Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano

Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano

The Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano was established in 1991 following Italy's Amato law, which required savings banks to separate their commercial banking operations from their charitable foundations. President Giancarlo Fruttero leads the institution today, succeeding a long line of local civic leaders including Gianfranco Mondino, who now chairs the bank itself. The foundation's resources derive primarily from its ongoing minority interest in Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano, a regional bank in which BPER Banca holds a 23.09% stake, creating a consistent dividend stream that funds the foundation's activities. The foundation deploys capital across three main pillars: cultural heritage preservation, education and research, and local social-welfare programs. Asset-class exposure is bifurcated — liquid financial investments, managed conservatively through external mandates typical of Italian banking foundations, and illiquid real assets including the Fondazione CRF headquarters on Via Roma and three historic churches in Fossano: Chiesa del Gonfalone, Chiesa di San Giovanni, and Chiesa del Salice. The foundation also stewards the Fossanese Art Collection, a concentrated holding of locally significant works, and participates in regional heritage coordination through the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei beni artistici e culturali di Fossano. Professionals and total deployment figures are not publicly disclosed, consistent with the practice of smaller Italian foundations of provincial origin. The foundation is a member of ACRI, the national association of banking foundations, which provides a benchmarking framework and industry coordination. Adjacent philanthropic vehicles include Fondazione NoiAltri, signaling an expansion into complementary social-purpose entities. Gianfranco Mondino's dual role as former president of the foundation and current president of the bank illustrates the close but arms-length governance typical of the post-Ama structure. What distinguishes Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano structurally is the hyperlocal concentration of its mandate. Unlike large metropolitan foundations that diversify geographically, its grants and direct property holdings are overwhelmingly clustered within a single municipality and its immediate province, making it a near-sovereign steward of Fossano's built cultural heritage.