A social investment model that involves the employees: The Social Challenge
In 2015, we launched a new way of selecting social funding initiatives, called "The Social Challenge". This is a participatory process of identifying and selecting social projects developed by non-profit organizations operating in the provinces of Milan and Varese, and every year we grant them six contributions of 10,000 Euro each. The only projects taken into consideration are those to be implemented in the provinces of Milan or Varese (where the airports of Linate and Malpensa are respectively located) and are concerned with the social, environmental or cultural sphere. At the heart of the process there are 2,800 SEA employees, who are invited every year to:
- identify non-profit organizations with operational offices in the provinces of Milan and Varese;
- receive or formulate in cooperation with them a social, environmental or cultural project;
- present the project to SEA, which submits it to an Assessment Committee for an initial selection;
- if the project is selected, encourage colleagues to support it, expressing their preference in a referendum held on our intranet platform Seanet.
Non-profit organizations with operational offices in the provinces of Milan and Varese are also asked to play an active role by submitting social projects to the Promoters. These are submitted in turn to the employees of SEA, and any projects chosen by them are subsequently admitted to the same assessment and voting process applied to projects submitted by employees.
The Social Challenge: 2016 edition's numbers
| NO. OF PROJECT | MILAN | VARESE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Projects submitted | 87 | 65 | 22 |
| by Employees | 39 | 24 | 15 |
| by Associations | 48 | 41 | 7 |
| of wich adopted | 36 | 30 | 6 |
| Project admitted to evaluation | 75 | 54 | 21 |
| Employees involved in the project submision | 59 | ||
| Employees voting in the referendum | 564 | ||
Source: SEA
The Social Challenge: 2015 edition's numbers
| NO. OF PROJECTS | MILAN | VARESE | MI/VA | |
| Projects submitted | 138 | 94 | 39 | 5 |
| by Employees | 48 | 26 | 22 | - |
| by Associations | 90 | 68 | 17 | 5 |
| of which adopted | 56 | 41 | 14 | 1 |
| Projects admitted to evaluation | 104 | 67 | 36 | 1 |
| Employees involved in the project submission | 84 | |||
| Employees voting in the referendum | 588 | |||
Source: SEA
In 2016, the Assessment Commission consisted of three SEA representatives and three non-profit experts. From the 2016 edition, we set up a Special Prize, bringing the total contributions paid to 70,000 Euro. This prize is awarded to the best project supported by a SEA employee who is also a volunteer of the association sponsoring the project.
We have therefore decided to reward our employees who have not simply "made the own" a project from an association, but have supported the project of "their" association.