Social

Third sector, more registrations in the national register

126,000 organisations registered by April, with an army of 2.5 million volunteers

by Vera Viola

1 June 2024

3' min read

Key points

With 55,000 workers
More in the South
Hard to fund and find volunteers and expertise

3' min read

A total of 126 thousand third sector organisations were registered with RUNTS (National Register of the Third Sector) at the end of April. And in the first four months of the year alone, 6 thousand registrations were added. The register, which was recently set up, succeeds in attracting businesses: a sample survey carried out on the 25,000 organisations not transmigrated from other registers, which were set up in the last two years, shows that 'registering is worthwhile: it opens up economic opportunities, starting with access to the 5x1000, improves relations with the PA and allows greater access to funds,' according to the survey by the RUNTS Observatory, promoted by the Ministry of Labour and Unioncamere on the basis of an Institutional Agreement. The Single Register of the Third Sector was set up in 2021 by the Ministry of Labour with the technical support of InfoCamere, the IT company of the Chamber system, while the Observatory's analyses are carried out by the Guglielmo Tagliacarne Study Centre of the Chambers of Commerce.

As of 31 December 2023, the 120,000 entities registered in RUNTS are overwhelmingly social promotion associations (over 52,000, or 43.7%), voluntary organisations (around 37,000, or 30.7%) and social enterprises (almost 24,000, or 19.9%). Altogether, therefore, these three types of third sector organisations account for 94.3% of the total number of registered organisations. The shares relating to other third sector organisations are lower (5.4%) and those referring to other entities are residual.

With 55 thousand workers

The Register shows that there are more than 2.5 million volunteers working in organisations, most of them working in ODV (voluntary organisations. 65.5%, corresponding to almost 1.7 million units) and in APS (social promotion associations. 23.9%, over 600 thousand units). In addition to these, there are almost 55,000 workers, 43.3% of whom are concentrated in the ODVs, 27.5% in the APSs and 26.4% in the Other organisations, while in social enterprises there are an estimated 470,000 workers.

More in the South

The concentration of Third Sector organisations is highest in the South (31.6%), followed by the North-West (23.3%), the Centre (23.2%) and the North-East (21.9%), but data in relation to resident population show a more significant relative presence in Eastern Italy (237.6 ETS per 100,000 inhabitants) and Central Italy (227.6), with the South following (190) and finally the North-West (176.4).

Bolzano, the first province by density

The first three positions are occupied by Bolzano (433.6 authorities per 100,000 inhabitants), Rieti (362.9), and Trento (350.6), followed by Florence, Terni, and Biella (with values between 309.5 and 301 authorities per 100,000 inhabitants). Only one southern province is present in the top ten: Isernia, with 295.3 entities per 100 thousand inhabitants.

More than a quarter of the organisations operate in Recreational and Socialising Activities (26.5%). Other particularly representative areas are: Social assistance and civil protection (23.2%); Cultural and artistic activities (19.8%) and Health (13.1%).

With regard to social enterprises, the main sectors of operation are Social Assistance and Civil Protection (48.7 per cent), Economic Development and Social Cohesion (30.7 per cent) and Education and Research (10.1 per cent).

The 5x1000 represents an extraordinary funding opportunity for the Third Sector: 40.4% of ETSs (net of social enterprises) declared to be accredited to the 5x1000, mainly Philanthropic Bodies (73.3%), Associative Networks (71.4%), other Third Sector Bodies (61.0%) and ODVs (48.3%).

Hard to finance and find volunteers and expertise

A sample analysis of 25,000 ETS not registered in the pre-existing registers (plus some newly registered social enterprises) shows that for these operators, financial and fundraising problems are fundamental (45.8% of those interviewed reported this), with self-financing becoming the main choice for 63.6%. Finding volunteers is also a sore point (34.7%, but it becomes 57.1% for ODVs), followed by the complexity of bureaucratic requirements (34.4% of the total reported this).

Then there is the issue of the skills needed today to ensure continuity of projects. For far more than half of the ETSs (58.5%), it is crucial to develop design skills, especially for accessing public tenders and raising funds. In second place are skills for communication and social media management (37.9%). This is followed by technical-operational skills (32.4%) and relational skills (27.3%).