...my treasures do not sparkle they clink,
they shine in the sun and neigh in the night...

 

 

NEW IHP HEADQUARTERS - FUNDRAISINGn

25/10/2021

Already active on the For Funding platform is the fundraising for the construction of a new Rescue Centre for IHP, the association dedicated to the rights of horses.

The Intesa Sanpaolo banking group is working alongside IHP – Italian Horse Protection, the leading Italian horse welfare association – with its donations platform For Funding (www.forfunding.it ), a digital fundraising platform which the leading Italian banking group has put online, free of charge, for the benefit of selected associations and potential donors.

IHP aims to raise €70,000 for the construction of a new Rescue Centre, at Montaione (near Florence), where the association takes in mistreated horses, victims of abuse and those legally seized by the courts.  Once safely at IHP’s Recue Centre, these animals can finally live well and in freedom. IHP is currently the only association in Italy to be authorised (since 2009) by the Ministry of Health, to receive confiscated equines.

The new Centre will be equipped to receive around 40 animals. It is a very big property which needs to be expertly set up to allow the most natural possible life for the horses.  This work will include the fencing off of large paddocks; an infirmary; spaces and structures for very senior and less able animals, and water sources and troughs. Also essential will be farm machinery and other necessary vehicles, plus funding to pay the staff who look after the animals, as well as money for veterinary care, medicines, and essential care carried out in veterinary Clinics.

Founder member and President of IHP, Sonny Richichi, explains: “In Italy horses are not classed as pets, as are cats and dogs. Unfortunately, horses are still considered to be part of the food chain, rather than sentient creatures to be respected and cared for. They are frequently mistreated and abused, often ending up in a slaughter house. For the past ten years we have been campaigning for respect for horses and for their welfare, for laws which put an end to this exploitation and which ensures those who mistreat them are adequately punished.  At our Centre these horses, rescued from abuse and suffering, can live in the freedom of wide-open spaces, and in the company of their own kind, and they are cared for medically and looked after by our permanent staff and by volunteers when they are very old, and/or sick. IHP receives no public money for this work – not even reimbursement of veterinary expenses or keep for horses we have taken in at the specific request of the Public Prosecutors. Everything we do for the horses we do thanks to donations from ordinary citizens.  These donations are crucial to our existence, and today we are very proud to be able to rely on an exceptional partner in the form of the banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, which is giving us, totally free, an efficient and transparent means of managing the resources which people choose to give us to further our work.”

Luca Severini, Regional Director of the Tuscany and Umbria Intesa Sanpaolo described the initiative: “This project confirms Intesa Sanpaolo is in tune with today’s various social trends.  Through For Funding we can promote worthy causes which many perhaps have never heard of, as we can give them visibility and create spaces to involve everyone, whether our banking clients or not, where people can donate even just one euro if they want to. This project highlights the commitment of our Group to inclusive social causes, for the benefit and care of our environment.  We are all enriched through this interface with local communities, as it raises our collective awareness of the very relevant impact which so many non-profit initiatives have on our common social and cultural aspirations.”

According to the 2020 Starteed report “Crowdfunding in Italy”, the Intesa Sanpaolo For Funding is top of the 25 best performing Donation and Reward platforms, thanks to the 9.76 million euro the Group raised in 2020. This report, which began in 2015 as a mapping of the main global trends for fundraising in Italy has, over the years, become an established reference point for the analysis of the state of the whole sector.

In the rapidly evolving economic and social context of the pandemic, crowdfunding is a resilient and useful instrument, a newcomer but yet able to integrate itself with more traditional systems of financing projects.

For funding, started just three years ago, allows both people and companies to both donate and to loan money directly to recipients in the Charity and Volunteer Sector (NGO), without the need for intermediaries and without payment of commission by either donors or beneficiaries.  Furthermore, Intesa Sanpaolo guarantees security and transparency through its own organisation and infrastructure, with public accounting both of the funds themselves and the subsequent spending of those funds.

LINK TO THE FUNDRAISING PROJECT: IHP NEW RESCUE CENTRE