By Camila Guedes
The newest episode of the Fundação Dom Cabral PodCast series on donation culture spoke with Graciela Hopstein, executive coordinator of Rede Comuá, and had philanthropy and the national context as its theme.
In her participation, Graciela discussed the work of Rede Comuá in the field, the current scenario of philanthropy in Brazil, the perspectives and potential of the medium. As a strategic actor in independent philanthropy in the country, the Network contributes to its strengthening and consolidation: “The Network was created to consolidate independent philanthropy and establish a position. We are neither organizations linked to companies nor families, we are independent organizations. Today, it occupies a very strategic place in the philanthropic ecosystem, it brings a narrative, a different vision, as they are organizations that donate a lot of financial resources, and non-financial ones too. The members are very articulated with civil society, with the movements and know what the demands are, how to get resources into their hands, without bureaucracy, trying to make processes more flexible and get out of the box on more technical issues, including democratizing access to resources. philanthropic. They are often small donations, but they effectively reach those in need. And the interesting thing is that, there is a partnership with the movements and civil society and the funds determine the lines of action depending on the demands of the movements. It is a dialogue and a permanent construction and this is a very important difference.”
Donation Culture as a national challenge
In the context of philanthropy in Brazil, the coordinator also shared how the culture of donation is a great challenge, as in the country it still has low intensity, which is a counterpoint to the potential given its place in the world economy and what Brazilian businesspeople are capable of. to donate, in addition to resources not distributed effectively to strengthen different social agendas “In the country, we have a “mainstream philanthropy” that donates very little, which develops more processes and programs than donations. As much as it is a philanthropy that can mobilize significant numbers of resources, according to the GIFE 2020 CENSUS of R$3.5 billion, only 16% of this money is donated to civil society organizations and, when it is donated, it does not have the capillarity like we have on the network. Network members want to change the field to transform the way it gives. In fact, those who transform are not the members, they just collaborate, those who transform are the organizations that know the territories and these agendas, and that is what we want to bring to Brazilian philanthropy, the importance of recognizing this way of donating and why donate for these audiences that are more strategic and have the capacity to transform.”
Potentials exist
With the majority of resources still coming from abroad, Graciela raised the potential for development of the environment in the country “The donation that comes from the international field is still much more significant than from Brazil, and we need to reverse this situation because the country has the capacity and potential of being able to donate resources and depend much less on outsiders, leveraging local resources. This is what we need to transform: the culture of donation, who to donate to, why to donate and thinking about great processes.”
“We have been evolving, diversifying, creating infrastructure, but we are still far short of the possibilities that Brazil has to establish a culture of permanent donation that guarantees the sustainability of leaders and civil society organizations. And there is no lack of potential, as Brazil is the 12th largest economy in the world. There is no lack of resources, there is a lack of donors”, points out the coordinator.
Listen to the full episode now available on different platforms.
Check it out: https://conteudo.fdc.org.br/#podcasts.
Access: ,https://open.spotify.com/episode/7CoqqwYg5T3Nttfh9Rj0fm
Camila Guedes is a Communications Advisor at Rede Comuá.
