Microsoft invests in local programs that benefit people of all ages. In Italy, our collaborations are organized by our focus areas of Building Digital Skills, Enabling Sustainability, and Empowering Communities. The following program list contains a sample of the kinds of investments Microsoft makes on an annual basis.

Building digital skills 

Microsoft believes everyone should have access to the skills, technology, and opportunity they need to succeed in a changing economy.

Stripes Cooperativa Sociale is a social enterprise that manages over 60 socio-educational, community welfare, and lifelong learning services, collaborating with public and private actors. It also carries out activities related to the use of technology, coding and robotics in education.

• Connect the .DOTs focuses on the development of a comprehensive digital skills program with a focus on artificial intelligence. The project targets two distinct groups within the Municipality of Settimo Milanese: early childhood (0–6 years) and their parents, and youth (6–18 years). This multi-generational approach will foster a digitally capable and inclusive society by equipping the Settimo Milanese community with the essential skills and knowledge needed to thrive in today’s technology-driven world. This program will reduce the digital divide and prepare communities for future technological advancements starting with understanding AI, its use and potential dangers.

Fondazione Generation Italy transforms education to employment systems to prepare, place, and support people into life-changing careers that would otherwise be inaccessible.

• The Coalition for Youth Employment in Digital Professions helps unemployed youth with no former tech experience to be trained and placed into career launching jobs, and helps companies to find people with the appropriate skill set. The project had a high impact in beneficiaries served (300 youth trained and placed), professions offered, and territories covered.

Fondazione Istituto Superiore per le Nuove Tecnologie works to ensure a continuous supply of superior technicians at the tertiary level in response to demand from public and private productive sectors. It supports the integration between education, training, and work systems to spread technical and scientific culture and promote the orientation of young people and their families towards technical professions.

• The Jobs Academy course is for software developers who can build natively structured applications for the cloud. The course and the related technical modules were conceived in close collaboration with Microsoft Italia.

Enabling sustainability

Climate change requires swift, collective action and technological innovation. We are committed to meeting our own goals while helping communities to do the same.

Forestami involves citizens, local communities, institutions, associations, and companies in the responsibility of mitigating climate change through the planting of 3 million new trees by 2030. The project was born in 2019 in the form of scientific research on the potential and benefits of urban forestation in the metropolitan area of Milan.

• Milan Forestami Tree Planting Initiative increases carbon sequestration, improves the quality of the landscape, and enhances ecosystem services through the addition of a diverse palette of trees. The initiative also works to reduce energy consumption and improve air quality and citizens’ well-being. With support from Microsoft and its employees, and in collaboration with the Verbena Social Cooperative, Forestami has planted 1,953 trees in a 9,765 square meter parcel in Albairate and 1,960 trees in a 9,500 square meter land parcel in Zibido S. Giacomo.

Spazio Aperto Società Cooperativa Sociale is a social solidarity cooperative founded in Milan in 1984. For the public and private markets, it produces and markets a system of integrated services to support companies and public administrations. Through its services, it pursues its mission to commit to the employment integration of socially disadvantaged people.

• The GAAP Project aims to develop technology for monitoring and reporting environmental problems and anomalies within our cities. Designed for disabled workers engaged in cleaning and care services in the territory, the project gives back to public administrations and communities a cleaner and better cared city. People with disabilities become the protagonists of an innovation that improves the quality of services provided by social enterprises.

Empowering communities

Microsoft is committed to strengthening communities and empowering the organizations that help them thrive. Whether affected by a recent emergency or decades of challenges, we use data, technology, and strategic investments to restore and support them for future generations.

ChangeX International helps to create thriving communities everywhere by democratizing change, ensuring proven innovations and finance are accessible to everyone, everywhere. ChangeX is a community engagement platform that, with Microsoft’s support, has funded more than 500 groups in communities across Europe and the United States since 2015. Funds are repeated often throughout the years.

• Microsoft Lombardia Community Challenge makes financing, resources, and support available to those who are interested in starting a proven idea, across the themes of sustainability, STEM education, social cohesion, and community tech skills, with the aim of strengthening their local community. To date, 12 projects have been supported.
• Microsoft Lombardia Community Challenge for Digital Skilling is designed to support young and more mature people for whom digital skills can not only improve their daily lives but also empower them with access to public/social services, education, employment opportunities, and more. To date, six projects have been supported.

Cooperativa Sociale Solaris Onlus promotes effective methods and a culture of inclusion in favor of disabled and disadvantaged people, people with addiction problems, and young people at risk of substance abuse and addiction.

• The Educational Power Apps project developed and distributed trainings via power apps. These trainings and contents were addressed to people with disabilities and unserved communities to continue providing assistance during the COVID pandemic.

Fondazione Francesca Rava N.P.H. Italia Onlus was founded in 2000 to help children and adolescents in difficult conditions, fragile women, and families in Italy, Haiti, and around the world. It operates through distance adoption, awareness-raising projects on the rights of minors, and the diffusion of the culture of volunteering, with specific programs in Italy and abroad.

• The Juvenile Hall Project, with the support of Fondazione Mondo Digitale (Microsoft NGO for Skilling project), defined training opportunities for boys held in the Milan Juvenile Hall. Fondazione Francesca Rava provided all technical equipment to the Digital Lab within the Juvenile Hall of Milan and developed two courses per week (12 boys for each training) on basic digital activities. The course was supported by Fondazione Rava personnel and Microsoft volunteers and was coordinated by Fondazione Mondo Digitale.
• The Food for Poor Families initiative tackled economic and educational poverty of vulnerable families and children in the Milan area, actively involving young people and Microsoft colleagues as volunteers in preparing the boxes in the warehouse and in deliveries. Food distribution was provided with the delivery of one box per month to 20 families.

Fondazione Triulza responds to the requests and proposals of civil society organizations and the third sector to foster encounters between different cultures, promoting hospitality and the inclusion of the local community—starting with the most disadvantaged groups—and encouraging the active participation of citizens, especially young people. Triulza’s hackathons, initiatives, and workshops educate young people on the use of digital tools to address and solve local and global social issues, including climate change, access to education, social cohesion, and inclusion.

• Social Innovation Campus is an annual program that engages high school students (ages 13–18) in designing a sustainable future aligned with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030). In the latest edition, “Talents 4 Social Innovation: Skills for Complexity”, participants collaborated during a hackathon on real-life challenges using AI and cloud technologies. A total of 1,000 students took part in person, with approximately 13,500 attendees participating across 174 individual sessions and activities.
• Mind Education invites primary and middle school students (ages 5–13) across Lombardy to imagine and design the city of the future. The competition fosters community engagement and focuses on education and the development of STEAM skills. Around 1,400 students participated during the school year, developing 28 projects and taking part in orientation meetings and school-to-work transition programs with businesses, universities, and social organizations.

SocialTechno Impresa Sociale Srl is a social enterprise born from the will of four Lombard professionals and entrepreneurs who have been working for years in the field of technology and nonprofits. SocialTechno promotes the IT culture and technological development of Italian nonprofit organizations by promoting synergies with the profit world, to allow the third sector to access innovation and exploit the advantages of a conscious use of technology.

• The AI School Drop Out project uses data and AI as an opportunity to address challenges of student drop out and student retention. Based on the work done with a local partner to feed AI learning analytics and deliver automatic learning design outcomes such as personalized paths and indicators or triggers that will help address challenges of education system, the Fondazione Comune di Milano will address dedicated trainings and activities to help schools identified at potential risk to reduce the school drop out rate.

SOS Villaggi dei Bambini Onlus supports the growth of every child in a family environment, helping to build the child’s future and contribute to the development of their community.

• The Family Strengthening program adds activities which strengthen the capacities of mothers and young people who ask for job support. The program takes women and young people out of their family isolation and gives them the chance to share moments with other peers facing similar challenges, lowering their sense of frustration, sharing needs, and widening their perspectives. It helps them to take strategic steps to maximize their chances for employment. It also uses technologic means to promote circulation and synergy of resources, ideas, and mutual support among participants, facilitating the development process of possible start-up or self-employment projects. Activities include empowerment and career coaching through group sessions, a digital skills lab to learn how to create a professional CV and apply to jobs online, professional mentorship, and professional training opportunities partially funded by the project.

TechSoup Global builds a dynamic bridge that uses technology to enable connections and innovative solutions for a more equitable planet.

• Nonprofits Digital Transformation Journey builds the digital resilience of EMEA nonprofits through the delivery of information, guidance, digital skills training, IT services, and access to technology products and solutions through TechSoup’s partnership with Microsoft. The project raises awareness amongst a community of nonprofits about the benefits of digital transformation and what clear, concrete steps they can take to move forward. Through the project, TechSoup will help move some selected organizations towards a standardized posture across the six digital capability areas in line with the TechSoup digital capability framework.