Brazil’s New Philanthropic Stock Exchange

Have you ever had the problem where you don’t know where to send tens of thousands of dollars for charity from the company that you head? If you are, I’d hope that you aren’t on ProU blogging about how the world needs to change, because you have the means to do so yourself.

But for those who do look to helping society progress with the help of their funds, this is a very real problem. You don’t know whether the Mount Vesuvius Recovery Fund you are supporting is legitimate, and you don’t want to end up being caught for tax fraud and end up being audited. Celso Grecco from Brazil began the Brazilian Social and Environmental Stock Exchange in 2003 to stop this problem from occurring to those who are trying to help the world. After all, they should be receiving rewards for their humanitarian attitudes, and after all, let’s face it, without them a lot of the world’s problems would not be receiving any funds.

So the way this system works is that a charitable foundation in Brazil puts in a petition to get into the “stock exchange.” Then, they go threw an extensive analysis that will deem whether or not they are legitimate and suitable for the system. They will get approved if Grecco and his staff see that all of the money they will receive will go to a real problem that has a real solution. A lot of government money is wasted on programs that don’t yet have a real solution, which is why one of the global movements that is going on is trying to get the tools of change in the hands of the business leaders. (Just a side note, one of our country’s biggest leaders in the field of global warming is Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Inc.)

After the analyses, only about 10% of charitable foundations get accepted into the group. Then, the foundations are posted online (there is no actual stock exchange), where business leaders can go and find out what they want to give their money to, depending on what is important to them. For example, one of the foundations that NEWSWEEK spoke about was one that will replace all shrimp boats night-lights that were formerly butane lamps with solar lamps. This will reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere by 15,000 tons a year. But, if global warming is not your thing, you can look at social problems. There are some that are going into gang-infested areas to help area children get into the future safely. The beauty of the system is that you can shop around without being forced into anything.

And it works the other way; these charitable foundations don’t need to go around asking for donations. They are already being advertised because of the company. It is a beautiful system that many business leaders mocked Grecco about when he pitched the idea. Systems like these are going up in England, Germany, South Africa, India, New Zealand, Portugal and Thailand. This is a global movement that the United States needs to catch on to.

For too long has our country relied on our government to deal with all of society’s problems. Instead, we should be looking to those who have the most power in the country, the businesses. One President, no matter how good he is, can only go so far with the resources he has and the power he has. He can’t make Congress do anything (unless you start a war and then after ask them to declare it). Americans need to realize that the American government is an inefficient system that is broken. Barack says he will bring change, and I know he will when he is President, but he can only go so far. He has so many problems that he has to deal with and laws can be bent and broken by anyone. The movement has to lie with us and those around us. Thanks for reading and please comment/rate.

One stat about the system: It has been around for 5 years and has raised $5.5 million dollars for 71 charities. Not an overly impressive number, but still impressive nonetheless.