BrazilFoundation Gathers 55 Grantees from Throughout Brazil at Annual Leadership Meeting
Diverse themes, stories and causes. At the beginning of this week we gathered our 2019 grantees in São Paulo for our Annual Leadership Meeting. Representatives of 55 organizations from 15 states came to participate in three days of workshops, activities and knowledge-exchange to strengthen institutional capacity and expand impact.
The workshops were kicked off on Sunday with an activity in pairs where the leaders shared the challenges (and possible solutions) that they face. The activity aimed to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration as a network. Sunday night began the ABCR Festival, the largest fundraising festival in Brazil, a conference to discuss tendencies, tools and best practices on fundraising. This was the third consecutive year that BrazilFoundation partnered with Associação Brasileira de Captadores de Recursos (ABCR) that allowed the 55 leaders to participate in the festival.
This year the theme of the festival was “O Futuro da Captação de Recursos no Brasil do Futuro” (The Future of Fundraising in Brazil), and offered more than 60 parallel sessions, including international speakers. Anderson Benites of IPEDI, a BrazilFoundation grantee since 2014, shared best practices on using communications to strengthen small and medium-sized organizations. Patricia Lobaccaro, BrazilFoundation CEO, was a speaker in the panel discussion “Editais – o que move uma organização financiadora” (Calls for Proposals – What Moves a Grantmaking Organization) as well as the masterclass “Sustentabilidade Financeira e Governança para OSCs” (Financial Sustainability and Governance for CSOs).
On Monday evening we held a small event at the headquarters of partner BTG Pactual where we gathered partners, donors and grantee representatives to present the proposals of each grantee project to receive funding this year. The six Brumadinho grantees that will receive funding through the Abrace Minas Gerais campaign were also present. “In Brumadinho now it’s about unity. […] It’s about working so that these people believe in a tomorrow, that they can continue to live their lives”, says Carol Antunes of Naação, noting the collaboration she has felt between organizations.
Karine Dias, of Instituto Responsa, also noted the need for support and cooperation “Nobody does anything alone; we only make an impact when we do things together.” Responsa is one of the 10 grantees this year that works to socially reintegrate the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated.
Maitê Lourenço, of BlackRocks, a grantee that helps afro-brazilian entrepreneurs access innovation networks technology and startups, emphasized the need for including equality when thinking about socioeconomic development, “When we provide aid and equal opportunity in [socioeconomic development], you create ways to grow more and more as a country, as an economy. So, to think about development not only for peripheral or low-income communities, but also the afro-brazilian community is the goal.”
Over the past days we’ve seen many people together building a more fair country. And we thank each and every person who is playing a role.
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