Non-profit

Fondazione Carige: 'We will involve private individuals and companies in the projects'

The Genoese institution, which has been restructured, will disburse EUR 4 million this year. President Cuocolo: 'Today we have assets between 150 and 200 million'

by Raoul de Forcade

14 March 2026

Palazzo Doria Carcassi, sede di Fondazione Carige

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Involving private individuals and companies, mainly from Liguria but also from Milan, who are willing to co-finance Fondazione Carige projects, with the aim of multiplying the impact of disbursements. This is one of the initiatives that Lorenzo Cuocolo, the president of the Ligurian banking institution, is launching, after having raised to EUR 4 million - the highest sum in the foundation's post-crisis years - the amount of allocations for 2026.

To put the issue in context, it is worth recalling that, over the last decade, Fondazione Carige has gone through a profound transformation phase, moving from a situation of severe financial difficulty to a progressive reconstruction of its capacity to intervene in the territory. The institution's story is also linked to that of Banca Carige and its vicissitudes, up to the sale of the credit institution to Bper. In its heyday, the institution came to have assets of over one billion euro, with disbursements of around 15 million a year. Then the fall and the risk, even, of receivership in 2015.

Rehabilitated entity

A situation, in the end, averted by the leadership of Paolo Momigliano who, not without effort, from negative assets of over 120 million brought the institution back on track. "Momigliano," Cuocolo confirms, "completed the task of rehabilitating the foundation, but, of course, during the years of his mandate, disbursements had been greatly reduced, at times even reduced to zero. I arrived in June 2024, after the end of his term of office, and found a completely restored system, with the accounts in order; so we started disbursements again'.

When the new leadership arrived, Cuocolo explains, 'the foundation was disbursing 1.75 million; now, in 2026, we total 4 million in direct disbursements (it was 3.5 in 2025, ndr). Then we have a series of other interventions that are, in any case, disbursements: all of our real estate, for example, we make available free of charge to third sector entities and associations, such as the Sant'Egidio community or others; so, in fact, these are additional disbursements'.

Today the foundation can count on prudential assets 'between 150 and 200 million euro', emphasises Cuocolo, invested mainly in financial instruments and, in part, in real estate consisting of buildings and flats granted, as mentioned, on free loan. 'We have,' the chairman specifies, 'a very important share of Cdp and Banca d'Italia shares, therefore from institutional investors, and then investments similar to those that a normal saver might make: shares, bonds, funds and so on. And we have always had very good, double-digit returns'. Compared to the assets, the real estate part is worth around EUR 40 million.

"Objective: deliver the maximum"

'Compared to the old-style foundation, which had one billion in assets and, in its golden years, disbursed 15-16 million,' Cuocolo explains, 'we disburse four times less. But we also have 10 times fewer assets. And, in fact, according to the tables of Acri, our reference association, we are one of the foundations that disburses the most, in proportion to assets'.

The line, he adds, 'is to disburse everything we can, without keeping hidden treasuries, without allowing the foundation to be used a thousand euros at a time: most projects are our own initiative, we don't wait for association X or Y to come to us and ask for a contribution, but we develop the larger projects ourselves, perhaps together with some important stakeholders such as the municipality, the region, the chamber of commerce, and so on. Of course, we also continue to screen the requests that come to us, but since resources are few in any case, we try to concentrate them on the most valuable projects, without pulverising the interventions'.

Attention to the territory with an eye on Milan

As for new projects, Cuocolo explains, 'in recent weeks we have set up an informal grouping of Friends of the Foundation. This means that we are asking companies in the area to make themselves available to double or, in any case, add what they think to our grant investments. For example, if we want to support a project and we put in 50,000 euros, it may be that company X will put in, in turn, 30, 20 or 10, so as to multiply the resources. So we count on our 4 million becoming more, I cannot say how much, but hopefully many more. I believe that private individuals may have an interest in doing this because, in addition to gaining visibility, they also have the opportunity to include these operations in the various sustainability budgets. We, on the other hand, are clearly doing it for purely charitable purposes'.

But Cuocolo's gaze is also extending to Milan, a city where he has lived for many years, although he is from Genoa. "On the one hand,' he says, 'we are strengthening relations, in particular with Fondazione Cariplo, which, all things considered, have been somewhat neglected in the past, because Genoa has a privileged axis with Turin, hence with Compagnia di San Paolo. But, above all, we have the idea of involving private entrepreneurs from Lombardy who want to develop some kind of business in Liguria. To these we would like to say: come and do business here and, while you are at it, let's also, together, do an initiative in favour of the local community; we are ready to act as partners for this type of project'.

Raoul de Forcaderedattore
Luogo: Genova
Lingue parlate: italiano, inglese
Argomenti: shipping, nautica, economia, finanza.
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