Etimos Foundation has been part of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), which promotes the dissemination of impact investing globally, and has joined the Global Compact, a United Nations initiative that brings together and engages businesses and organizations around 10 universally accepted principles concerning human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption.

An international cooperative consortium that includes more than 260 member organisations. It was among the first, in Italy and in the world, to explore the use of microcredit in developing countries. Over the years it has expanded its activities in support of cooperatives of small rural producers and social enterprises, into Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Etimos Consortium has always been a meeting point for responsible investors, to whom it offers investment opportunities characterised by a twofold return, both economic and social, and organisations in developing countries, to whom it provides capital in the form of loans and equity.

In recent years, the Consortium operates primarily as promoter and advisor for specialised - thematic or regional - investment funds, such as Etimos Fund, Fefisol, Plasepri and Aveti.

Microcredito per l’Italia is a social enterprise formally acknowledged by the Bank of Italy as a financial intermediary. It specialises in microcredit, micro enterprise support, inclusion and financial education projects. Its goal is to provide access to credit to those in need of a loan but it excluded or rejected by traditional banking channels.
Support is aimed in particular at:

• small and micro enterprises, professional activities and forms of self-employment (already launched or under development) that show promise of sustainability and the ability to repay the loan received in a timely manner
• social enterprises, cooperatives and third sector organizations
• families and individuals having difficulty with the payment of small expenses related to basic needs, such as housing, health or education.

Founded in late 2011, on the initiative of Etimos Foundation, Microcredito per l’Italia has granted more than 1200 loans, for a total figure of over 28 million euros, and has paid particular attention to small and micro enterprises (more than 800 funding instances) and fragile categories, 38% being women-owned, 22% with an owner under 35, and 27% being startups.