By Camila Guedes
Without a doubt, communication is a fundamental tool for expanding and strengthening the impact of the work carried out in the field of community philanthropy and social justice in favor of defending rights. In everyday communication, through the eyes of communicators from member organizations of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice (RFJS), different challenges, solutions and opportunities stand out.
We managed to define a consensus when it comes to the challenging processes for communicators at RFJS: a narrative that includes public promotion and sensitivity regarding the different agendas and that also achieves the mobilization of resources, both essential for strengthening projects. “Among the challenges is the construction of clear, accessible and engaging narratives that translate and affirm the concept of social justice philanthropy for different actors/publics. There is also the challenge of communicating the role of a grantmaking, such as Tabôa, which works to facilitate access to financial resources and knowledge so that the community can strengthen itself as a protagonist in the development processes in its territories.” points out Simone Amorim, Communication Manager at Tabôa Fortalecimento Comunitário.
Communicator Grace Luzzi, from the Brazilian Environmental Education Fund (FunBEA), finds a similar challenge, connecting with the agenda that the organization operates “We are working with the challenge of making people understand the need to support socio-environmental movements connected with territories in the Atlantic Forest, such as the North Coast of São Paulo.”
At Instituto Procomum, the communications coordinator, Isabella Luz, points out that expressing the various themes embraced by the organization is also one of these obstacles “Our main challenge is to reconcile the dissemination, promotion of ideas and the translation of the conceptual terms that permeate our work as Institute. And the challenge becomes even greater because we deal with intersectional and interdisciplinary themes. We also understand that our mission is to disseminate themes that permeate the common world, so the search for adherence to these concepts through our actions and also through communication is also a pillar of our work.”
Some of these points were identified in the publication “Challenges in communicating community philanthropy and social justice”, material launched by RFJS in 2021 that contributed to mapping, analyzing the challenges and giving visibility to the strategies developed in member communication in favor of community philanthropy and social justice, built from interviews with Network organizations. The publication consolidated three main issues from the perspective of organizations: that it is necessary to produce narratives that raise awareness among people and organizations about donating; that these narratives defending human rights are not received in such a way as to receive reputational attacks; and new information and communication technologies.
Strategy is a bridge over obstacles
Drawing up a plan to navigate challenges is what helps communication to be effective and achieve its purpose. This is what Harley Henriques, general coordinator, and Elida Miranda, project coordinator at Fundo Positivo, identify: “Over the years, the Fund has built some legacies: it has consolidated a network of diversified national projects and institutional image, in addition to its own digital platform. project management. By structuring ourselves in this way, and with these clear objectives, we offer a real possibility of co-responsibility between different sectors of society, so that they can all contribute to a social cause, also becoming supporters of this action. One example is the positive health project, which aims to democratize access to information regarding research and biomedical news about
With objectives set, Isabella says that Procomum understands the obstacles and defines the way to communicate towards its goal of collaboration for social transformation: “Our strategy is to always affirm the lens of the common. We can say that we work with communication not only to publicize a certain project or institutional action, but also to demonstrate our way of doing things through the pedagogy of the common, which has been systematized over the years and allows the things we experiment and prototype here can be replicated in other territories. A very powerful example, which demonstrates our way of communicating, is the Arts and Communities Collaborator, our free-form art school at the Institute. The project is in its 4th edition, always having as
“IP way of making” a public call made on social networks, our website, press and word of mouth with the promotion of selected artists.”
The experiences of Fundo Positivo and Instituto Procomum are in line with what has also been carried out by Tabôa's communications: “Strategies include producing narratives about impacts and results, based on evidence and stories of transformation, articulation of collaborative communication production processes , amplifying community voices, generating and disseminating knowledge, strengthening the communication capabilities of community actors. An experience already carried out that aligns with our strategy is the Community Cooperation Network, a project that had the support of the Philanthropy Network for Social Justice and focused on strengthening a community network to combat Covid-19 in Serra Grande (Uruçuca, BA).
Through communication and community mobilization actions and support for families in emergency situations, four local collectives joined forces to minimize the effects of the pandemic on the community.” says Simone.
United communication is strengthened
The Network has sought to foster spaces for dialogue between member organizations, and this extends to communicators. Besides the Communication and Narrative Community of Practice, started in 2021, monthly meetings were recently started, in a more dynamic format, based on conversations about day-to-day communication, in order to promote connection and construction.
Communicator Grace highlights that the debate spaces promoted by RFJS have been fundamental for connecting and exchanging experiences between member organizations, contributing to the development of different collective agendas and helping each one to cut corners for the other, favoring communication in everyday life about philanthropy for social justice.
