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'DÓLARES SOCIAIS' PARA ONGS BRASILEIRAS - Lei americana de incentivo fiscal beneficia projetos sociais no Brasil
Jornal O Estado de São Paulo - June 6, 2007 (article in portuguese
IN SEARCH OF EQUITY IN BRAZIL. A BRAZILFOUNDATION PERSPECTIVE
ReVista - Harvard Review of Latin America - Spring, 2007
BRAZILFOUNDATION EXPANDE SUAS ATIVIDADES NOS EUA
(article in portuguese)
ComunidadeNews.com - October 11, 2006
ONG DE UBERLÂNDIA RECEBE PRÊMIO SOCIAL
** Ação Moradia (Movement for Housing), BrazilFoundation 2006 Grantee
(article in portuguese)
Jornal Correio - August 02, 2006
O CAMINHO DAS PEDRAS
** Associação de Apoio ao Projeto Quixote (Project Quixote Association), BrazilFoundation 2005 Grantee
(article in portuguese)
www.dimenstein.com.br - December 07, 2005
BRAZILFOUNDATION'S 2005 GRANTEES WIN CEBDS PRIZES
** Instituto Brasileiro de Educação em Negócios Sustentáveis (IBENS - Brazilian Institute of Education and Sustainable Business) and Fundação Brasil Cidadão
para Educação Cultura e Tecnologia (The Brazil Citizen Foundation), BrazilFoundation 2005 Grantees
(article in portuguese)
http://www.cebds.org.br - November 21, 2005
ORGULHO NEGRO EM CENA
** Griô: A Tradição Viva (Griô: A Live Tradition), BrazilFoundation 2004 Grantee
(article in portuguese)
Rets.org.br - November 19, 2005
MULHERES DE CORPO E ALGAS
** Mulheres de Corpo e Algas (Women, Body and Seaweed), BrazilFoundation 2005 Grantee
(article in portuguese)
Fundação Brasil Cidadão - September 16, 2005
CONEXÃO VERDE-AMARELA
(article in portuguese)
from Istoé - November 24, 2004
LONGE DO PAÍS, BRASILEIRA CRIA REDE DE AJUDA
(article in portuguese)
from O Globo - October 5, 2003 - download pdf
HELP FROM ABROAD (article in Portuguese)
from Zero Hora - May 26, 2003 -
download pdf
HOMELAND PHILANTHROPY
from The Chronicle of Philantropy - May 16, 2002 -
download pdf
DOLLARS FOR SOCIAL ACTION
from Revista Exame - April 18, 2001
BRAZIL FOUNDATION0'S CEO COMES TO SUPPORT NGO
from IG - April 4, 2001
By Jaime Silva, Zero Hora - May 26, 2003
click here to read the article
in pdf format (article in Portuguese).
More and more immigrants to the United States are giving to charities in the countries they left. Some are gathering together to pool resources through groups like the Brazil Foundation, run by Leona S. Forman.
New Fund for Brazil Hopes to Inspire a Tradition of Giving
By Stephen G. Greene and Grant Williams
About once a month, Renata Pereira - a citizen of Brazil and an international bank associate in New York -- joins as many as 60 expatriate young professionals to hear about ways to help needy people back home through a new organization, the Brazil Foundation, or Fundação Brazil.
At each meeting, people who head charitable organizations and foundations in Brazil, as well as corporate leaders who promote social change, describe the details of their work in a country that is widely considered to have one of the greatest divides between rich and poor of any nation in the world.
"I get goose bumps just listening sometimes," says Ms. Pereira.The gatherings, called "Ideas That Transform Brazil," resemble seminars or lectures, and participants include Brazilian citizens, like Ms. Pereira, as well as native Brazilians who have become citizens of the United States.
So far, the Brazil Foundation, which was formed nearly two years ago as a charity, has received $50,000 in undesignated contributions and an additional $90,000 in donor-advised funds that it will use after consulting with those who made the gifts. The organization also intends to solicit gifts from American companies that do business in Brazil, as well as Brazilian companies that operate in the United States.
"The Brazil Foundation is a tremendously important initiative because there is a sense of urgency that our country's problems need attention," says Ms. Pereira.
Just as important, she says, are the foundation's efforts to inspire a Brazilian tradition of charitable giving. "We Brazilians don't have the culture of 'giving back' like people here in the United States, where a 3-year-old child is already selling chocolates to do fund raising for school," says Ms. Pereira. "In the United States, everybody breathes in a sense of philanthropy and of giving back to their community. We need that culture to be more developed among Brazilians, wherever they live."
She adds: "Brazilians have not been used to giving money because we often don't know exactly how it will be used, and the foundation can help change that."
United Nations Career
The founder and president of the Brazil Foundation, Leona S. Forman, holds the monthly gatherings in her Manhattan apartment, which, to save money, doubles as the organization's U.S. office.Ms. Forman, born in China of Russian parents, arrived in Brazil as a 13-year-old refugee.
She started the Brazil Foundation in New York after retiring from a 20-year career at the United Nations, where, among other things, she worked with nongovernmental organizations around the world "and saw how difficult it is for them to find resources." (Her husband, Shepard Forman, worked for the Ford Foundation for 18 years, including three spent in Brazil. "I have a vicarious view of how a foundation can have a tremendous impact in a country like Brazil," she says.)
Ms. Forman says the number of Brazilians moving to the United States has grown rapidly over the past two to three decades, including a large influx of young professionals in recent years. More than one million people from Brazil now live in the United States, many of whom cluster together in such places as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Brazil has a population of about 170 million.
Many of those expatriates, as well as companies, want to help charitable organizations in Brazil, says Ms. Forman, but don't know which ones deserve support. About 250 nongovernmental organizations in Brazil have gained national recognition to date."With all these trends coming together, I thought to myself, I want to give something back to Brazil, and wouldn't it be great to have a Brazil foundation working to develop a diaspora community of donors?" says Ms. Forman. "People do give, do send money back, but not in an organized fashion as a social investment."
With help from volunteers and a start-up grant from the Avina Foundation, which is based in Switzerland with offices in Miami and Latin American cities, Ms. Forman started the Brazil Foundation and established offices in New York and in Rio de Janeiro. She and the charity's other three officials are declining to take salaries while the organization gets off the ground.
By contributing to the Brazil Foundation, Ms. Forman says, Brazilians in the United States and others interested in helping Brazil can be sure their money will go to appropriate causes while their gifts also qualify for charitable tax deductions under U.S. law -- a write-off that is not available to residents of Brazil who make gifts to charities or churches there.
"We're building a bridge between those who can help here and those who need it in Brazil," says Ms. Forman. "On this side in the United States, we are creating a community of Brazilians to give. In Brazil, we are mapping organizations and analyzing projects that we know are able to receive money and use it responsibly."
First Campaign
The fund, which developed a Web site with the help of nearly a dozen volunteers, will soon begin its first formal fund-raising campaign, and expects its coffers to rapidly grow, especially as it increasingly looks outside New York for individual supporters, as well as to companies and American foundations.
"There are many Brazilians like me in the United States in their late 20s or in their 30s who are lawyers, investment bankers, accountants, architects, journalists, that type of people, who all want to do something to help Brazil," says Marcello Hallake, a 32-year-old international lawyer in New York who volunteers as general counsel of the Brazil Foundation.
The foundation wants to help promote an organized way of giving, he says, "like it occurs in many other diasporas, whether Indian, Jewish, or others," he says.
75 Applications
This summer, the Brazil Foundation will make its first major grants from unrestricted funds to groups that focus on education, as well as on citizenship, culture, health, and human rights. To be selected, the foundation says, organizations must "distinguish themselves for their ability to transform social conditions in Brazil and serve as models for other social programs in the country."
The organization has received 75 proposals for grants from nongovernmental organizations in Brazil.One grant the Brazil Foundation has already made is $10,000 in a donor-designated gift for human rights to the Instituto Sou da Paz (I Am for Peace) in São Paulo, an organization founded by young lawyers that works to disarm youths in economically disadvantaged areas and to help police departments work more closely with neighborhood leaders. The money will be used to help representatives of nongovernmental organizations in other cities visit São Paulo to see how the Instituto Sou da Paz carries out its projects."A grant of $10,000 is small, but in Brazil is a lot of money," says Ms. Forman. "It will be enough to make a difference."
As the Brazil Foundation charts its course, the organization relies heavily on volunteers in the United States and Brazil, and on its board of advisers. That board includes Brazil's first lady, Ruth Cardoso, who heads a new partnership of nongovernmental organizations, companies, and government ministries to improve literacy and help eradicate poverty. Another member, Gilberto Gil, a singer and composer, has established a nonprofit group concerned with environmental issues.
Ms. Pereira, both a donor and volunteer, says she expects the Brazil Foundation's impact to be far-reaching: "Most incredible about Brazilians is that if you give them very little, they are able to make miracles."
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With a well-established philanthropic culture, the United States has the highest level of philanthropic giving and volunteer work in the world. In 1999 alone, Americans donated $190 billion, or 2% of the gross national product. Besides donating, 49% of all Americans were volunteered in 1995, according to the most recent report completed by John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector. "In addition to the generous tradition of Anglo-Saxon philanthropy, Americans are motivated by the fact that their contributions can be deducted from taxes," said Marcello Hallake, 31, a lawyer at Coudert Brothers in New York. "In Latin [American] countries, people expect more from the state. Brazil for example does not have a similar fiscal incentive."
From across this cultural and political divide came the idea to create a foundation that could gather resources in the US to invest in social programs in Brazil. The not-for-profit Brazil Foundation, or Fundacao Brazil, was founded in New York in June with the goal of supporting the best Brazilian non-governmental organizations that have transparency, solidity, and a social impact in the areas of education, citizenship, human rights, public health, and culture. The foundation facilitates the flow of technical and financial support coming from Brazilians who reside and pay income taxes in the US, Brazilian companies that are based in the US, and American companies that have business in Brazil. "This is a great chance for American Companies that are interested in Brazil to improve their image with Brazilians," said Hallake, one of the foundation's three directors, who was raised in Belgium but is originally from Rio de Janeiro.
The foundation also hopes to attract Brazilians who live in the US. The advantage for US residents is that donations are deducted from income taxes. In New England alone, there are 2,000 Brazilian graduate students, people from the intellectual elite, many who do not intend to return to Brazil. "We are contacting Brazilians [from] all over the United States," said Leona Forman, journalist and CEO, who created the foundation after retiring from the Department of Public Information at the United Nations. "I lived with my family in Brazil for 13 years. I intend to give back to the country all the good things it did for us."
The foundation's advisory board includes First-Lady Ruth Cardoso, English historian Kenneth Maxwell, Brazilian Ambassador to the UN Gelson Fonseca, Jr. and economist Edmar Bacha.
One of the foundation's objectives is to promote lectures demonstrating the success of certain NGO projects in Brazil. Two weeks ago, Cristovao Buarque, from Missao Crianca, spoke about scholarship programs to an audience of 45 people, including Americans who love Brazil. About 50 young professionals are donating their time and skills to help the foundation. "I have never been so driven to help Brazil," said Acia Stern, a graphic designer from Rio who created the foundation's colorful logo and turned her birthday party into a fundraising event. She raised $700 over afternoon tea. "While Brazilians send money to their families, other ethnic groups in the US, such as Mexicans, Indians, Cubans, Chinese and Jews, channel their help into community projects back home. Our goal is to promote this culture of giving both here and in Brazil," Hallake said.
Tania Menai, in New York
Editor: David Cohen
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IG- 4/4/2001
The Brazil Foundation's goal is to support projects from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in the areas of education, health, human rights, art and citizenship strengthening. President Leona Forman, will come to Brazil to participate in the conference, "Social Responsibility - A Project for Future Life," which will take place in Florianopolis on April 19 and 20.
Organized only a few months ago in New York, Brazil Foundation plans to transfer financial resources and talent from Brazilians living in the United States and companies with interest in Brazil to socially relevant projects in this country.
Brazil Foundation was established on a very simple idea: In the 80s and 90s, a large number of highly qualified Brazilian professionals migrated to the United States out of disappointment with Brazil's social-economic condition. This phenomenon, which involves a Brazilian "brain-drain," picked up speed with the advent of the new economy.
Today it is rare not to find Brazilians in key positions at powerful institutions, such as JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, or Merrill Lynch. One of the goals of the foundation is to create a philanthropic community among these professionals.
Brazil Foundation, which received an initial donation from Avina, a Swiss philanthropic organization, is an organization with a "501-C3" tax-deductible status. This permits contributions to be deducted from US income tax.
Conceived by Brazilians Leona Forman, former director of public information at the UN, and Marcelo Hallake, a highly regarded lawyer at Coudert Brothers, Brazil Foundation is also a forum for reflection about Brazil. It recently received speakers such as professor Cristovam Buarque, founder of the program "Bolsa-Escola," and arts patron Edemar Cid Ferreira, who spoke about the relationship between culture and citizenship.
"The seminars at Brazil Foundation are more highly attended than the Brazilian studies department at Columbia University. It's a space to think about Brazil that was missing in New York," said João Lins de Albuquerque, a Brazilian journalist who is based in New York.
In addition to participating in the conference in Florianopolis, Forman will make contacts with "third sector" entities in Rio and São Paulo, such as the Brazilian Volunteer Program, The Association of United Nations-Brazil, Viva Rio, the Ethos Institute, and Project Akatu. The Brazil Foundation's president is also bringing a donation raised in a recent party organized by Brazil Foundation in New York for an entity from São Paulo that fights children's cancer.
Augusto de Brion, special to IG
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