By Allyne Andrade e Silva, Angélica Basthi, Cristina Orpheo and Fernanda Lopes
Although collaboration is an old practice among philanthropic organizations, the idea of “collaborative philanthropy” is relatively new. In Brazil, this is a concept still under construction. Here, he has been encouraging the creation of new arrangements in the field of philanthropy for social justice.
However, none of these initiatives have experienced bold and innovative action as has been practiced by the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazilian Human Rights Fund and the Casa Socioambiental Fund within the scope of the Alliance between Funds, which emerged in 2021.
Motivated by the Covid-19 pandemic and in line with the collaborative action goals defined in the strategic planning of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice – now Rede Comuá – the three Funds came together in an alliance. The initiative marks the emergence of a new identity linked to the commitment to philanthropy for social justice, and also a new way of institutional action in the field of collaborative philanthropy in the country.
The covid-19 pandemic has left everyone in the world, including Brazil, facing an unprecedented health crisis. The social, economic and political aggravations had a different impact on groups that were already experiencing vulnerable contexts. It was solidarity that mobilized civil society to support people in the most critical phases of the pandemic, especially in the country's large urban centers. Isolated in difficult-to-access contexts, indigenous peoples and quilombola communities remained alone in the worst moments of the health crisis.
The Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazil Human Rights Fund and the Casa Socioambiental Fund were the first to individually launch emergency notices to support these groups in 2020. It was in this scenario of institutional solidarity focusing on these most invisible populations that the the Alliance between Funds. The initiative was the materialization of conversations initiated within the scope of Rede Comuá and defined a bold and necessary action in the face of a conservative and complex political scenario, aggravated by the rise of the extreme and the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic.
There was a fundamental connection that enhanced the relationship established between the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazil Fund for Human Rights and the Casa Socioambiental Fund: the commitment to social justice and strengthening this agenda in the field of philanthropy in Brazil. For these funds, national and international private investments must increasingly contribute to the promotion of social justice with an emphasis on tackling structural issues for Brazil, such as gender and racial inequality, disproportionalities in tackling environmental crises and hierarchies socio-environmental.
As a result, after long conversations – and based on listening in the territories – the funds chose three crucial themes to guide the actions of the emerging Alliance: defense of rights, community resilience and economic sustainability of families and food sovereignty of the most vulnerable populations in confronting the Covid-19 pandemic. These themes are strategic for guaranteeing and expanding dignity and promoting conditions of equality, with an emphasis on the most vulnerable groups in the Brazilian social pyramid.
Joint governance, singularities respected
The Alliance between Funds is the result of the process of sharing what each fund had implemented in its emergency notices. These exchanges between the funds forged something deeper in the field of social justice philanthropy. In the Alliance between Funds, although governance is collective and the distribution of resources is joint, each fund preserves its singularities in the relationships established in the territories.
The three funds that make up the Alliance between Funds have made joint efforts to raise funds. The result was an initial contribution of R$ 2.5 million, distributed in different specific notices for quilombolas and indigenous people. Furthermore, the funds have experienced governance in which they practice the harmonization of diagnostic issues, valuing the singularities of each fund's relationship with its grantees and carry out monitoring, evaluation and gathering of learning collectively.
Innovation has generated surprising impacts in indigenous and quilombola territories compared to the operational model practiced by philanthropic institutions in Brazil. In general, the actions remain disjointed, lack aligned coordination and act without a broader and collective vision to enhance common purposes. The actions taken by Aliança entre Fundos seek to overcome these points. Each fund operates in a specific territory, therefore eliminating the overlap of institutions in a common territory. Exchanges and learning are shared, which optimizes resources and enhances results.
These references also qualify the relationship with grantees, as acting in this transformative way proposed by the Alliance between Funds has directly benefited the territories. The benefited projects have experimented with new arrangements committed to promoting community protagonism and injecting resources into territories that most need support. Solutions are created based on the experiences of each reality and, therefore, it is the communities that assume the power of decision-making and direction of local actions.
This guideline guides the differentiated approach of the Funds in alliance towards groups that were already facing conditions of worsening of their rights before COVID-19. In this context, the collaborative philanthropy of the Alliance between Funds has demonstrated that access to financial resources is necessary, but not sufficient. Local protagonism and decision-making power – regarding what is a viable solution to overcome the problems generated by rights violations – belong to the people who work in the community response. With this, we support people who are on the front line of tackling structural issues of inequalities, and we contribute to promoting access to rights and citizenship status.
Social transformation as a challenge
Mutual trust and transparency have forged the basis of the relationships built within the scope of the Alliance between Funds. Deepening bonds of trust and increasingly legitimizing transparency with quilombola communities and indigenous peoples has been consolidating itself as the most effective way to practice philanthropy aimed at social transformation. The practice inaugurated a joint governance model committed to this transformation.
Trust and transparency have also been strengthened in the relationships between the funds that make up the Alliance and also in the relationship with the financiers that support the initiative. Collaborative practice, which respects singularities, enhances collective actions, aligns strategies in search of social transformation and, furthermore, strengthens the institutional capabilities of each fund.
Furthermore, the Alliance between Funds provided a historic opportunity for the funds that make it up: to offer exclusive notices to quilombolas and indigenous people. Although each fund already supported these groups, never in history had they offered specific resources to these traditional groups.
Three independent notices launched within the scope of the Alliance caught the attention of 358 community organizations across the country (North, Northeast, South, Southeast and Central-West) who registered their projects. Of this total, 78 were selected and have been receiving resources since the beginning of 2022 through the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazilian Human Rights Fund and the Casa Socioambiental Fund. The largest concentration of projects approved within the scope of the Alliance is in the Northeast, a region that, despite showing a significant concentration of poverty and a lower HDI (Human Development Index), has a vibrant and powerful civil society.
Support is not limited to donating resources. The three Funds made their social networks available to echo the voices of the communities. The main narratives – defending the territory, confronting agribusiness, expanding agroecological practices, food security and sovereignty, empowering women, training young leaders, confronting the devastation of the Amazon, among others – have been disseminated weekly by the funds on their social networks .
Recently, the Alliance between Funds organized training on communication involving all supported projects, led by the Mídia India Communication Collective and the CONAQ Communication Collective (National Coordination of Quilombos Articulation). The activity encouraged exchanges of experiences, offered tool tips and presented knowledge about the various modes of communication to be applied in quilombola and indigenous territories, strengthening local powers. In addition to promoting learning, the action motivated the formation of new support networks, expanding perspectives and approaches, and strengthened the construction of other narratives produced by the projects themselves.
In this way, the Alliance between Funds weaves new arrangements that act in an innovative and efficient way in processes for social transformation in favor of social justice. One of the goals of the three funds in alliance is to call on the field of philanthropy itself to work on building new arrangements committed to truly confronting the structural issues that impede the full development of Brazilian society – with an emphasis on social, racial and environmental inequalities.
Acting and encouraging interventions that, in fact, focus on addressing the causes of structural inequalities is a permanent challenge for the Alliance between Funds and for the practice of philanthropy in Brazil. The Alliance between Funds is a real and concrete initiative that proposes another collaborative philanthropy under construction for the country.
Fernanda Lopes – Program Director of Baobá Fund for Racial Equity. Biologist, doctor in public health, anti-racist activist.
Allyne Andrade e Silva – Deputy Superintendent of Brazil Fund for Human Rights
Lawyer, has a master's and doctorate in law from USP.
Cristina Orpheo – Executive Director of Casa Socioambiental Fund. Administrator, has a postgraduate degree in social project management, third sector and environmental management.
Angelica Basthi – Consultant for Alliance between Funds. Journalist and master in communication and culture from UFRJ.
