CASA meets its goals in 2011 and advances its fundraising efforts toward 2012 – Words from the Executive Director

This was a busy year for CASA, with lots of work but incredible achievements – this new website being one of them!

Our brand new 5 Year Report (http://www.casa.org.br/en/publications) is our form of telling about this great journey. It has been really well received not only by our grantees, but by our funders and partners as well. It is a nice story! We invite you all to read it.

This year was very important in increasing CASA's involvement with likeminded organizations in Brazil. We are taking part in the creation of a new network of Brazilian social investment funds. Among its members are the Brazil Human Rights Fund, Elas Social Fund, Desiderata Instititute, Baobá – Racial Equity Fund, Brazil Foundation, ICom-Florianópolis, Rio Institute, among others. We are also taking part of an advising group to GIFE-Group of Institutes Foundations and Corporations, who is discussing the new types and structures of the emerging Brazilian philanthropy such as family, independent and community foundations, acknowledging the differences and promoting more dialogue within the sector.

Cristina Orphêo, our Institution Manager, participated at a REDD+ workshop organized by RedLAC – Latin American and Caribean Environmental Funds Network. She also represented CASA at a dialogue on the advances of Third Sector Legal Framework organized by Esquel Foundation, a meeting about the Amazon Fund organized by ISA-Instituto Socioambiental, and a seminar on building endowments in Brazil organized by IDIS – Social Investment Development Institute.

As CASA has historically relied significantly on the support of international foundations, much of our time and attention is focused on maintaining and expanding these relationships, and getting ourselves more known in the world. For this reason, a great chunk of my time is dedicated to this.

Here are some of the international events I have been this year:

•  Annual meeting of the Greengrants Alliance of Funds that happened in Lisbon between May 23-25
•  European Foundation Center Annual Conference that happened in Cascais, Portugal between 25-28 May.
•  Environmental Grantmakers Association Annual Retreat at the Grant Teton National Park in Wyoming, USA. CASA is a member of this affinity group of funders for the environment.
•  On Oct 2nd I spoke to 4,000 people at the Bi-Annual Congress of AVEDA in Minneapolis, on behalf of our US partners, the Global Greengrants Fund. It was incredible to learn about a company whose mission is to do business in the world respecting the environment and traditional communities. I was truly impressed with their advances in this field so far and more amazed that the mission they proclaim in their material seem to be way more than words on a paper, but deeply shared by everyone who is engaged with this brand.
•  Oct 3-7 I went to Mexico City to meet with the heads of our other Alliance Fund partners in Latin America – FASOL-Fondo Acción Solidaria in México and the newly created Central American Fondo Vínculos Comunitarios. We were there to discuss the details of creating a common program for indigenous peoples in our region that we are calling the Latin American Indigenous Peoples Rights Fund. To do this we also agreed to name this cooperation the Latin American Alliance of Socio-Environmental Funds. We will have more information about this soon.
•  Oct 16-21 I participated in the Opportunity Collaboration retreat in Ixtapa, Guerrero, Mexico. This gathering brings together executives of companies, family foundations, social impact investors, entrepreneurs and practitioners. It is called a "non-conference" because there is no plenary, no speeches or power-point presentations. Everything happens in small group thematic conversations and meetings about how to collaborate on alleviating poverty in the world in its many manifestations. We were there as part of 50 Cordes Fellows who came from all over the world to share their work and experience.

In the third week of November, CASA organized its last capacity building workshop in the City of Paraná, Entre Rios Province, Argentina, with great support from a board member organization - M'Biguá Institute.

This has been an amazing year! To close in grand style, we have just launched our new communications tools – take a look at our Facebook page, and the great testimonials and photos of grantees in our YouTube channel! And there is more yet to come! Stay tuned!

Best Regards to All,

Maria Amália Souza, Executive Director