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GILBERTO GIL, BRAZILFOUNDATION ADVISORS AND DIRECTORS MEET
IN NEW YORK
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Marcello Hallake, Celio Turino, Ambassador José Alfredo Graça Lima, Leona Forman, Ambassador's wife Mariza Graça Lima, Cecilia de Freitas, Patricia Lobaccaro, Danyela Moron, Rejane Brito and Frederico Arruda. Seated: Lorelei Williams, Marcus Vinicius Ribeiro, Vanessa Pereira Tobin, Gilberto Gil and Roberta Mazzariol.
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Pleased with the good results achieved in 2005, BrazilFoundation's directors and advisors held their first meeting of the year on January 20th in the foundation's New York office.
Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, a member of BrazilFoundation's Advisory Board, was in the United States on government business and made it a point to attend the meeting, whose objective was to outline the year's challenges and discuss plans to expand the foundation's reach within the donor community in the United States and in the not-for-profit sector in Brazil.
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| Gilberto Gil and Celio Turino. |
Part of the expansion plan includes incorporating five new board members, Cecilia de Freitas, Flavia Cattan-Naslausky, Di Pinheiro, Marcus Vinicius Ribeiro, and Vanessa Pereira Tobin, who were formally introduced during the meeting. All of the new members are active volunteers who have been working with BrazilFounation for a number of years in different areas.
Leona Forman, president of BrazilFoundation described the title of director as " a way of recognizing the committment and contribution of each one of these volunteers." Furthermore, having more directors serves to strengthen the infrastructure of the foundation. "It is an honor to be a member of the team and we hope to work even harder to help BrazilFoundation achieve its goals," said Vanessa Pereira Tobin, a lawyer, who expressed the feelings of the other new members.
In addition to the directors, also present at the meeting were Ambassador Alfredo Graça Lima, general consul of Brazil in New York, who recently joined the advisory board, and his wife Mariza Graça Lima; Celio Turino, the secretary of programs and projects of the Ministry of Culture, and by telephone from California, Nancy Englander, advisor to the foundation. Graça Lima, who was appointed consul in New York at the end of last year after heading the Brazilian mission in the European Union for more than seven years, said that BrazilFoundation "has a bright future," and he hopes to be able to help establish greater name recognition for the organization, but he warned that over the long term it will be necessary to identify more stable sources of funding.
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| Leona Forman and Roberta Mazzariol. |
And the board members agree. Having closed 2005 in a strong financial position, BrazilFoundation's main goal is to become self-sustaining by finding ways to increase the volume of donations in the United States to support social projects in Brazil. Last year, the foundation increased fundraising by 53% from $836,815 to $$1,336,100 through a number of mechanisms, which mobilized companies and the Brazilian community in the US and made possible the funding of 53 non-profit organizations, including projects selected by BrazilFoundation and donor-advised grants, an increase of 27% over the previous year.
One of the ideas discussed at the meeting was the creation of BrazilFoundation offices in other states in the US. Their role would be to publicize the work of the foundation in their areas and to organize fundraising events. Another part of the foundation's program for growth is to identify a development director who will have overall responsibility for fundraising, as well as a coordinator for the expansion program. These new positions will be possible thanks to donations for 2006 and 2007 made by the Ford, Tinker, and Kellogg Foundations, and by Jorge Paulo Lemann, a Brazilian businessman.
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BrazilFoundation board members meet with the new
directors.
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Gilberto Gil took advantage of the meeting to present his ministry's project called Cultura Viva. Launched in 2004, this project supports community programs that promote education, citizenship and culture. Today there are already 400 "Culture Centers" in the country, eight of which are among the projects BrazilFoundation supports. The minister expressed interest in formalizing this relationship and proposed the establishment of a partnership with BrazilFoundation to identify more Culture Centers throughout the country. Gil also invited BrazilFoundation to participate in the TEIA event, which will bring together all of the Culture Centers in Brazil in April in the building of the Bienal de São Paulo.
- By Di Pinheiro
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