Investing in people who change realities
Author Diane Pereira Sousa
“Baixada Maranhense” is a region to the north of the State of Maranhão. It is an important territory for the State's development structures.
Anyone who is born or who lives in this region is called a “Baixadeiro”. This form of identification started in 2003, with the movement known as “CIP Young Citizen”, an integrated series of development projects promoted by “Formacao – Centro de Apoio à Educação Básica” in 10 cities (Arari, Cajari, Penalva, Matinha, Olinda Nova, São João Batista, São Vicente Ferrer, São Bento, Palmeirândia, Peri Mirim).
Investing in people who transform realities
By Diane Pereira Sousa
Baixada Maranhense is a region north of Maranhão. An important territory for the state's development structures. Anyone born or living in this region is called Baixadeiro. This identity recognition began in 2003, with a movement called CIP Jovem Cidadão, an integrated set of projects developed by Formacao – Basic Education Support Center in 10 cities (Arari, Cajari, Penalva, Matinha, Olinda Nova, São João Batista, São Vicente Ferrer, São Bento, Palmeirândia, Peri Mirim).
Challenges and opportunities for rights communication
By Renata Saavedra
Among the great challenges that the field of philanthropy and civil society organizations (CSOs) faces, communicating causes and the work carried out by the third sector is certainly one of the biggest.
In the NGOs and CSOs survey, almost 70% of those surveyed could not name a single social organization in their neighborhood or city. 50% of Brazilian internet users declare that they know little about the subject and 18% have never heard about it. In the same sense, the Doação Brasil survey indicates that “better communication from NGOs can be decisive”, since 43% of the people interviewed would donate if they knew with certainty how the money is spent and 32% if they knew more about NGOs and their activities.
10 years of RFJS: philanthropy for social justice, guaranteeing rights and democracy
By Mônica C Ribeiro
Brazilian civil society has played a fundamental role in placing the guarantee of access to rights on the public agenda. Since the country's redemocratization, following the end of the military dictatorship, organized civil society has guaranteed a series of rights in conjunction with the Constituent Assembly that generated the 1988 Federal Constitution.
Since then, some sectors of civil society have remained organized to maintain and expand these rights, which is fundamental to guaranteeing democracy in the country. In the current political moment in Brazil, its role has been, more than ever, one of resistance, in the sense of seeking to guarantee the rights hard won in previous decades. And its strengthening is therefore essential for this.
Coming to the top: Network promotes mapping of independent funds that operate in the field of community philanthropy and social justice
Network promotes mapping of independent funds that operate in the field of community philanthropy and social justice
By Camila Guedes
Reach and get to know organizations and initiatives – formal and informal – that work to donate financial resources to civil society – local communities, organizations, collectives and leaders – that work in the field of defense and recognition of rights, in a broad sense, and development of territories is fundamental to promoting the strengthening of community philanthropy and social justice.
Network launches publication on assessing the legal environment for civil society actors
Knowing the legal environment for the activities of civil society organizations is fundamental to developing strategies and instruments capable of enabling and stimulating the culture of donation in Brazil, especially for the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice and its member organizations, which operate in the promoting grantmaking within the national and international philanthropic ecosystem.
Tax treatment, tax incentives, access to the banking system and other points are central to encouraging donations to civil society organizations. Furthermore, in recent years the increasing restrictions on the participation of CSOs in civic space and also the criminalization of the sector by conservative groups have visibly impacted trust relationships and the flow of donations, not to mention the risks to their performance and activism in the field of access to rights and, in particular, human rights.
10 years of RFJS: contexts, performance and possible futures
By Monica C. Ribeiro
In 2022, the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice (RFJS) turns ten. Taking advantage of the symbolic date, we begin a series of articles designed based on interviews with organizations that are part of the Network, especially those present at the time of creation, addressing contexts, performance, importance and possible futures.
In this first text in the series, we spoke with Ana Valéria Araújo, superintendent of the Brazil Human Rights Fund, and Maria Amália Souza, responsible for the strategic development area of the Casa Fund. Two of the institutions that were present in the conception and implementation of the Network.
Women in Network – Making a difference in the community philanthropy and social justice scenario
This March 8th, we invite women who are part of the organizations that make up the Network to share their experiences in the field
By Camila Guedes
International Women's Day is always a date of great reflection. Women are predominant among the member organizations that make up the Network, but this scenario does not stop there
The publication Profile of Civil Society Organizations in Brazil, launched in 2018 by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), found that 65% of the workforce in Civil Society Organizations (OSC) in the country is made up of women, also extending to the voluntary work, where data from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) of 2019, from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), indicate that the female public is also the majority.
OL-ECB TIG Week: Must We Call It 'Evaluation'? – How 'M&E' Language Can be a Barrier to Institutionalizing Learning by Barbara Klugman
Hello, I am Barbara Klugman (PhD), based in South Africa, once an anti-apartheid and women's rights activist, now providing freelance strategy and evaluation supports for social justice funders, networks and NGOs.
I work with groups engaged in organizing and advocating for social or environmental justice. In this process, I have come to realize that sometimes just the term 'evaluation' is enough to undermine the possibility of them initiating or further institutionalizing their information gathering, reflection, learning and adaptation processes. Their experience of 'M&E' is the requirement created by their funders that they name, in advance, what they will do and what they will influence. This might work alright for a group running an already-established service, but it is entirely guesswork and inappropriate for groups whose effectiveness requires them to shift both protest and advocacy strategies as the broader public and discourse political shifts, and as windows of opportunity for influence open and then close. Whatever they plan, they may need to shift.
How “M&E” language can be a barrier to institutionalizing learning
By Barbara Klugman
Hello, I'm Barbara Klugman, PhD and resident of South Africa. I was an activist against apartheid and for women's rights, and today I work as a freelancer providing strategy and evaluation support services for funders, networks and social justice NGOs.