Canto da Coruja Community: information for social justice
Audio program brings information related to the Covid-19 pandemic to traditional peoples and communities and family farmers across Brazil.
By Méle Dornelas – ISPN Communications Advisor
An experience that tells how family farmers in the interior of Minas Gerais managed to continue generating income and, at the same time, guarantee quality food for families in more vulnerable situations during the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the stories that can be heard in Canto of the Owl Community.
Human Rights Day: how philanthropy can help overcome challenges in this field
By Allyne Andrade[1] and Ana Valéria Araújo[2]
In the first week of December, the Brazil Human Rights Fund held a virtual meeting between representatives of all projects currently supported by the foundation. More than 75 initiatives participated, from 21 Brazilian states, with more than 100 activists present. There were two full days of reflections and analyzes of the current situation in Brazil, made by defenders of rights who work on different agendas, and who discuss the country from different perspectives and places.
“Positive Communication”: a successful experience in the field of communication in a Brazil impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic
By Élida Miranda and Harley Henriques
Fundo Positivo has always invested in Communication as a strategic axis in its institutional policy, as it understands that this topic has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing or stabilizing the growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic since the 90s in Brazil.
Social justice philanthropy: Is it possible to talk about collaborative philanthropy and participatory grantmaking without considering issues related to human rights and social justice?
By Graciela Hopstein – Executive Coordinator of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice
In 2018, when the book “Philanthropy of social justice, civil society and social movements in Brazil” [1] was released, one of the fundamental questions that motivated the production of the publication was to put into perspective the concepts of philanthropy and grantmaking [2] of justice social situation at the heart of the debate. In fact, one of the main theses raised throughout the collection was that in Brazil the concept of philanthropy historically carries pejorative connotations and is normally associated with charitable actions. To overcome this trend, the concept of private social investment (ISP) was installed, often replacing the notion of philanthropy) as it is commonly “more accepted” by civil society and the citizen sector.
Community aspects: the financier’s approach in relation to the grantee’s counterpart
By Marcy Kelley, Gabriela Boyer and Rebecca Nelson
Valuing and accounting for contributions from community groups can pay dividends in terms of impact and sustainability
Haiti has proven to be difficult terrain for international financiers, with many failed development projects. However, in 2018, women from a community organization in Fanm Konba in southwestern Haiti demonstrated remarkable ingenuity in raising their own resources. They requested financing from a grantee of the Inter-American Foundation (IAF) to purchase cattle. Following IAF guidance, the women included their 'counterpart' – a budget item that takes into account the labor and other material assets that community groups contribute to proposed activities. Later, IAF officials discovered that they were actually contributing an additional US$35 from their own pockets to purchase pregnant sows and goats to expand their herds and maximize their profits.
FunBEA is the newest member of the Social Justice Philanthropy Network
By Mica Peres – Data and Technology Assistant at the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice
The Brazilian Environmental Education Fund – FunBEA – became the thirteenth member organization of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice. The Fund, which since 2012 has worked to strengthen permanent environmentalist educational collectives and processes, works with a critical conception of the ways of living in current societies. As a mission, the Fund has sought to capture and transfer resources to strengthen the capillarity of projects, in addition to identifying and articulating Environmental Education initiatives for support throughout the national territory.
Home Office Work & Care and Attention to the Team
By Cristina Orpheo – Executive Director of the Casa Socioambiental Fund
There has never been so much talk about working from home as in 2020. The feeling of those who have just started working this way is that they have never worked so hard! While a portion of the population suffers the effects of the pandemic without work, with the loss of their jobs, another portion has been working 12 to 14 hours a day. The home office, which seemed to be a dream job for many, turned into a heavy burden, with long daily hours and a large accumulation of tasks.
I have been coordinating a team using a home office system for almost 10 years. What I learned during this time helped me navigate the pandemic and quickly make appropriate adjustments to care for our team. Coordinating a team remotely requires some paradigm shifts. New arrangements and agreements need to be created, including: establishing a time and results control system, understanding flexibility in schedules, defining work by deliverables and deadlines, creating innovative ways of engaging the team, taking care of the bonds between everyone, being pay attention to internal communication, establish clear processes and policies and, finally, be very alert to all signs and nuances in relationships to avoid any type of noise among the team.
Working remotely requires another type of leadership. If you are a controlling boss, you are at a loss to lead a team remotely, as working from home requires trust and detachment. It is necessary to create an environment where the whole team feels connected to each other, develops daily companionship, supports each other in individual needs, this is what creates the bonds that make the difference in the expected results and institutional efficiency even without everyone being on the same page. space.
Online meetings, workshops and seminars are here to stay and are already part of the daily routine. Photo: Claudia Gibeli
Fundo Casa was designed since its inception for home office work. We never knew any other way. Always believing that this system was not only ahead of its time, but was the most efficient way to offer quality of life to the team while maintaining acceptable operating costs and its largest budget being donated to groups. Our institutional mission is to support community-based groups throughout South America to protect the important territories that contain the great biodiversity of this region. So the decision to minimize institutional costs, avoiding large operating expenses (and all the physical and mental strain that this implies for a team to move around large cities), was taken since its foundation. It also brings the advantage of composing a team based on their knowledge and dedication, regardless of which part of the country they live in.
But nothing is that simple and conceptual. Even though we have been coordinating a team in this work system for so long, this pandemic has brought new challenges. The volume of work more than doubled, and life was just about working — every day was the same. An emotional feeling of imprisonment intensified.
Expectation x Reality. Jani Aparecida and her daughter and home office partner, Anna Laura.
Our team, made up mostly of women, several of them mothers with young children, experienced an increase in stress. I started to notice that emails were being sent at 5am or 11pm. Without school, and without help at home, tiredness became visible. At the same time, the situation that was getting worse in the country demanded more dedication from the team every day. There were 16 project calls in 10 months, around 500 supports, more than 900 payments, endless online meetings, and an absurd amount of other small demands that accumulated, ranging from answering the groups' doubts, understanding the situation in constant change in territories, guiding and mobilizing more and more partners and supporters. After a few months of this process, the red light came on: I needed to take care of my team! Both physical and emotional health were compromised.
We buy new and comfortable chairs, each employee can choose the one best suited to their body. We agreed on a period of the day when we would all be connected, leaving moms with more freedom to choose their schedules. We took a break due to the team's schedule and everyone was able to take 5 days off after the most critical period of work. Finally, we offer Yoga and Pilates classes for the entire team, twice a week.
Our group has grown stronger, we are more united and committed than ever. Despite the challenges, this is the year in which Fundo Casa donated the most and no one on the team was a day late with their deliveries. Everyone helped each other, we shared tasks and collaborated with each other.
Our 13 employees, spread between Cunha, São Paulo, Juquitiba, Santos, Brasília, Porto Alegre and Santiago (Chile) have never been so close and united. Together with us, consultants in Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Colombia made 2020 a remarkable year, showing that facing a pandemic together is much easier. We don't know when this will all end, we hope it's soon! But having the sensitivity to take care of the team while we developed strategies to increase our donations comforted my heart. Regardless of what next year looks like, we will continue to welcome challenges and support solutions, regardless of what comes.
Originally published at: https://casa.org.br/trabalho-home-office-cuidado-e-atencao-com-a-equipe/
Building a global database on community philanthropy: Hundreds of spreadsheets and lots of support from our friends
By Inga Ingulfsen – Global Partnerships Research Manager, Candid
How can we direct attention to organizations that work to put the power in local communities? How can we provide up-to-date information about who is doing what, and how, in the field of community philanthropy? How can we help learn from and among these organizations? These were the questions that a group of funders, researchers and community philanthropy practitioners discussed in New York in early 2018. Now, almost three years later – after reviewing hundreds of spreadsheets and receiving a lot of support from colleagues around the world –, Candid launched the Community Philanthropy Directory, a free, global database that brings together organizations working in the field of community philanthropy.
Building a global community philanthropy database: hundreds of spreadsheets and lots of help from our friends
How can we draw attention to organizations working to shift power to local communities? How can we provide up-to-date information on who's doing what, where, in community philanthropy? How can we facilitate learning from and among community philanthropy organizations? Those were some of the questions a group of funders, researchers, and community philanthropy practitioners discussed in New York in early 2018. Today, almost three years later—after meticulous review of hundreds of spreadsheets and lots of help from colleagues from all over the world —Candid has launched the Community Philanthropy Directory, a free global database of community philanthropy organizations.
Measuring what matters – Next steps on the journey
By Barry Knight – consultant for the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF)
Where are we
We are in the middle of a process with several lines of action of the “Measuring what matters” initiative. Under the leadership of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), Candid and Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace (PSJP), around 130 people working in civil society around the world have been contributing to this work over the past two years.