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News / 9 december 2014

Cherry on the pie for CASA's 10th anniversary

Our Brazilian partner 'Socio-Environmental Fund CASA' has its 10th aniversary coming up in 2015.  Though in the first 8 years it funded nearly 700 projects in 10 countries of South America, it is only recently gaining wide recognition in Brazil. A large Brazilian Funder - Socioenvironmental Fund CAIXA, which is part of a Brazilian Federal Bank but has virtually no experience in grantmaking to grassroots organisations - approached CASA to learn more about its experience in this field. Over the last year, CAIXA saw CASA's ability to manage large amounts of money from big funders and to make it available to inexperienced groups in South America. They decided to start a partnership with CASA, which culminated in the signing of a 2-year contract for 1,25 milion euro's on December 8 of this year.

Small grants

Besides the accumulation of experience and serious work, a lot of CASA's visibility is due to Both ENDS' project 'an Untold Story', which was a great success.This project, financed by the Dutch Postal code Lottery, enabled Socio-environmental fund CASA and three other 'small grants organisations’ on different continents, to improve their communication and fundraising strategies. The ability to bring out the stories of its grantees and CASA itself into the wider media, the strengthened capacity to focus on talking with local media and local funders, finally proved its worth. With this new project funded by Socioenvironmental Fund CAIXA , CASA  will help 100 poor communities improve their lives and their livelihoods in a sustainable way.

 

One year support for a hundred organisations

The main goal is to strengthen organisations and social movements in urban and rural environments. All Brazilian states will be covered, with a special focus on groups living in regions that are extra vulnerable on a social or environmental level. Regions where climate change impacts, desertification processes or great urban expansion pressure are a daily reality, or protected areas. All projects will be supported for one year and get a grant of almost 10.000 euros. At the end of the two years CASA will have supported these 100 projects financially, but also in institutional management, communication and fundraising.

 

Mobilise and take a stand

The people in these communities will get trainings on advocating and negotiation skills, so that they will be better prepared to defend themselves against all kinds of external threats, such as large-scale agriculture, mining and infrastructure. In addition, they will be supported in their communication and planning, to be able to mobilise and take a strong stand in the future. We congratulate CASA with this great project and we hope that this example – which will undoubtedly yield its first result in the near future – will bring other financiers on board and convince them to start financing the organisation.

 

 

More information about CASA

The project 'An Untold Story'

What is a small grant fund

 

Photo: Eduardo Fonseca Arraes on Creative Commons Flickr

 

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