Our Foundation was born from the need to create a synergy between culture, solidarity and business. What better way to introduce this initiative than through the words of its creator and founder, Senator Mario Baccini.

Culture is a vector of ideas and values; it stimulates dialogue and cooperation between individuals and cultures, it promotes an awareness of the world and cosmopolitanism. Cultural promotion abroad lays the foundations for credibility and reliability, it leads to the creation of channels essential for political and economic cooperation, allowing for long-term friendships and partnerships to be built, directly serving the general interests of the nation. Italy, thanks to the extraordinary richness of both its culture and history, undoubtedly occupies a position of primacy in this respect, as compared to other countries around the world, a true and proper capital representing, on the one hand, the fundamental cultural identity of the nation and, on the other, recognizing the high-profile position occupied by Italy on the international stage.

Raising awareness, amongst an increasingly wide audience, of the wealth and fertility of this cultural heritage, both past and present, contributes to the ethical and civil growth of the collective. Cultural promotion abroad lays the foundations for credibility and reliability, it leads to the creation of channels essential for political and economic cooperation, allowing for long-term friendships and partnerships to be built, directly serving the general interests of the nation.

The promotion of cultural heritage can also, potentially, contribute to developments in terms of both the economy and employment, insomuch as it may offer substantial employment possibilities in addition to providing a great source of enjoyment, especially for young people. It is not without reason that, today, this aspect of culture and cultural heritage tends to be fostered, elements constituting real “capital”, an instrument capable of fostering the growth of the national-system also from a purely economic perspective. Considerations such as these compelled me, in 2003, to constitute a cultural foundation, with offices in Rome and New York, which in some way would differentiate itself from all the others flourishing in our country.

To all intents and purposes, transforming the Italian spirit from one marked out by mere likeableness into one guaranteeing reliability, rendering the Italian model an exemplar of quality of life: this is the underlying thread running through every proposal or concrete action which the Foundation intends to implement, both within Italy and abroad. I had no difficulty in persuading a number of entrepreneurs and friends to embrace this cause and become my fellow companions along this exciting path of adventure. Their sensitivity and intelligence lay at the very basis of my creating Foedus, and one of the Foundation's ambitions is that of optimizing exchanges between the worlds of culture and business, in the knowledge that such an exchange would allow benefits to be reaped on both sides: for business, and likewise also for the individual and society as a whole, culture represents unquestionable added value.

Culture, on the other hand, may benefit from the economic contribution business can supply, but also from the wealth of experience and know-how, methods and creativity of the business world; entrepreneurs can benefit from culture through the enrichment the latter has always bestowed on each and every individual, from the recurrence of image which every successful cultural endeavour provides to whoever is involved in such endeavour. The true raison d'être of the Foundation is, however, solidarity. Not in the sense of the outcome of individual ethical inspiration or an impulse in which pity lies alongside sensibility, but solidarity in the sense of a concrete, political instrument to be used by all governments; not one formulated on the spur of the moment, incited only by a Christian sense of charity, but rather a gesture which is pragmatic, useful and at times fundamental to the betterment of our society.

If it is true that the present is indebted to the “past”, it is equally true that it is responsible for the “future”. Solidarity, the third, but by no means least important, avowed component of the Foedus Foundation, is born from my deeply-rooted conviction that a joint approach with society in combating the numerous problems present within contemporary society can give rise to excellent outcomes, there where other interventions might fail; it is born from my conviction that solidarity, for the most needy and the weakest, is not merely an obligation to be honoured by every Catholic but also, and all the more so today, a duty for every individual wishing to engage in civilized life. We need to seek out new rules of behaviour which might allow society to grow in an “organic” fashion, balanced and serene: in the words of Don Luigi Sturzo, “Economy without ethics is diseconomy, it cannot work”. Investing in society, like investing in art - as a form of social responsibility - implies distinct “ethical-moral” grounds. Foedus sets out to develop such forms of investment so as to contribute to the balanced development of the whole of society.

Mario Baccini, President