Economic Growth Brazil Project #9109

You give 2, SITAWI lends 20, we change 2,000 lives

by sitawi

Project Report | Jan 15, 2015
BMW Foundation opens Social Fund, Green Bonds and more!

By Luiza Coimbra | Communications

Peabiru's Beekeeping project

Hello from SITAWI! Find out our latest news from last quarter!

BMW opens a social fund

To kick-start its activities in Brazil, BMW Foundation has opened a social fund with SITAWI, with an aim to promote cross-sector dialogues that will foster social innovation for the good of society. This deepens the relationship between the two organizations, in addition to SITAWI’s CEO, Leonardo Letelier, being a member of BMW Foundation’s worldwide network of Responsible Leaders.

First Brazilian Forum on Green Bonds

On 4 December, SITAWI organized the First Brazilian Forum on Green Bonds in partnership with Santander. In 2014, there were US$40 billion in green bonds were issued globally and with this promising market outlook, Gustavo Pimentel, director of SITAWI, said that “now, we will put Brazil at the global vanguard”. See article in Valor Econômico (Portuguese only).

Cop 20: energy efficiency in Brazil

Last month (9 December), the Cop 20 in Lima saw the launch of a study on barriers to financing energy efficiency in Brazil, produced for the Brazilian Business Council of Sustainable Development (CEBDS) by SITAWI’s Research and Advisory team. Check out the study here.

Brazil Crowdfunding Challenge: we have a winner!

We now have a winner in the Brazil Crowdfunding Challenge, promoted by SITAWI as part of its Give More Give Better campaign! Acãochego competed for R$50,000 that will support an online fundraising campaign to raise R$500,000. And now, the winner will be backed with advice and support from three online donation platforms, and partners of the Challenge: Doare, Juntos.com.vc and Benfeitoria.

Social connection India-Brazil

After three months volunteering at a school in rural India, the New-York-based artist, Jennifer Lin, decided to continue her journey to Brazil, where she learnt about SITAWI. She has kindly given SITAWI a number of photo portraits that she took in India. We will be giving them away to the first three people to donate R$200 a month in 2015. Want to become part of the Network for Good or, who knows, refer a friend? Get in touch!

Instituto Peabiru and EcoService are the latest beneficiaries of SITAWI’s Socio-Environmental Loan.

"Instituto Peabiru works in rural and forest communities in Eastern Amazonia to support their sustainable development. Ecoservice sells systems for solar heating and reusing rainwater to reduce the environmental impact of construction, making it more sustainable. These two loans are first for SITAWI, and we are excited to expand our focus into local sustainable development and environmental businesses, " said Rob Packer, Fund Manager at SITAWI.

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Oct 29, 2014
Social Loans, Consulting in Afghanistan and more!

By Mariana Vilhena Bittencourt | Communications Coordinator

TEDx "The Power of Together"

TEDx

Watch Leonardo Letelier, founder and CEO os SITAWI, at TED Talks "The power of Together". He left alive within the audience the inspirational question "What stops you from transforming lives?" Check it on YouTube.

Social Business

With strategic support from SITAWI’s Research and Advisory team, SEBRAE is launching its Social Business Marathon for the second year running. Events will be held in Rio de Janeiro and, for the first time, in Florianópolis, offering numerous training and mentoring opportunities for selected businesses. Read more here (Portuguese only)

Successful Open Call

In September, SITAWI ran a Open Call for Social and Environmental Enterprises with the intention of disbursing up to R$ 1 million in loans to social businesses and nonprofits. The call was a success and is an important step in furthering the concept of Finance for Good: more capital, types of capital, and its best use and allocation to impact more lives!

International cooperation
SITAWI is now a member of ANDE, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, a global network set up to foster entrepreneurship as a tool for development. We also became a Search Partner of Echoing Green, a global organization that provides seed funding and technical assistance to social entrepreneurs.

Crowdfunding Challenge

Three of the major crowdfunding platforms in the social area - Benfeitoria, Doare and Juntos.com.vc - have teamed up with the campaing Give more, Give Better of SITAWI to launch a challange for brazilian social organizations: we want to see which entrepreneur raise an record amount of money for a social project. We want to realize the largest crowdfunding campaign in Brazil.

Check out the web site (portuguese only).

Internacional Appearances

Fund Manager, Rob Packer gave a talk about SITAWI at Columbia Business School and SIPA in New York, where he also took part in ANDE’s annual conference. Meanwhile, Renata Linhares, Fundraising Manager attended the world’s largest fundraising conference, IFC2014 in the Netherlands.

Articles and reports

This quarter SITAWI published articles and reports in some of the most important Brazilian newspapers, including Valor Econômico and the Folha de S. Paulo. Check them out (Portuguese only):
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SITAWI in Afghanistan

Gustavo Pimentel, Director of Research & Advisory, was invited to Kabul to advise local banks on how to develop social and environmental risk management systems. The story ended up in one of Brazil’s most well-known financial magazines, Isto É Dinheiro. Read it here (Portuguese only)!

Instituto Peabiru and EcoService are the newest beneficiaries of SITAWI´s Social and Environmental Loan

“Peabiru works with people living in rural and forest communities in the Eastern Amazon to help them develop their communities sustainably. EcoService focuses on reducing the environmental impact of construction, by selling products to bring down energy and water consumption of new buildings. This is the first time SITAWI has worked with either sustainable local development or environmental enterprises and we’re pleased to be expanding our focus in this way", explains Rob Packer, Fund Manager.

International Cooperation

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Jul 7, 2014
Finance for Good in 2014 or 3 months in 3 minutes

By Mariana Vilhena Bittencourt | Comunications

Hello from SITAWI! Find out our latest news from the second quarter and priorities for the coming months.

More than 100 thousand people impacted. 20 projects in 15 organizations and social businesses. R$ 3.2 million disbursed to high impact organizations.

2014 continues to be full of good news! We shared more knowledge through articles, studies, and lectures on Finance for Good. Get in touch with us to know how we can work together!

Google Challenge: Winners receive initial direction and orientation from SITAWI

After awarding Brazilian ONGs with 7 million Reais, Google´s Social Impact Challenge will stimulate the success of the entities awarded by the competition. The competition invited Brazilian non-profits to propose high impact projects using technology. SITAWI is going to train and orient the 10 project finalists, working over the next 6 months in conjunction with CRIA (Reference Center on Environmental Information) and with Google professionals.

Now available – our previously unpublished study ranking social and environmental controversies surrounding Brazilian companies

SITAWI´s study of social and environmental controversies is available on our site for download in English and Portuguese. The study analyzes 75 Brazilian companies (in the MSCI Brazil index) focusing on environmental, social, and governance themes (ESG) in 2013, and their relative degrees of severity, ordered from low (minimal negative impact) to severe (large intensity negative impact), and very severe (violations with substantial risk, such as conditions analogous to slave labor).

Recognition

Our director Gustavo Pimentel published the article “Is it possible to give human capital a valuation?” in the April issue of the magazine Ideia Sustentável. Gustavo included in the list of intangibles the quality of human capital and its best practices. In the field of sustainability, there is no lack of hypotheses about the relationship between social and environmental performance and economic success among companies: it is difficult to prove in practice that sustainability reduces costs, opens up new markets, improves access to capital, and attracts and retrains talent. At the same time, SITAWI´s experience analyzing Brazilian companies points to some potential paths towards doing so.

Climate Change, the World Cup, and Real Estate Speculation

The article Climate Change, the World Cup, and Real Estate Speculation by our consultant Fred Seifert was published in the 84th edition of FGV/GVces´ (The Center for Sustainable Studies at Fundação Getulio Vargas) magazine Página 22. On the subject of climate change, the World Cup, and real estate speculation, Seifert discusses the discount rate, its insufficiency at addressing social and environmental questions and the impact of these concepts on the individual´s intertemporal choices and the subsequent opportunity cost on consumer decision-making processes. Read the article, which was published on the portal Mercado Ético.

On the Agenda

The Executive Director of the Social Finance Task Force in Brazil will count with the support of SITAWI
SITAWI´s expertise will be exported to Afghanistan: we will support Afghan banks that lend to small business in the development of investment management systems in their incorporation of social and environmental risks.
SITAWI is a strategic partner of the Ethos Sustainable Business project.
We will be participating in the September Global Opportunity Panel and Ethos Conference 2014.

In the Media

Jornal Folha de São Paulo

The role of SITAWI in Google´s Social Impact challenge was divulged in Monica Bergamo´s column in the newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

Valor Econômico

The one page report in the newspaper Valor Econômico discusses new evidence about the value that the practice of social and environmental investment management can generate for businesses. SITAWI´s study about controversial social and environmental corporate behaviors was a hit, featuring metrics anticipating which companies will have more problems than others in the future. Investors have monitored corporate behavior to detect future social and environmentally impactful events.

SEBRAE´s Business Marathon

It was recorded on video -- the SEBRAE Business Marathon that took place in Rio de Janeiro in November 2013! The successful initiative involved capacity building for 52 high potential social entrepreneurs. Get to know and share the experiences at the Marathon, which received support from SITAWI in its conceptualization and manifestation.

Happenings

Finance for Good at TEDx Liberdade

TEDx Liberdade took place in April at the Cine Joia in São Paulo and had the objective of showing the power of people who work together for the common good. Our CEO, Leonardo Letelier, was one of the presenters where he told his story of engagement in the Social Sector and pioneering Finance for Good in Brazil.

Finance for Good at Move Rio

In May in Rio de Janeiro, Finance for Good was the theme of the Lecture Series Move Rio. Leonardo presented the campaign of “Give More, Give Better” and explained how SITAWI works.

Sustainable Brands Rio 2014

Leonardo Letelier was a panelist at the Thematic Lecture Reimagine (Driven by the ecosystem of social businesses) and Gustavo Pimentel at the Redesenhe (New metrics for business valuation) of SBRio 14 that had institutional support from SITAWI. Gustavo also participated on the jury of the Innovation Open (a start-up competition of sustainable solutions) and on the advisory board that defined the programming.

EFFAS/Apimec Conference

SITAWI took the study on the importance to stakeholders of social and environmental issues in Brazil to the EFFAS/Apimec conference. Gustavo Pimentel presented and moderated the last panel with investment professionals.

Responsible Investor Conference Europe 2014

At the Responsible Investor Europe 2014 Conference, SITAWI was the only Latin American organization on the panel. Our director, Gustavo Pimentel, participated in the meeting that brought together 450 investment professionals in London, representing large pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and investment banks. SITAWI presented on the trends in ESG research in emerging markets.

Classes on Social Loans, Fundraising and the Social Sector

Renata Linhares, our Fundraising Manager, and Rob Packer, our Fund and Social Loan manager, lectured at a special course at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). They shared their knowledge with the students of the Masters of Business Engineering program on the social responsibility of the social sector and the economics of sustainable investment management.

Classes at ESPM/Yunus

Gustavo Pimentel administered a finance module for a Yunus ESPM Social Business Centre course, the first academic center for Social Businesses in the Southern hemisphere. The core purpose is to stimulate reflection on business models and the relationship between the developing social and economic sectors.

Do you like what SITAWI does? Want to support our organization:

Make a donation of any amount and tell your friends to help us bring more capital, more types of capital and more efficient use of capital to transform more lives!

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