Environment for Philanthropy

It is important to bear in mind that in Brazil there is a culture of giving, especially in religious circles, that is intrinsically bound up with a welfare approach, that is, of providing for the neediest. However, the concept of community philanthropy is still unknown to most people and businesses in Brazil. Apart from of that lack of knowledge, probably the main challenges to actually implementing the concept of community philanthropy are tax issues. In Brazil, there are no tax incentives for philanthropy, particularly by physical persons.

Instituto Rio’s goal in the region has been to implement certain measures to develop community philanthropy in the region, especially by holding seed events and setting up concrete examples of support for local initiatives. At year end 2008, we calculated that Instituto Rio had supported a total of 119 projects in the last six years.