Our history
Our history goes back way before our current name. It began in the late 1980s when the US-based Damien Foundation was headed by a Brazilian, who decided to establish relations with small groups linked to socio-environmental causes in Brazil. This contact was the seed to consolidate the first Brazilian socio-environmental fund in 1994. It was made up of the same local leaders supported by the Damien Foundation – and thus emerged the Francisco Foundation, the forerunner of what is today the Casa Fund.
At the same time, another very important organization emerged in the international scenario of socio-environmental philanthropy, the Global Greengrants Fund (GGF), whose establishment was also supported by the Damien Foundation. The common roots stimulated collaboration between the two organizations and the double-edged approach increasingly strengthened the work of connecting local leaders to large international organizations.
In 1999, the Francisco Foundation’s activities were discontinued and its leaders began to work directly as GGF board members in Brazil, while organizing a new South American fund to expand the expected impact.
Both ENDS (Netherlands) and the C. S. Mott Foundation (USA) have been allies from the very beginning. They understood our proposal and helped in our development. This conciliatory approach is something that we in the CASA Fund have in our DNA. This has made it possible to expand our relations, establishing ties with other important national and international organizations. Our legacy continues to grow thanks to this inclusive approach.
In 2005, the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund took the first steps as the first socio-environmental fund for South America. Proud of our trajectory, we never gave up our close relations with local activists and third sector organizations sharing with us decades of common vision. Together, we have developed strategies to regenerate and preserve the large regional biomes, as well as the great human diversity of each one of these regions, always reinforcing the protagonist position of local groups in the preservation of the planet – this large Casa we all inhabit.
That is what we were born for: to generate ties in the midst of a powerful network of change. We are here to unite local leaders and large global foundations. This reflects our work to this day and is the purpose that drives us forward.
We believe in communication, exchange and listening to develop transformational projects. We have seen small grants generate change in practice since 1994. With all this experience and having built so many important connections, we, as a river, keep to our course. We are not limited by borders. We sow seeds to grow a forest.
