08.09.2021
Alliance of Funds launched as a new strategy for social philanthropy in Brazil
This initiative pulls together Funds working for racial equity, human rights, and environmental sustainability to face Covid-19 impacts on traditional communities
This Wednesday, on August 26, an online event launched the Alliance of Funds. It is a new and innovative initiative in collaborative philanthropy in Brazil. This action pulls together three traditional funds in the area of social philanthropy: the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazil Human Rights Fund, and the Casa Socio-Environmental Fund. The objective is to expand fundraising to strengthen Quilombolas and Indigenous peoples in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic impacts.
The first collective action of this group will be to launch calls for projects, with opening for registration planned for September. The initial funding will be in the amount of R$ 2.5 million, distributed between calls for projects geared to Quilombola communities and those of Indigenous peoples.
To mark the launching of this initiative, we organized the conversation circle “Covid-19 impacts and philanthropy for social justice in Brazil.” This Internet live had the participation of Selma Moreira, Baobá Fund executive director, Allyne Andrade, adjunct superintendent of the Brazil Fund, and Maria Amália Souza, founding member and strategic development director of the Casa Fund. The event also had the participation of David Fleischer, representing the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) for Brazil and Uruguay. Mediation was provided by Fernanda Lopes, Baobá Fund program director.
This online meeting dealt with issues related to the area of philanthropy in Brazil and the challenges of ensuring that resources reach grassroots and community organizations, groups, and collectives of Indigenous peoples and Quilombolas.
From left to right: Selma Moreira (Baobá Fund), Allyne Andrade (Brazil Fund), Maria Amália Souza (Casa Fund), Fernanda Lopes (Baobá Fund) and David Fleischer (IAF).
Active listening
Opening the dialogue, the IAF representative emphasized the need to expand the support to grassroots communities as one of the main factors for the IAF support to the Alliance. According to him, the strong link already established between the Funds and the Quilombola and Indigenous communities is crucial for the direct work with these groups.
“The Alliance of Funds increases the capillarity of actions, especially in isolated localities, where it is harder to access public resources and foreign capital. In addition, these are thematic Funds, with strong focus on social justice, which are working together and bringing different experiences with problems affecting the whole society. They are also concentrating efforts and resources to support innovative local initiatives to face the pandemic impacts,” said Fleischer. “Other national and international donors should invest in those initiatives,” he asserted.
In 2020, the three Funds had already mobilized separately in emergency actions to reduce the Covid-19 impacts. Those actions stimulated the approximation of the Funds and strengthened the dialogue among peers to enhance strategies for promoting social justice in the country. “In the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, all Funds, and our three Funds in particular, started implementing emergency actions. The process of initiating calls for emergency projects made us more connected, closer together, actively listening to understand community demands. We have this expertise. That is why we want to make this Alliance more robust,” said Baobá Fund executive director Selma Moreira.
Allyne Andrade, adjunct superintendent of Brazil Human Rights Fund, reinforced this argument. “Our closeness to the grassroots enables us to respond quickly. The more people we can rely on to strengthen these initiatives, invest in this area to reinforce and support these struggles, the more positive impacts we will accomplish,” she said.
Maria Amália of the Casa Fund also urged new investors and philanthropists to support this initiative, remarking that the involvement of society is fundamental to defend the lives of traditional peoples. “It is not possible, for example, to continue believing that Indigenous peoples and Quilombolas should defend the Amazonia at the cost of their own lives, without Brazilian investments, relying on resources from abroad. The only way to protect the Amazon and biomes vital to the planetary balance is to invest in those populations, the true guardians of the Amazon, a biome of the greatest importance for the balance of life on the earth,” she affirmed.
Resilience
Through this Alliance of Funds, we expect to strengthen the resilience of local communities and the promotion of racial, social, and environmental justice. Selma Moreira recalled that the Baobá Fund witnessed from up close the effects of racism in Quilombolas communities.
We have understood the latent effects of racism in the structure of our society. It was this panorama that stimulated us to join the Alliance to meet those urgent demands. This means to recognize the wisdom of Quilombolas by listening to them, providing resources so their organizations have a protagonist role, leading their projects and solutions to meet their demands for a full life.”
Allyne Andrade (Brazil Human Rights Fund) stressed that Indigenous peoples are facing a sharp increase in violations of their constitutional rights.
“At this very moment, over 170 Indigenous peoples are in Brasília protesting against the temporal framework doctrine that can restrict access of those peoples to their ancestral lands and is being discussed at the Federal Supreme Court (STF),” she said, adding that “we are witnessing an attempt to support the invasion of Indigenous lands, exploitation of their natural resources, and increase of conflicts and violence against Indigenous leaders and communities. For these reasons, supporting Indigenous peoples is to support the defense and expansion of Brazilian democracy,” in Allyne’s assessment.
Maria Amália (Casa Socio-Environmental Fund) noted that the institution was created by actors from the socio-environmental field in South America, who saw that resources did not reach the most vulnerable groups. “Among the common points with Alliance partners is an effort to share our experience with social leaders of neighboring countries. This resulted in the creation of four new socio-environmental funds that will make available more resources throughout the region in coordinated fashion. It is crucial to multiply this collaborative experience. We want to inspire, aggregate, and stimulate other forms of organization in the area of social philanthropy. You can’t solve everything by yourself,” she stated.
The Alliance of Funds created a Management Committee in charge of raising funds for this initiative. Interested parties should contact us through the following e-mail addresses:
