Leave Your Mark: the fourth edition in support of the non-profit world has been launched

The fourth edition of the "Leave Your Mark" initiative, organised by POLIMI Graduate School of Management in collaboration with the Gianluca Spina Association, was launched in June 2024. 

What is the objective of Leave Your Mark?

As in previous editions, the objective is to enable managers, professionals and young talents trained at our School to offer their skills free of charge to non-profit institutions committed to building a more inclusive society and a better future for all. 
This initiative is an opportunity for personal and professional growth for participants, as well as a way to give back to the community some of what they have received during their learning journey.

Leave Your Mark: how does it work?

It is an initiative that combines our Business School’s purpose, “to shape a better future for all,” with the desire to create a more sustainable future, contributing to having a positive impact on society and encouraging collaboration with institutions that can benefit from the experience and knowledge of our alumni and our faculty. 

Until November 2024, a group of 38 alumni      will provide pro-bono advice to 10 local and international non-profit organisations on 15 projects related to topics such as business analysis & development, fundraising and management systems.

Here is the list of the 38 alumni: Andrea Biancini, Angela CEA, Claudia Atripaldi, Claudio Paliotta, Daniela Gomez, Daniela Tonoli, Davide Sampietro, Domenico Sciacovelli, Elena Innocenzi, Fatima Patricia Amores, Filippo Guidera, Francesco Iarlori, Gianluca Fusar Poli, Giovanni Berlingieri, Girolamo Curinga, Giulia Vigna, Giulia Zucchetti, Giuseppe Zangari, Isabel Alejandra Armas Vergel, Karla Andrea Ossa Vasquez, Luca Trevisan, Luigi Alessandro Dimichino, Luigi Binelli, Marco Andolfi, Marco Ferrari, Margherita Bocchietti, Massimiliano Benci, Paola Pillon, Paolo Maresca, Roberto Ponziano Camagni, Roberto Raglione, Sabrine El Moutaouakkil, Selvaggia Fagioli, Simonetta Santinello, Valeria Sava, Veronica Mattei, Ylenia Rebecca Cavallo, and Dario Incorvaia.

The alumni will be supported by 10 tutors (PhD candidates, lecturers and School staff, Tommaso Tropeano, Stefano Arici, Enrico Bellazzecca, Giorgia Trasciani, Franco Ferrario, Deborah Agostino, Leonardo Boni, Danny Casprini, Davide Chiaroni, Alessandro Polidori) and 9 supervisors (part of the  POLIMI GSoM staff, Manuela Maffina, Diana Vigilante, Martina Salvi, Simona Valdani, Beatrice Maddalena, Luca Nitto, Benedetta Tortorelli, Valentina Armini, and Erika Benedetti).     

Organisations supported by Leave Your Mark

In recent years, Leave Your Mark has already supported several non-profit associations, bringing a positive impact. Here is the list of organisations supported this year:    

Friends of Emmaus Association – is a non-profit organisation founded in Italy in 2022 with the mission of reorganising and supporting the activities of the EMMAUS NGO based in Ukraine and founded in Kharkiv in 2011 with the aim of promoting the autonomy of orphans and young people with disabilities. The Association’s mission is to reorganise the activities of EMMAUS, to support the stay of young Ukrainians who have taken refuge in Italy since 2022 and to help them find their purpose. The alumni team involved will support the association on two projects, one linked to the association’s business development with a focus on fundraising as well as anpe analysis of the regional public-private context and the development of a model of partnership and dialogue with social and institutional fabric and/or with companies at local and regional level.

Banco Alimentare - Food Bank – this is an organisation committed to saving food so that it is not wasted, building relationships with agri-food supply chain and institutional players. Throughout Italy there are 7,636 Territorial Partner Organisations affiliated with Banco Alimentare that offer food aid to 1,786,423 people in difficulty. In 2023, Banco Alimentare distributed almost 118,000 tons of food, partly saved from waste, partly donated and partly derived from national and European food aid programmes for the free distribution of food to the needy. The alumni team involved will support the organisation in a project to structure a functional control and management system in order to improve its food collection and distribution activities for social solidarity.

Liberi Dentro - Free Inside – this is a non-profit organisation, already supported during the 2023 edition of Leave Your Mark, dedicated to helping inmates in their rehabilitation process by offering vocational education and certification programmes. The alumni team involved will support the association on two projects, one to create an editorial communication plan and one to create a platform to upload material for an internal database in order to improve the involvement of volunteers.

Rete Italiana di Cultura Popolare – this is a social promotion association that has developed  projects in the field that are capable of listening to and supporting local communities, starting from the way in which feelings of belonging or, vice versa, of estrangement are built, to providing the conditions and resources for integration and inclusion. The alumni team involved will support the association on two projects, one for setting up a data collection system for assessing its impact and one related to constructing a 5-year business model for managing social franchising. 

YouSport Social Club – this is an association that aims to create a model of sports centre based on the inclusion of categories today considered different or fragile, making sport a lever for social change. The alumni team involved will support the association in defining its business model. 

Oltre i Confini OdV - Beyond Borders Supervisory Body – this is a  voluntary non-profit association that deals with development projects in Africa. In Africa, Beyond Borders deals with projects in the fields of education (schools and distance-learning support), health (nursing and malaria prevention), and economic development and quality of life (microcredit). The alumni team involved will support the association in the development of a project run by women with disabilities to define how to scale this activity at entrepreneurial level.

Cultural Association - Visual Arts Project – this is a platform based on the principles of solidarity and inclusion aimed at exploring performance art. PAV operates as a cultural community to host, promote and disseminate Performance Art videos with the aim of raising public awareness and responding to contemporary emergencies. It also helps generate sustainable income for the artists presented through user subscriptions, donations, and on-demand video views. PAV aims to consolidate a meeting space through the realisation of performances and strengthening dialogue between artists and the public to address the crucial urgencies of our contemporary world. The alumni team involved will support the association on two projects, one related to its business development and one to its marketing strategy. 

Associazione Italiana Mutismo Selettivo - Italian Selective Mutism Association – this is an association founded in 2009 by a group of parents of children with this anxiety disorder and is the first organisation in Italy to have as its primary mission that of spreading knowledge about it. The alumni team involved will support the Association on a fundraising proposal and design support project to build a national awareness campaign. 

Whanau Impresa Sociale Srl – this is a social enterprise that deals with wellbeing through sport. It was founded with the aim of promoting the wellbeing of people through a community approach and using sport as a model of value, in order to spread a caring culture. Its objective is to strengthen the social and sports network through synchronised support systems in order to amplify the impact on community wellbeing and to encourage the active participation of citizens. The enterprise uses a welfare model that starts with the community, reaches the individual and then returns to the community, with a view to wellbeing and a circular economy that is accessible and sustainable for all. The alumni team involved will support the social enterprise on two analysis and model projects, one related to the Whanau initiative and one to the Whanau App initiative, also in collaboration with the non-profit organisation Casa dei Giochi - House of Games [link: https://milanocdg.wixsite.com/casadeigiochi/blank-1].

Associazione A Sud – Ecologia e Cooperazione OdV – Ecology and Cooperation Supervisory Body – an independent, radical, horizontal and feminist ecological organisation that investigates the causes of environmental crises, denounces those responsible, defends human rights, builds tools for local communities, educates and informs. The alumni team involved will support the association on a project to devise the communication plan. 

Find out more about other editions of Leave Your Mark