The Master in International Studies in Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship is a Master degree of the University of Bologna “Alma Mater Studiorum”. The Master degree is founded upon an agreement with the Center on Philanthropy of the Indiana University, the School of Arts and Humanities of the Oxford Brookes University, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, and with the School of Development Studies of the University KwaZulu-Natal. Misp students will have the opportunity to attend the second semester in these institutions and to obtain the double diploma.

The master also benefits from cooperation with International Universities and Research Centres - The Centre for Leadership and Public Values at the UCT Graduate School of Business, The Israeli Center for Third Sector Research (ICTR) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,  The Business School di Copenhagen, University of Muenster, Charles University, Dalarna University, Maecenata Institut für Philanthropie und Zivilgesellschaft, Centre for Civil Society in Durban.
A wide range of European and extra-European Foundations contributes productively to the programme -  Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna, Istituto Banco di Napoli-Fondazione,  Fondazione Isabella Seràgnoli, Fondazione Idis Città della Scienza, Fondazione Marino Golinelli, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Fondazione Oltre Onlus, Aktive Bürgerschaft e V., Bertlesmann Stiftung, Björn Schulz Stiftung, Center for European Trust of Civil Society in Eastern and Central Europe in Sofia, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, European Foundation Centre, Fund for an Open Society in Belgrade,  Indianapolis Community Foundation, King Baudouin Foundation, KwaZulu-Natal University Foundation, Lilly Company Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, St. Katharine & Shadwell Trust, Tercentenary Foundation of the Bank of Sweden, The New World Foundation. Finally, we are implementing further strategic collaborations with foundations, NGOs and companies.

The teaching staff is formed by leading scholars in the non-profit sector and particularly of program officers and executives of European and extra-European Foundations.

A program of internship, as a fundamental part of the Master’s training strategies, will take place in European and extra-European Foundations as well as in NGOs and companies.

Professional profile
The Master is addressed to the educational training of a new professional profile - the project manager of philanthropic programs and social entrepreneurship - in its various facets in relation to the institutional field of reference: the program officer in cultural and grant-making Foundations and the project manager in corporate Foundations, companies and business firms, practising Corporate Social Responsibility, as well as in non-profit organization - including NGOs that develop programs in social entrepreneurship.

Concerning the NGOs training programme, an agreement has been signed with the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban (South Africa) and an agreement with the Universidad do Sul de Santa Catarina (Brazil) is under definition, both with the aim of strengthening educational and research networks of organizations with an international range of activities.

The objective of the Master is to develop professional profiles capable of dealing with the challenges that globalisation has created over the last decades. In this light, a broad-ranging formative approach is crucial in performing the profession of manager of philanthropic programs and social entrepreneurship, both as program officer in the framework of Foundations, which today are enjoying rapid growth in Italy, thanks to the development of banking origin Foundations - Fondazioni di origine bancaria - as well as in performing the role of project manager of corporate social investment, in companies and business organizations. This profile is also crucial at the level of NGOs, whose activities are oriented to the development of civic and social entrepreneurship at a global scale.

Foundations and organizations (both profit and non-profit) require a new generation of professionals in key sectors, such as Foundations’ grant-making programs and companies’ corporate social investment.

The program officer in Foundations and the project manager in corporate organizations, as well as in NGOs, should not only possess technical skills related to juridical, economic and managerial competences, but also capacity of vision, clarity in defining and solving problems, as well as in adopting appropriate communicative strategies - in order to increase the potential for cooperation among different sectors of civil society, as well as in the articulations between the private and public sector.

Program officers in Foundations and project managers in business firms and non-profit organizations must also be capable of increasing their self-learning skills, developing a cognitive potential suited to the complexity of the contexts in which they will operate, in all their components and implications, i.e. economic, juridical, cultural and religious. From this perspective, the goal the Master is to offer a broad educational training, which will allow the students to compare - within the European as well as the non-European contexts - different historical, political, social and religious traditions (Hebrew, Islamic, Protestant and Catholic) of philanthropy.

In this framework, Philanthropy is not charity or eleemosynary, ameliorative use of resources, but a scientific practice oriented to solve “roots problems”, through the definition of giving policies, which are socially pro-active and based on responsible investments.

Therefore, the program officer and the project manager are not two distinct professional figures but, rather, the characterisations - within specific institutional fields, such as Foundations, profit and non-profit organizations and NGOs - of a specific professional profile: the manager of philanthropic programs and social entrepreneurship.

This professional profile plays a central role in enhancing the strategic dimension of philanthropic programs, both in the definition of their goals as well as of practical skills, such as the selection, evaluation and monitoring of projects, in the framework of Foundations’ grant-making programs, as well as the project management of programs, whose aim is the strengthening of civic and social entrepreneurship in the framework of NGOs, corporate philanthropy and companies practising corporate responsible investment.

Then, the aim of the Master program is the creation of a well-rounded professional profile, a general manager in philanthropy and social entrepreneurship, capable of operating according to the above-mentioned patterns, within the framework of the grant-making, cultural, artistic and research Foundations (including medical-biological Foundations), in the national, European and non-European context, as well as in NGOs, corporate Foundations and business organizations that practise corporate responsible investment.

Number of students and fellowships
The number of students admitted is limited to 25 and the contribution for each student enrolled is 6.500 €.

Among candidates admitted, the best students will be selected to be part of the exchange program with the Center on Philanthropy, the School of Arts and Humanities of the Oxford Brookes University, the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers and the School of Development Studies of the University KwaZulu-Natal where their training activities will be performed in the second semester.

Eleven fellowships will be made available to the selected students, thanks to the kind support of: Compagnia di San Paolo, Mur (Italian Ministry of Education), Istituto  Banco di Napoli Fondazione, Fondazione Adriano Olivetti, Fondazione Isabella Seràgnoli, Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì, Fondazione Marino Golinelli.
Timing, teaching methods and delivery of Diplomas
The Master is a one-year and full-time programme (February 2008 - June 2009), with an overall commitment of 1,750 hours (including teaching, internship and final dissertation).

The Master is organized in teaching modules including general training modules (lectures, equivalent to 20 credits) and modules of theme-based specialisation (seminars, workshops, visits, elaboration of case studies under the guidance of experts, equivalent to 20 credits) whose aim is to strengthen the acquisition of operative capabilities.

The training is completed by internships in Italian European and North American Foundations, companies and NGOs (equivalent to 20 credits), and the elaboration of a final paper on a topic agreed with the Scientific Committee or relating to the activity performed during the internship (equivalent to 10 credits). The courses will be articulated in teaching blocks of two and three hours, spread out over a time-span going from a minimum of two to a maximum of six/seven hours per day. Before the start of the courses, the Scientific Committee reserves the right to examine the curricula of the students selected in order to decide if the student should take integrative courses before starting the Master program, in order to acquire the qualifications that he or she lacks from his of her previous educational background. The lectures will be in Italian and in English, and then an excellent knowledge of English is required.

The knowledge of a second foreign language will be considered positively in the evaluation.

• History of Philanthropy in Europe and in the United States: comparative aspects
• Religions and Philanthropy: traditions, practices and anthropological contexts
• Legal Aspects: Comparative Foundations and Not-for-Profit Institutions
• Social Entrepreneurship, Civil Society and Sustainable Development
• Financial Management, Human Resources and Governance of non profit organizations
• Welfare Systems, Social Justice and Social Inclusion
• Biomedical research – Health Care and Philanthropy
• International cooperation and Global Civil Society - NGOs and NPOs
• Communication and Cultural Process

Acquisition of the credits
The credits to be obtained are 70 and each credit corresponds to 25 hours. The credits must be acquired through:

• course attendance;
• oral and/or written evaluation (often by groups) of related subjects;
• the completion of a professional internship;
• exercises and essays concerning the internship, evaluated in collaboration with the tutor responsible for the student in each institution which participates to the internship program;
• a final paper.