Every day, we work to promote a better future for this generation and others to come. We dream, plan, act, monitor and evaluate impact, in the hope that we are contributing to a fairer and more supportive world. 

In 2024, this work continued at a steady pace, but it was a particularly special year. IDIS completed 25 years, an opportunity to celebrate our past, recognize achievements, lessons, and especially, people. Inspired by the theme ‘Social Investment is about people’, we guided our celebrations with a campaign that reflected what is crucial in our work.  

Social Investment is about people because it is made by the actions of people for people. Because it requires dialogue, involves disagreements and consensus, mistakes and success. Because it brings us closer and moves us. This message guided us through in-person and online actions, including an unforgettable event at MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, a cultural landmark in São Paulo, with reunited those who have been and still are a part of the institute’s history. It was also on this occasion that we launched our institutional video. Watch it here!

A legacy for the future: Promoting Philanthropy Endowment

This historical year was the perfect moment to make an age-old dream come to reality: the creation of the Promoting Philanthropy Endowment. This is the first Brazilian fund dedicated to strengthening philanthropy and giving culture in the country. With a solid financial foundation, we can guarantee project sustainability, multiply initiatives and reach even more people, promoting long-lasting changes. This is a legacy that belongs to all of those who believe in the transformative power of philanthropy. 

The endowment closed of the year of 2024 with a patrimony of 9.3 million BRL (approximately 1.52 million USD), which was a result of contributions of varying amounts and a matching made with the donation received from american philanthropist, MacKenzie Scott.

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Concrete results in an intense year

Our actions are based on a tripod. Our action pillars, advisory, knowledge and social impact projects, have brought us to where we are today. In offering advisory, we followed our mission of supporting social investors to generate more impact through their philanthropic journey. Through the generation of knowledge we have elaborated for the sector materials with the best practices and data so that organizations can generate more positive impact. Moreover, when developing social impact projects with our partners, we were able to deliver actions that strengthen the philanthropic ecosystem as well as giving culture, benefiting organizations, communities and people. Each pillar fuels the others.

This year only, our advisory team carried out 47 projects in areas such as strategic planning, ESG agenda, endowments, grantmaking management and impact assessment. We were also able to maintain an average score of over 9 when it came to client reviews, with a high index of recommendations, reflecting our commitment to the quality of projects.

Get to know some success cases here!

Together with Instituto MOL, we launched Commitment 1%, inspired by the North American movement Pledge 1%. So far, 15 companies have already committed to the movement, including those who already donate at least 1% of their annual net profit and those who have committed to reaching this donation level within two years. The initiative is supported by partners such as Cyrela, Instituto Cyrela, PwC and RD Saúde, as well as other companies from the sector who are a part of the consulting committee.

Through the program Transforming Territories, which is dedicated to strengthening community institutes and foundations in Brazil, we brought together participants from all over the country in São Paulo for the Transforming Territories Seminar. (which compiles four years of experience from this project – ‘How to create a community foundation or institute’ – (available exclusively in Portuguese). This practical guide was developed based on the examples of those who have already transformed their communities.

We expanded Together for Health, a partnership with BNDES which will allocate more than 100 million BRL (around 16.4 million USD) to strengthen public health in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil in a 4 year period. Through donations from BNDES and other supporters, the program will benefit 14 civil society organizations committed to the healthcare of users from the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). 

Great advances were also made through advocacy. While leading the Brazilian Endowment Coalition, we achieved an important victory: the approval of Law 2,440/23 at the Committee on Economic Affairs (CAE) of the Senate, and now it follows to the Chamber of Deputies. We also joined the Alliance for the Strengthening of Civil Society, led by Beja Institute, working for the inclusion of this agenda in the Brazilian Tax Reform.

Throughout the year, we launched 39 diverse knowledge contents, including publications such as Perspectives for Brazilian Philanthropy; Private Social Investment: Strategies that leverage the ESG Agenda and the 3rd edition of the Endowment Performance Yearbook, reaching more than 80,000 people. A highlight of the year was also the realization of another edition of the Brazilian Philanthropy Forum, which, once again, reunited more than a thousand people in person and online. We also attended a number of local and global events such as Global Philanthropy Forum, African Philanthropy Forum, Impact Minds (Latimpacto) and Foundations for the Future (United Kingdom).

People and Diversity

With growing projects, also came a growing team. We closed the year with 53 people on our staff. Actions related to people keep this movement going – we had our second internship program, implemented a mentoring program and a development program aimed at leadership figures. An effort was also made to strengthen the IDIS Alumni network, composed of people who have previously worked with us, and who may continue to contribute to the achievement of our mission even from afar.

With three years of existence, our Diversity Committee promoted hearings, teachings and the third edition of the IDIS Census. Amongst its results, the survey identified an increase of 13 percentage points in the proportion of non-white people on the team, when compared to the previous year. Furthermore, among the actions carried out by the committee were a training session with Cida Bento for the board members, as well as a talk with Viviane Moreira with the IDIS leadership group.

Management and Sustainability

Keeping up with IDIS’ growth, we implemented new operational and financial processes. Internal policies have also been updated and a great deal of effort has gone into mapping risks and developing a framework with guidelines on how to deal with each risk identified.

We also completed our strategic planning process which will contemplate the next three years. 

Recognitions

For the fifth year, we were recognized as one of Brazil’s best NGOs and, for the second time, as the best NGO in Philanthropy, Volunteering and Support to Civil Society Organizations in Brazil.

On Giving Tuesday, the highlight was Find Your Cause, an IDIS project in partnership with Instituto MOL. Through a partnership with Globo and their platform ParaQuemDoar, we were featured in all of the group’s vehicles, with the right to a promotional video!

It is always very exciting to write this retrospective, looking back at some of the main events of the year. It wasn’t easy, but it was a team effort.

To our team, board members, partners, supporters, family and friends: thank you very much! Each and every one of you is essential to this journey. 

May 2025 bring hope, courage and achievement to us all.

Love, 

Paula Fabiani