Who we are

About Us

CSVnet is the Italian national association of service centres for volunteering (CSV, Centri di Servizio per il Volontariato). Founded in January 2003, it includes 50 of the 51 CSVs established in accordance with the framework law on volunteering (n. 266/1991) and represents them both at national and European level. This law is repealed and the current legislation is Third Sector Code (Legislative Decree 117/17), issued following the 2016 reform (Law 106).
CSVnet taking inspiration from the principles of the Volunteering Charter of Values and the Charter of Representation, it aims at increasing the collaboration and the exchange of experiences and expertise between CSVs to help them achieve their objectives, while respecting their autonomy. To this end, it provides counselling, training and support, working to make the CSVs network more effective as a system of  “agencies for the local development of responsible citizenship”.

Governance

Chairman - Since 2021, the association is chaired by Chiara Tommasini (Verona, 1975). Graduated in Economics and Commerce, she currently works for an insurance group. She has been a volunteer in the rescue and civil protection sector since 1997. From 2001 to 2012 she was treasurer and board member of the S.O.S. – Servizio Operativo Sanitario association of Sona (VR) (Public Assistance organization member of A.N.P.A.S.), since 2017 she has been vice president of the association Uni.ver.so. (Unione Veronese Soccorso), provincial coordination body of the rescue associations. From 2009 to 2012 she held the position of treasurer of the CSV of Verona and in 2013 she has been elected president. Since 2014 she has been a member of the board of directors of CSVnet, where she was elected treasurer at the end of 2016 and vice president from 2018 to 2021. Currently she is a member of the National Council of the Third Sector, since 2018 she is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Verona Minor Hierusalem Foundation and since October 2020 vice-president of the National Association of Children's Aid Bethlehem.

Social bodies – Assembly of member CSVs; Governing Council (25 members); Executive Committee (7 members).

Research

CSVnet undertakes intensive research activities on the scope and characteristics of its specific sector. Those listed below are among the most important and recent ones:

• stable collaboration with Istat (National Institute of Statistics) to perform periodic surveys on the Italian non-profit industry;
• creation of the first Report Nazionale delle Organizzazioni di Volontariato censite dai CSV (National report on the volunteering associations registered by CSVs) in collaboration with Ibm Italia Foundation;
• Attività gratuite a beneficio di altri (Unpaid activities for the benefit of other people), a survey on the economic and social value of voluntary work, in collaboration with Istat and Fondazione Volontariato e partecipazione (Volunteering and Participation Foundation)
• “Volontariato post-moderno. Da Expo Milano 2015 alle nuove forme di impegno sociale” (Post-modern volunteering. From Expo Milan 2015 to new forms of social commitment) (Franco Angeli, 2016), a research study in collaboration with Ciessevi, Università Cattolica of Milan, University of Milan ‘La Statale’, University of Verona, University of Pisa.

Communication

The institutional activity of CSVnet is communicated, in particular, through the web site csvnet.it and its social profiles. Some thematic web sites are also active, among which:

• infobandi.net: one of the most important free portals to get information on opportunities related to national and international calls for tenders.
• infocontinuaterzosettore.it: a portal of daily information and documentation (news, regulations, calls for tenders, events) on volunteering and the third sector.
• tantipertutti.it: born from the homonymous project of CSVnet and Fiaf (Federazione italiana associazioni fotografiche, Italian federation of photography associations), this web site makes publicly available a selection of 1,400 of the over 10,000 photographs taken by 700 authors in volunteering Italy.