The Center for Socio-Environmental Support might just be the Thomas Pynchon of the foundation world. Innovative, politically-committed and successful, CASA has also mimicked the best-selling king of modern experimental literature by keeping a public profile so low that only true insiders actually know whether it really exists. The difference might be in CASA's precociousness. Pynchon built his career over the years, but in less than a decade CASA launched a groundbreaking Brazilian fund in a country with no tradition of such endeavors - and quickly expanded that initiative to neighboring countries. Now, with recent shifts in the Brazilian and global economies, CASA aspires to help spawn a culture of homegrown philanthropy in Brazil, something also lacking in South America's largest nation.

With such pioneering accomplishments to its credit, why have so few people heard of CASA? "CASA isn't supposed to be out in the limelight, taking political stances. It helps worthy groups do their own work," Maria Amalia Souza, co-founder and executive director, told me, explaining the publicity-shy stance. "Our only audiences have been the donor community abroad and our grantees."

CASA emerged from the experience of Souza and fellow Brazilian civil society organization leaders with the small grants managed by the US-based Global Greengrants Fund (GGF). They perceived the need for micro-grants to communities and small organizations as a complement to their own work in disparate parts of continent-sized Brazil. The idea was to bring in foreign cash and use local knowledge to funnel it to places where it would help strengthen groups working with social and environmental issues. "We try to go where others don't go," noted Souza. "We are able to do this well because we are part of this complex system that is promoting democracy, environmental protection, and cultural diversity. We are able to read things in ways that don't always translate abroad."

A few years ago, I had pleasure to visit about a half-dozen CASA-backed projects in far-flung parts of Brazil – places often new to me even as a well-traveled veteran foreign correspondent. In Prainha do Canto Verde, a fishing village on the coast of Ceará state in the Brazilian northeast, I met João Fernandes Filho and wife and business partner Aila Maria da Silva Fernandes. They were running a small inn near the beach, part of an effort to use community tourism as a weapon in the battle against real estate speculation and the social and environmental problems that inevitably accompany mass tourism. In the backwoods of the southern state of Santa Catarina, I met a gruff, tight-lipped farmer named Luiz Backes who was leading community efforts to combine the battle for land titles with forest conservation. I also met Carlinhos de Lara, on parole after being convicted of poaching palm hearts from Intervales State Park. With a small loan via a CASA supported project, he was able to acquire 30,000 palm seedlings. Soon he would begin harvesting his first crop, adding a few hundred dollars a month to his modest income as a small-time banana farmer. "He'll be jumping with joy," predicted one neighbor. Not to mention keeping his rear-end out of jail.

CASA has also been instrumental in the formation, survival and success of sundry networks of small CSOs that have sprung up around issues or in regions, including the Pantanal Network, the Environmental Education Network of Bahia, and the Brazilian Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations and Social Movements. And because it works with the concept of eco-systems rather than national borders, it has expanded to include initiatives in neighboring countries, such as Bolivia in efforts to protect the Pantanal wetlands that fail to respect political borders.
During my travels, I met Murilo Drummond of Amavida, an all-purpose environmental group battling against the odds in the state of Maranhão, particularly sensitive because it is the home of the transition ecosystem where the Amazon rainforest meets the Brazilian northeastern "sertão" or scrublands and particularly challenging as a place that represents the worst Brazil has to offer in terms of patronage politics. In Petrolina, on the banks of the degraded São Francisco River, I met Nadja Maria Guedes Farfán of a group called Aguavale. She and other activists were battling then President Lula, who was investing the capital of his enormous popularity to push through an environmentally destructive large-scale water diversion scheme. Along the Paraguay border, I met Cida. Short, sturdy and full of energy, she was a true sparkplug – leading an all-purpose association called Vida Pantaneira (Pantanal Life) that was tackling a hodgepodge of problems from HIV/AIDS to community housing, all while helping to oppose a large-scale development project that threatened to severely degrade the ecosystem of the Paraguay River. In Salvador, one of Brazil's most popular destinations for travelers, I met Renato Cunha of the Bahia Environmental Group (Gamba). He was spearheading a destructive government tourism scheme backed with millions from the Interamerican Development Bank.

In the interests of full disclosure, I made these journeys on CASA's dime, on assignment to produce reports for institutional use. But I was sincerely impressed by how just a little cash can go a long way if put in the right hands.

It isn't really for me to expand on CASA's plans for the future. You will find them outlined elsewhere in this document. But as the institution moves into a new era, one thing is for certain: you are going to be hearing more about them and, especially, the groups they support.

Bill Hinchberger is a freelance writer and the principal of Hinchberger Consulting, with offices in France, Brazil and the United States. He is also the founding editor of BrazilMax.com, an award-winning online travel guide. Previously he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Financial Times, Business Week and other leading publications. Hinchberger Consulting offers services to meet the communications and editorial needs of international organizations, NGOs and companies.