10 years ago, Sitawi set up the first Revolving Social and Environmental Fund in Brazil, supporting social organizations and impact entrepreneurs through Social and Environmental Loans. Over time, this pioneering Social Finance initiative in the country grew and flourished.
Accompanying the evolution of the field in Brazil and in the world, where more and more players have become interested in Social Finance, Sitawi has diversified its operations, with different proposals and partners, always seeking to expand its reach and mobilize more capital for positive social and environmental impact.
In 2012, the first Philanthropic Fund was created, a model that enabled the co-investment of philanthropic capital from multiple actors in common strategies and the incubation and support of pioneering social initiatives in Brazil. Since then, we have created more than 20 Philanthropic Funds, with different partners and supported causes.
We were pioneers in the development and structuring of Social Impact Contracts (CIS) in Brazil. In 2015, through a consultancy for the Inter-American Development Bank, we studied the technical feasibility of this mechanism in two thematic areas and, since then, we have been active in the research and development of new contract opportunities and in the structuring of the first CIS in the health area of the Brazil.
In 2017, the Territorial Programs Coordination area was established, which, in addition to the financial management of large projects, enables the coordination of various partners, financiers and implementing organizations for a specific socio-environmental objective. This was a major milestone in Sitawi's performance, both from the point of view of the scale of capital moved, and in terms of organizational development and socio-environmental impact.
Also along this path, the Revolving Socio-environmental Funds were restructured, offering, in addition to Socio-environmental Loans, Socio-environmental Investments (with debt convertible into equity) that use sophisticated structures to meet the needs of impact businesses. In 2017, two more innovations were developed that made it possible: (1) the first crowdlending for impact businesses in Brazil, democratizing impact investing and enabling individuals and companies to co-invest with Sitawi, and (2) guarantees for Socio-Environmental Loans, allowing the entry of traditional financial institutions to support these ventures.
In addition to innovation in instruments and partnerships, 2017 was a year of deepening the understanding and qualification of the socio-environmental impact generated. New processes and tools were developed to monitor the impact of business, Philanthropic and Revolving Funds and Territorial Programs. In addition, with the aim of increasing Sitawi's direct impact, monitoring and support for financed entrepreneurs was redesigned and implemented on a pilot basis in selected organizations.
?By contemplating our 10 years of results, Sitawi can look back with the feeling of having matured along with the ecosystem and also look forward with the certainty that we are ready to increase our impact and scale, responding to demand increasing number of individuals and organizations to make a positive impact on the world.?
Andrea Resende, Social Finance Manager
Until December 2017, Sitawi mobilized R$14.3 million for positive socio-environmental impact, of which R$5 million were in 2017, reflecting an accelerated growth of mobilized capital. Learn more on our Annual report.
