In ISPN's 20 years of experience launching calls for proposals and selecting projects for the Small Eco-Social Projects Program (PPP-ECOS), it has observed the difficulty organizations face in developing effective proposals and accessing resources to support their activities. The Environmental-Themed Project Fundraising Project (CAPTA) was conceived to expand access to resources by improving organizations' project development and fundraising capabilities.
In addition to the publication, which is free to download, the website was launched capta.org.br, which contains most of the book's content, as well as a weekly updated opportunities board with open calls for proposals on socio-environmental development topics. Register your email on the CAPTA website to receive new calls for proposals every week.
Conducted in 2013 and 2014, the project was funded by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio) through the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) call for projects, a partnership between the Brazilian and US governments aimed at applying Brazilian foreign debt resources to tropical forest conservation efforts. As part of the CAPTA project, 155 representatives of community-based organizations were trained in six courses on project development and fundraising, structured with an emphasis on the following topics:
a) Institutional development;
b) Processing and marketing of sociobiodiversity products; and
c) Agroecology.
With a well-defined focus, the course was able to bring more content to the discussions and, consequently, contribute to the proposals developed by the participants presenting greater quality and effectiveness.
This guide is the result of this initiative, aiming to consolidate the knowledge generated in the six courses and to provide access to information for a greater number of organizations. We hope this publication will be an important tool for empowering organizations to develop their proposals and, thus, enabling improvements in the quality of life of communities associated with the sustainable use of biodiversity.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the authors, collaborators, reviewers, and all those who helped build this initiative, which represents a milestone and the consolidation of ISPN's 25 years of experience in research, documentation, and support for ecosocial community projects.
