The role of financial instruments on the growth of Italian Social Cooperatives

The Third Sector in Italy records a slow but consta nt growth due to the increase of the number of enti ties but not of their dimension. The difficulties in fin ancial management, generated by a low attraction of debt and equity financial resources and a low level of m anagerial skills characterized the non profit organizations. Focused on the social cooperatives, the article describe the effects on the financial s tructure of innovative financial instruments as the particip ative loan. In the last years in Italy there has be en an increasing attention towards the ethical finance. T he consideration of the social co-ops as a part of the Third Sector allows them to have a privileged interlocuti on with the institutions of the ethical finance. Bu t the development of this institutions, although it is or iginated from the will to support the social respon sible development, at the moment seems not to support a substantial resolution of the financial needs relate d to the management of the social cooperatives. The arti cle shows an analysis on a particular financial intermediary, the Cooperazione Finanza Impresa (CFI). This institution is a private equity investor wh ich since twenty years is dedicated to worker cooperati ves and social cooperatives. The interest for this institution, besides the entities financed, is base d on a particular form of participative loan develo ped. The investigation start from the observation of a singu lar social cooperatives with the elaboration of a s et of indicators based on the financial ratio analysis. T he evaluation regard the financial structure previo us to the financing operation and its subsequent modification . Due to the first conclusions, the investigation enlarged the analysis to a sample of 10 social cooperatives in order to confirm the first results. The observat ion of modified financial structure up a period of five ye ars shows significative positive change that suppor t both the economic and the financial equilibrium, with a significant reduction of the average cost of the de bt in all the cooperatives financing by participative loans.