Fondazione Marea unites the Sicilian diaspora to fuel social enterprises and create reasons to stay, return, or move to Sicily.

FONDAZIONE MAREA OVERVIEW

Fondazione Marea aims to be a catalyst for positive transformation for Sicily, harnessing the resources and skills of Sicilians who are scattered around the world. We are a community of Sicilians by birth, adoption and at heart, united by the desire to build a prosperous future for our homeland.

Marea's Vision:  A Sicily with opportunities to stay, return, and arrive. We envision in the long term a dynamic, stimulating, resilient, forward-looking Sicily, attractive to new talent, capable of maximizing its potential, a gateway to the Mediterranean.

Marea's Mission: We aggregate resources and skills of the Sicilian community around the world, to nurture the birth and growth of social enterprises in Sicily.

We enable every person, wherever they are, to actively contribute to the future of Sicily through the generative power of philanthropic investment and social entrepreneurship.

The Foundation is based on three fundamental pillars:

1. Strengthening the link between Sicilians of the diaspora and the changemakers in Sicily
2. Supporting social enterprise ventures 
3. Promoting local development

Our goal is to build an ecosystem of social entrepreneurship, creating job opportunities to break the cycle of depopulation and generate systemic change for the economic, social and cultural development of Sicily.

THE BIRTH OF MAREA 

Marea is a shared dream, a project born out of love for Sicily and the desire to transform this land into a place of opportunity, hope, and growth. It represents an extraordinary community of people with the courage to believe in this dream and the determination to realize it. The idea became a reality in June 2024, starting from zero with a call from Sicily that reached every corner of the world.

The Fondazione Marea-Ente Filantropico ETS was established on December 18, 2024 (video summary) thanks to a six-month Capital Campaign that saw the extraordinary participation of 423 Pioneers (individual donors), the involvement of 3 Sicilian Community Foundations,  €423,000 raised, and the creation of an initial Foundation endowment of €150,000. 

FONDAZIONE MAREA’S IMPACT 

The Foundation aims to turn the tide on Sicily's depopulation phenomenon by significantly reducing the number of people leaving the island in the long term, stopping the talent drain by retaining and attracting young Sicilian graduates and talent, creating more job opportunities in Sicily by reducing NEET status, and developing the philanthropic sector in Southern Italy by closing the gap in the investment by foundations compared to Northern and Central Italy.

UNDERLYING PROBLEMS

Fondazione Marea addresses two main problems:

1. Sicily is endangered. The lack of job opportunities is causing the depopulation of Sicily, forcing young people with high potential to emigrate and condemning many others to NEET status.

According to SVIMEZ - Association for the Development of Industry in Southern Italy data, every year 50,000 people leave Sicily, and the percentage of talented young graduates leaving Sicily in search of opportunities has increased fivefold over time, from 6 percent in 2001 to 32 percent in 2021. In 2080, it is estimated that Sicily will have only 2.8 million residents. Moreover, the Migrantes Foundation 2024 report reveals Sicily to be the Italian region with the highest rate of expatriates, more than 826,000 people. These numbers tell of a veritable diaspora. What is happening profoundly changes the demographic, social, cultural and economic structure of the territory, impoverishing the community and effectively desertifying the Mezzogiorno.

2. The lack of investment by foundations. Foundations play an important role in modern societies: they are private nonprofit institutions that act in the public interest. Because of their history and wealth, they are capable of making a significant impact and can contribute to the growth and development of communities.

Southern Italy has historically suffered from a persistent shortage of foundations, due to the limited circulation of capital and the lack of a philanthropic culture in the area. Meanwhile, Northern and Central Italy benefit in many ways from the presence in their regions of foundations that invest in local businesses and nonprofits, acting as intermediaries between the public and private sectors.

STRATEGY

Fondazione Marea's strategy is based on transforming the diaspora from a threat into an opportunity. It is an innovative model that gathers economic resources and volunteer expertise from the Sicilian community scattered around the world and channels them in a concrete way to support projects with a potential for high social impact. Following the principles of Venture Philanthropy, the Foundation identifies ideas and projects of new social enterprises, Third Sector entities established in corporate form, which play a crucial role in solving social and environmental problems, to respond to the emerging needs of local communities and promote collective welfare. This is currently still a pioneering corporate structure for our local context, with only 63 social enterprises registered in corporate form in the Third Sector across Sicily as of April 11, 2025, compared to 3,334 social cooperatives.

After a regional open call, Marea accompanies each project with incubation and acceleration programs and access to strategic resources. It is Sicilians themselves –  those who have emigrated, returned, stayed, are native or adopted – who supply both a startup fund and the “talent bank,” becoming mentors to the new social entrepreneurs. These new social enterprises generate lasting value in the local area, creating jobs and improving the quality of life. With careful monitoring of results and indicators for measuring social impact, the Foundation collaborates with other Third Sector entities, companies and institutions to complement this commitment by Sicilians and for Sicilians.

THE STARTUP SUPPORT PROGRAM 

Fondazione Marea's startup support program is a structured approach to nurture the birth and growth of social enterprises in Sicily. It is composed of pre-incubation and incubation paths, aimed at both embryonic projects and businesses that have already been established for less than a year. The program offers tailored training, mentoring, access to strategic resources and a dedicated mentor to guide participants through the various stages of development. The goal is to create a social innovation ecosystem, engaging Pioneers (the Foundation's donors), experts, entrepreneurs, networks and investors to generate lasting and systemic impact in Sicily. The program also includes an accelerator track for more mature social enterprises, with the goal of supporting the scalability and replicability of these projects.

The first edition of the startup support program will be launched in May 2025 and will have two simultaneous tracks: one incubation and one acceleration.

The program will be aimed at social enterprises or ETS already established (but not more than 1 year old) or individuals/groups of people who have concrete proposals for social enterprises with implications for the Sicilian context and legal and operational headquarters (including future) in Sicily. Projects can deal with areas that respond to issues and challenges of the Sicilian region such as environment (water risk, drought and fire, agriculture), social (inclusion, immigration), or underutilized tangible and intangible resources.

After a promotional roadshow across Sicily to connect with people potentially interested in participating, at least nine projects (one for each province in Sicily) will be selected to participate. 

The incubation track will last three months in a hybrid mode (online and in-person) with dedicated coaches and access to vertical mentoring sessions. There will be 3 in-person sessions of 3 days each  with theoretical lectures, workshops, hands-on labs, masterclasses, 1-to-1 planning moments, and testimonials.

After the final event to present the social enterprise ideas to the entire Marea Pioneers’ community, projects that meet the requirements for potential growth will be eligible for funding opportunities from the Foundation.

Concurrent with the incubation track will be an acceleration program: A number of social enterprises established for at least 1 year will be selected during an open call based on their track record, impact generated, and potential for scalability and replicability. Over three months, the enterprises will participate in an accelerator with customized training, coaching and mentoring tailored to their needs and those of the market.

Unlike other startup programs, after the formal incubation or acceleration journey, each project will receive long-term assistance through 3 years of mentorship to support the development at the most critical time of a new venture.

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