On the symbolic day of 28 June 2022 (the anniversary of the Institute's birth) the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute Foundation was established with the aim of supporting Rizzoli in its numerous projects.

The Foundation was in fact established with three main aims

- support for Rizzoli's commitment to improving the quality of care, treatment and welcome to patients

- support for the Institute's scientific research activities;

- enhancement, promotion and protection of Rizzoli's cultural heritage to ensure the best conditions of conservation and public enjoyment.

The Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute Foundation project is ideally linked to the gesture with which Francesco Rizzoli (an illustrious 19th century surgeon) gave life to the Institute by leaving his considerable estate to the Province of Bologna to create an orthopaedic hospital in the ancient monastery of San Michele in Bosco.

In short, a philanthropic gesture that nine Emilian companies have decided to renew and underwrite with commitment and responsibility.

Federica Guidi was appointed as President of the Foundation (the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ducati Energia S.p.A).

She is flanked by Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., represented by chief human capital officer Umberto Tossini, CRIF S.p.A., represented by managing director Carlo Gherardi, Emil Banca Credito Cooperativo Soc. Coop, represented by deputy general manager Gianluca Pavan, GDTRE S.r.l, represented by its CEO Giovanni Domenichini, GVS S.p.A., represented by its philanthropy manager Roberta Scagliarini, Macron S.p.A., represented by its CEO Gianluca Pavanello, Rekeep S.p.A., represented by its chairman Claudio Levorato, and Cav. Roberto Bertazzoni, represented by Matteo Tamburini.

The Foundation's Board of Directors also includes the chairman of the Rizzoli's Joint Advisory Committee, which brings together the hospital's active voluntary associations, a position currently held by Giovanni Bitonti, the orthopaedic surgeon Roberto Rotini, former director of the Rizzoli's Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Unit, the paediatric surgeon Paolo Messina, a member of the Rizzoli's Steering and Verification Board.

"I am very happy to be part of the group of entrepreneurs that created the Foundation for the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute," says newly-appointed President Guidi, "and to be personally committed to such an important reality in our territory. I would like to thank all the friends who have become part of this project with me. We are already at work to support the Institute in the realisation of ideas that will affirm its excellence and give ever greater value to research, to the valorisation of its inestimable historical, artistic and scientific heritage, and to the reception of patients and their families with a special eye to the needs of the youngest. Making a long-term commitment to a project like this means strongly believing in the Institute and its work, sharing its goals, and taking a new step in the direction of an increasingly welcoming city."

"The birth of the Foundation is really good news for the Rizzoli – says Anselmo Campagna (the General Director of the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute)- and opens up possibilities for new projects to support our Institute. Many different stories intertwine at Rizzoli: those of our patients and their families, of a community of professionals who make research an essential element of their work. There are echoes of an origin and a pathway that reverberate with great intensity in every day activities. Our task as a research hospital is to find innovative solutions to highly complex health problems that cannot be solved elsewhere, and to transmit this capacity through the wealth of knowledge that is stored here. All the instruments that support this objective, in its double declination in the present and in the future, can make a difference in achieving it. From today the Foundation gives us a new support in this sense. It allows us to take a long-term look at projects with a significant impact on our Institute and to focus on strengthening Rizzoli's clinical and scientific role at a national level."

The Rizzoli is an institute known and appreciated all over the world, it has developed numerous international collaborative relationships, it is the seat of university and specialist training for orthopaedics and health professions and has an extraordinary heritage of documentation and clinical, artistic and cultural data.

As of today, the Foundation supports it so that its prestige and value may grow further with the necessary support, to strengthen the relationship between the Institute and the city and to involve all citizens in the process of developing and safeguarding this enormous scientific and cultural heritage and in the ever-increasing attention to the patient that distinguishes Rizzoli's work.

Like the Institute, the Foundation has its headquarters in Bologna but also aims to support it in projects of national scope.

The reference model is that of the participation foundation, a private law body set up by several founders and structurally open to the participation of public and private entities. A non-profit organisation set up to manage assets aimed at supporting the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute.

The Foundation was established with an initial capital of 90,000€, which will be doubled in the course of the year.

From year to year the promoting founders will renew their commitment. Moreover, for the implementation of the projects that will be proposed from time to time, additional funds will be raised both among the founders themselves and among all those who wish to participate through specific fundraising campaigns.

The Foundation was established with a number of projects on which the founders are already at work. These include the restoration and renovation of the Italian-style garden located in the monumental part of the Institute, the creation of play and entertainment areas for young paediatric oncology patients, the creation of a network of accommodation facilities to accommodate patients' families, and the purchase of special machinery useful for cutting-edge research.