Article originally published in Folha de S.Paulo on September 24, 2026

By Carla Irrazabal, Project Analyst at IDIS, and Mariana de Assis, Project Coordinator at ICOM – Instituto Comunitário Grande Florianópolis

When heavy rainfall flooded parts of eastern São Paulo, the brazilian city, in early 2025, the response came quickly. Local organizations mobilized resources, coordinated partners, and assisted affected communities.

The same happened in other regions of the country: in Florianópolis, following extreme rainfall events; in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, after the Brumadinho dam collapse; and in Rio Grande do Sul, during the 2024 floods. In all these cases, one element was repeated: the capacity to respond emerged from within the communities themselves.

The experience accumulated through these initiatives reveals, however, that it is not enough to simply recognize that local communities respond better to emergencies. It is also necessary to create the conditions for them to be prepared before the next crisis occurs.

Extreme events are already part of Brazil’s reality, yet we continue to organize much of our efforts and investments only after the damage has occurred.

This approach contrasts with international examples. In Bucharest, Romania, a city considered one of the European capitals at greatest seismic risk, a permanent fund for future emergencies, shared protocols among different institutions, and an ongoing culture of preparedness have been maintained for years, even though the city has not experienced a major earthquake in decades.

If a territory anticipating an uncertain disaster continuously invests in prevention, why does Brazil still concentrate its resources almost exclusively on response?

This reflection gained momentum within the Transforming Territories Program, an initiative that strengthens Community Foundations (CFs) in different regions of the country. Throughout the meetings, organizations operating in different contexts shared the same assessment: regardless of their location, they were already experiencing the growing impacts of the climate emergency.

It was through this process that the pilot initiative of the Preventive Emergency Funds (FEPs) emerged, supported by the Mott Foundation, Movimento Bem Maior, and Fundação FEAC. The proposal is based on a simple but profound shift: financing what comes “before.”

This means mapping risks, identifying vulnerabilities, developing protocols, establishing criteria for action, bringing together public authorities, civil society organizations, companies, and community leaders around shared governance, and structuring financial mechanisms that can be activated quickly when necessary.

ICOM – Instituto Comunitário Grande Florianópolis, which has more than two decades of experience in creating and managing community and emergency funds, served as a technical partner in this pilot initiative, sharing its established methodology and providing technical assistance to six Community Foundations and Institutes located in Porto Alegre (RS), Belo Horizonte (MG), Paraty (RJ), Maceió (AL), and two territories in the city of São Paulo.

Territorial assessments were conducted, cross-sector committees were established, preventive plans were developed, and local cooperation networks were strengthened.

Community Foundations and Institutes occupy a strategic position in this process. As organizations deeply rooted in their territories, they understand local dynamics, maintain relationships of trust with communities, and are able to bring different sectors together around shared objectives.

Historically, philanthropy has been called upon after tragedy has already struck. Preventive Emergency Funds propose reversing this logic by directing investments toward reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening communities’ response capacity. This is perhaps the initiative’s most significant innovation.

It is still too early to measure all the results of this initiative. Some of them can only be assessed when the next extreme events occur. Even so, perhaps the most important indicator is another: that, in the future, preparing communities for crises will cease to be an innovation and become a permanent practice in Brazilian philanthropy.