Who we are
Introducing the World of the Casa Costa Foundation ETS
Casa Costa Foundation ETS is a private foundation, based in Corvara in Badia, in Val Badia, in the heart of the Dolomites.
It was founded on 14 February 2007 — Valentine's Day — by Michil Costa and Giovanna "Joe" Pedrollo. Not a coincidence to overlook. There is something deliberate in that date. A foundation that begins with an act of love.
The founding moment is an encounter. Michil and Joe are in India. They meet Madame Jetsun Pema — sister of the XIV Dalai Lama, founder of the Tibetan Children's Village. From that encounter, they return with a conviction: hospitality is not neutral. Those who welcome others carry a responsibility towards the places and people that make it possible. From that conviction, the Foundation was born.
In nearly twenty years, we have supported 40 projects across 6 countries. More than €1.7 million committed. Uganda, Tibet, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Togo, Italy. Relationships built over time, with partners who know their territories better than anyone else.
Today we are in a different phase — hybrid, and deliberately so. We have not closed our doors to the world: in hospitality, you do not close doors. We have chosen to inhabit our own places more deeply. Alta Badia. The Val d'Orcia in Tuscany. The territories where Hotel La Perla and Hotel La Posta have put down roots. There, tourism consumes resources, transforms communities, reshapes landscapes. There, we have the opportunity — and the responsibility — to give back.
Our working framework is called Soil · Soul · Society.
Soil is the land: the environment, natural resources, the cycles that tourism accelerates or disrupts.
Soul is culture: local identities, languages, practices at risk of disappearing under the pressure of homogenisation.
Society is people: invisible vulnerabilities, those left at the margins of an economy that grows around them without including them.
Every project we support responds to one of these three axes. Every project begins with a relationship with those who live in those places — not with a solution imported from the outside.
Casa Costa Foundation ETS has been registered in the National Single Register of the Third Sector since 2025 (Rep. no. 161731). It is an autonomous legal entity: its own board, its own budget, its own direction. The connection with Casa Costa 1956 is an origin and a shared set of values. The decisions are ours.
We are not a charitable organisation. We are not the communications office of a hotel group. We are a private foundation that co-designs, measures impact and publicly accounts for every choice we make.
Three axes. Every project responds to one of these. Every choice starts here.
We work along three axes. We call them Soil · Soul · Society.
Soil is the land: the environment, natural resources, the cycles that tourism accelerates or disrupts.
Soul is culture: local identities, languages, practices at risk of disappearing under the pressure of homogenisation.
Society is people: invisible vulnerabilities, those left at the margins of an economy that grows around them without including them.
Every project we support responds to one of these three axes. Every project begins with a relationship with those who live in those places — not with a solution imported from the outside.
Casa Costa Foundation ETS has been registered in the National Single Register of the Third Sector since 2025 (Rep. no. 161731). It is an autonomous legal entity: its own board, its own budget, its own direction. The connection with Casa Costa 1956 is an origin and a shared set of values. The decisions are ours.