Companies and institutions in Brazil allocated more than R$6.2 billion to social impact actions last year. The number represents an increase of 19.4% compared to 2023. The result is in the research Corporate Social Investment Benchmarking (BISC) 2025prepared and published this Thursday (23) by Comunitas, an ideas laboratory focused on strengthening Brazilian public management.
“We can say that it was practically the biggest year in the historical series, with the exception of the pandemic, because, in 2020, we reached similar or slightly higher levels, but with all the extraordinary resources to mitigate the effects of covid-19”, he said, in an interview with Brazil Agencythe director of social investment at Comunitas, Patrícia Loyola.
The research also indicated that the growth of corporate social investment was impacted, mainly, by the organizations’ own resources. In 2024, they reached R$4.79 billion, which means an increase of 35%. The incentivized resources totaled R$1.42 billion.
According to Comunitas, the intention of publishing the BISC survey annually is to offer a strategic vision on corporate social investment (ISC) in the country, with effective parameters to reinforce the planning of companies, institutes and foundations.
“Data and evidence are parameters to support decision-making. We are in the 18th edition of the research, and its purpose is to help social executives, which are the social teams of companies, foundations and corporate institutes, to look around and compare themselves. Often, this action can be isolated, and it becomes very self-absorbed in the reality of the company or its territory. Having a network of trust that can collaborate, guided by collective learning and exchange around common challenges, it is very rich”, stated the director.
Choices
The themes that are at the top of social investors’ choices are education and culturein addition to the evolution that has been occurring in productive inclusion.
“We see productive inclusion rising a lot in terms of importance, to look at professional qualification education, which is a social pain for business, it is a pain due to the lack of qualified labor. So, the company’s social intelligence can come to answer this qualification point”, he explained.
In terms of coverage, urgent actions aimed at climate emergencies became unanimous among companies in 2024. “More humanitarian actions are the most common to occur, with great potential for companies to look more at climate prevention and adaptation actions, because we are no longer at risk of climate emergencies, we are experiencing emergencies. The episodes will become increasingly intense. The mobilization that an episode as this brings can also be at the service of something more structuring, with a longer term vision, which is what we also defend, initiatives that can mitigate the effects of climate change”, he pointed out.
Donations for the 2024 climate tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul stored in the São Paulo Air Base hangar. Photo: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
Industry x Services
Patricia Loyola added that the industrial sector is more focused on territorial demands and, therefore, is multi-cause, because the location will need infrastructure, health, education, public security. The services sector is more focused on causes such as education, for example.
“In general, the total volume of investment in recent years has been more dispersed, because the industrial sector gained strength and weight in this volume. The services sector, historically, pushed the curve higher. During the pandemic, the industry caught up with the services sector, reaching a year higher, and today they are equivalent. If we look at the last few years, the dispersion has grown because the industry’s performance has grown”, he informed.
The survey also showed that young people remain the priority population group for investments. “We have, in Brazil, a talent shortage. It’s not just a problem in Brazil, it’s global, but, with our context of social vulnerability and high inequality, it intensifies. Digitalization will intensify this gap even more so, because developing countries will have greater difficulty reaching the levels of developed countries, and companies feel this firsthand. Companies are investing in social, but also addressing social pain points in the business. Young people end up being highlighted among the target populations”, reported the director, adding that the profile of the network’s operations advances more in a financing model.
“In Brazil, fortunately, we have a very active civil society, and we have identified that there is a direction to finance more projects rather than necessarily carrying out projects of their own authorship and methodology, especially because what has been growing is a co-investment movement, which are alliances and partnerships. Companies have understood that, alone, they will not be able to solve the size of the problem. So, they are forming alliances with their value chains, with companies in their sector. co-investment can take place by cause or territories”, he concluded.
In this 18th edition, the study brings unprecedented information about the ISC scenario in Brazil and relies on data from its network of supporters and public sources, analyzing information from 337 business units and 22 institutes and corporate foundations on the development of investment volumes, divisions by source of financing, economic sectors and distribution by social themes.
