Webinar discusses the impacts of the pandemic on philanthropy.

An event organized by the Bem Maior Movement highlighted the opportunities and challenges of Covid-19 for the culture of giving.

The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on philanthropy worldwide, collaborative work between the Third Sector, companies and governments, the philanthropic family legacy and endowment funds were some of the topics of the webinar “ Dialogues of the Bem Maior Movement: Strategic Philanthropy in Brazil and the World ”, held this Thursday (October 29). The series of events, highlighted the executive director of the Bem Maior Movement, Carola Matarazzo, aims to amplify the voice of organized civil society and bring diversity to the horizon of strategic philanthropy in the country.

The opening remarks were given by Clare Woodcraft, executive director of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Cambridge, who presented the first results of the research “ Philanthropy in times of Coronavirus ”. The aim of the study was to assess philanthropy in emerging countries in the context of the pandemic in order to identify opportunities and challenges.

According to Clare, the research yielded three main findings: the empowerment of recipient organizations in emerging countries, such as Brazil, which began implementing better management practices; a more flexible and less bureaucratic process for donations to institutions; and a shift in the North-South donation dynamic, with closer ties between philanthropists and Third Sector recipients to ensure a more positive impact.

Moderated by Flávio Castro, managing partner of FSB Comunicação, participants also noted the importance of companies systematizing a philanthropic policy, avoiding the risk of fragmented actions. Elie Horn, CEO of Cyrela and co-founder of MBM, highlighted that creating impactful philanthropic policies requires focus and investment in research.

“We need evidence that an intervention will actually work. We believe that people in poverty need x or y, without data. We need to know the gaps to be filled. And understand what each one is doing, because perhaps another institution has already found an efficient way to deal with the same problem and the answer may lie in partnerships and collaborative work,” Clare emphasized.

Rubens Menin, CEO of MRV Engenharia and co-founder of MBM, highlighted that, although we have several excellent social impact projects, there is still a great scarcity of options when it comes to donating:

“When we have good projects, donors come. So, to win this game, we need this three-pronged approach: having good projects, involving citizens more in philanthropy, and getting companies into the game. By adding these three points together, we return to what is most important: showing society how doing good benefits the whole of society, not just those who receive the resources.”.

Eugênio Mattar, CEO of Localiza and also co-founder of MBM, emphasized the importance of family legacy and networking for strengthening philanthropy:

“The more families and businesses that start investing in philanthropy, the greater the legacy we will leave. And when it expands to our personal reach, bringing friends into our network, which is what we are doing at Bem Maior, bringing in people, companies, governments and institutions, we solidify the importance of philanthropy and make it enduring.”.

The integration of efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic was also a topic of discussion at the seminar, with particular emphasis on the presentation by Patrícia Villela, president of Humanitas360 and founder of Civi-Co:

“I feel that there is a greater appetite today for debate on public policies because civil society has been demanding it, and I notice an appetite for integration from some parts of the government, but predominantly from the Judiciary. The National Council of Justice, together with Humanitas, has proposed innovative activities within a system that greatly needs a deeper and more transformative approach, which is the prison system. In the context of the pandemic, the CNJ allowed us to implement technological systems so that social visits could be carried out during the period of restricted physical contact, and this greatly reduced the possibility of new riots by improving the quality of life, not only for the prisoners, but also for the public servants of the system. And the new development is that we are going to transform this into a distance learning platform. We are already in 3 states: Maranhão, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte,” said Patrícia.

Endowments, or patrimonial funds, which ensure the continuity of project funding, were also discussed at the meeting. José Ermírio de Moraes Neto, Executive President of the Board of Trustees of the AC Camargo Cancer Center Hospital, participated in the webinar and spoke about endowments in the area of ​​research:

"Currently, AC Camargo invests R$ 50 million per year in cancer research. The idea is to create a fund of one billion reais over the next 10 years, matching it with the private sector in order to achieve a certain level of self-sustainability.".

Finally, the panelists highlighted that the fight for the guarantee of fundamental rights has almost become a privilege, and that we, who are in this privileged position, need to choose to seek new paths:

“We absolutely cannot assume that we will only be prosperous if more people enjoy prosperity. I feel that we ended this conversation with an extreme sense of discomfort. But I also think that this is progress, because only when we all decide to feel uncomfortable, as most already do, will we be able to call ourselves 'us' and there will no longer be 'us' and 'them',” Patricia concluded.

The webinar is now available on the Movimento Bem Maior YouTube channel. Watch it here: