The situation regarding the (lack of) a culture of giving in Brazil

Continuing with the series of articles on giving that we intend to publish throughout the month in the run-up to the ‘’ (Day of Giving) , which takes place on 27 November, today we will be discussing the culture of giving in Brazil.

In the latest article published on the British Foundation’s blog ‘’ , we outlined the  The 2018 World Solidarity Ranking , a survey that measures the level of solidarity amongst the populations of 146 countries, in which Brazil performed very poorly, coming in at 122nd place.

This poor performance is due, in part, to the lack of a culture of giving in Brazil. According to the Ranking, only 14 per cent of Brazilians donated money to charities. In this regard, our historical average stands at around 20 per cent, and our best performance was 30 per cent in 2015. By way of comparison, in Myanmar – which tops the ranking in this category – this figure stood at 88 per cent.

The culture of giving in Brazil and around the world

, IDIS (Institute for the Development of Social Investment), carried out a survey in 2015 entitled ‘’ (Brazil’s Giving Survey) to understand the philanthropic habits of Brazilians. One of the main conclusions of this study was that Brazilians are motivated to donate out of a sense of solidarity. This suggests that the country’s population views donating as an act of charity to help others.

However, countries where people donate the most generally benefit from a culture in which the population views the act of donating as a tool for social transformation and as an exercise in citizenship. In such cases, donations are made to organisations that carry out work which donors consider important, as a way of strengthening them institutionally and increasing their positive impact on society.

Why is there no culture of giving in Brazil?

A very interesting finding from the ‘Doação Brasil’ survey is that the public does not believe that NGOs are responsible for solving the country’s social problems, as can be seen in the image below. This shows that there is a significant lack of understanding amongst people regarding the role of civil society organisations.

As a result of this lack of awareness, Brazilians do not recognise the transformative role that donations play in improving the country’s situation. Only when this role is recognised is it possible to embrace giving as a culture and break free from the cycle of donating solely when moved by a sense of solidarity. A culture of giving is built on a desire for social transformation and the exercise of citizenship.

But is it all bad?

Of course not! Despite these negative findings, not all the results of the survey are bad. It shows that 77 per cent of Brazilians made some form of donation in 2015 (money, goods or time), and that 46 per cent of the population donated money to an NGO at some point during the year. It is worth clarifying that these figures differ from those shown in the World Solidarity Ranking because the survey methodologies are quite different.

The results of the Doação Brasil Survey also allow us to estimate that, in 2015, there were almost 57 million donors in Brazil. The average amount donated was R$240 per donor per year, totalling R$13.7 billion. This money has certainly had a huge positive impact on society.

To view these and other results, the full study is available at the following link: 
https://idis.org.br/pesquisadoacaobrasil/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PBD_IDIS_Sumario_2016.pdf

Dia de Doar and the culture of giving in Brazil

For this reason, we believe that the
Dia de Doar
is so important, not only both for the British Foundation and for all other Brazilian NGOs. It is “a major campaign to promote a culture of giving in Brazil and around the world. It is a movement, a national mobilisation that promotes a more generous and supportive country, particularly for civil society organisations”.

It is yet another step in the effort to strengthen the culture of giving in Brazil and turn the tide, making us more aware that the act of giving can transform our reality for the better.

Would you like to help bring about this change? A good way to start is by making a monthly donation to our social projects. Visit our website, find out how you can help, and donate: I want to donate to the FBB.