Advantages and Disadvantages in issuing a Social Report in an Italian non-profit: Eufemia Case Study

The main objective of this research is to provide a consistent analysis of the preeminent advantages and disadvantages that a non-profit organisation has in issuing a social report. The social report can be counted among the several accountability processes characteristic of nowadays companies. Thus, in the specific field of non-profit organisations, it represents a unique and significant opportunity to legitimate the identity of its activities. Since this document may be considered secondary to more impacting corporate records or statements, this research aims to enrich and promote awareness around the theme of social reporting. This thesis investigates to what extent a social report is beneficial for non-profits. Although it is hard to imagine harmful implications of social reporting, among various benefits, this instrument occasionally counts economical, communicative, and timing limits too. In fact, issuing a social report for a non-profit does not always have the benefits it claims to have. On the other hand, from this research emerges how, overall, social reporting is widely considered a positive and fruitful practice. This favourable reputation is the consequence of financial and analytics successes that many non-profits have gained thanks to social reports. Hence, this thesis’ purpose is to investigate and explore the current role of social reporting, its most useful aspects, and its improvable elements.