In a marked world for the uncertainty and the global crises, where social, economic and environmental challenges are intertwined in a complex challenges network, the role of the philanthropy charges special relevance to finance and promote projects that they generate a positive impact in the company. The collaboration and the international cooperation are raised as powerful tools to build a fairer and equitable future where individuals and communities se empoderen to face challenges of the present and the future. Spain is placed at the top 10 of countries in number of foundations, with more than 10,500 active according to the AEF, and in third position for invested resources, with more than 9,400 million euros, according to the study The Overall Philanthropy Report: Perspectives on the overall foundation sector, elaborated by the Harvard University.
Before this context, find various government institutions, as well as associations and private organisations that embrace the philanthropy as all-inclusive part of its corporate culture. One of the sectors that has assumed a change leading role as lever via philanthropic stock has been the financial sector.
Low this premise, institutions of major significance in the banking industry assume, for years, the commitment of being active element of this change. One of them is the Worldwide Savings Banks Institute and Retail Banks (WSBI, by its initials in English), founded one hundred years ago. The companies associated with the WSBI, including CECA (association that represents to CaixaBank, Kutxabank and Cajasur Bank, ABANCA, Unicaja, Ibercaja Bank, Caixa Ontinyent, Colonya Pollença, Cecabank and to more than thirty foundations), allocate annually 3,500 million dollars to social initiatives all around the world. However, its international philanthropy conception goes beyond the transfer of financial resources. From a holistic perspective, the institution recognises the need of assuming an overall and unified commitment to reply to the challenges of the company. This commitment supports the principles of the WSBI - known as the model of the 3Rs, responsible (people in charge), retail (retailers) and rooted (taken root in the territories in which act) -, that have guided historically to the companies of the WSBI. In parallel, the institution promotes the synergistic gains, the dialogue, the collaboration and the exchange of knowledge with the aim of tackling the overall challenges with flexible and adaptable solutions to the reality of each territory.
Finance the actual economy via the culture of the social responsibility
One of the last measures of the WSBI with regard to philanthropy, has been the constitution of the Social Board and Philanthropic (SPC, by its initials in English), initiative chaired by Isidro Fainé, chairman of the WSBI, of CECA and Fundación «la Caixa », and Prize Forbes to the Philanthropy in 2018, that establishes a road map for its partner institutions aimed at its commitment with the social investment and the philanthropy.
Created in December 2023 in Marrakech, its intention is be innovative solution catalyst to promote the social change from the prism of the ingrained principles in the DNA of the banking of saving and retailer: the social investment and the contributions to philanthropic projects.
From a privileged position, and supported by a global network of financial institutions that they operate under the umbrella of the WSBI, the SPC offers a space of experiences exchange and good work experience programs in Obra Social, and channels the financing and the necessary support to implement philanthropic projects that not only they tackle the immediate needs, as the social and economic breach or the access to education services, but instead that also feel the bases for a sustainable growth and equitable long-term.
The work of this Board covers six key areas, established in the issued Bangkok declaration during its first meeting on 19 April: support to the young, reduction of the poverty, educational advance, empoderamiento of the women, attention to the environmental older people and sustainability.
The Obra Social of the sector CECA, a philanthropic only model
In this overall frame, the Obra Social of the sector CECA emphasises as an exemplary model of philanthropy. Situating at the top of the private social investment in Spain, the Obra Social is had become a fundamental pillar for the promotion of the well-being, financing projects in key areas as the education, the culture, the research, the employment and the enterprise or the social action.
With the mission of contributing to the development of a good banking for the clients and a good banking for the company, from 2014, the associated companies have invested more than 7,800 million euros, set aside for 930,000 activities that they have reached to more than 31 million payees a year. The skills of the sector's companies CECA to adapt to the changing needs of the Spanish society and its approach in the sustainability and the long-term impact turns them in a referring to follow.
