Our mission is to make Brazil a more just and equitable place by guaranteeing access to high-quality public education for Brazilians of all backgrounds while supporting the development of leaders committed to the social transformation of Brazil.
Building a brighter,
more equitable Brazil
Brazil is one of the world’s largest countries as well as one of the world’s wealthiest — it is also one of the least equitable. In a dynamic democracy teeming with human and natural resources, there is no reason this inequality must persist.
Reducing Brazil’s staggering inequality and moving us closer to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 10 will require large-scale action on two fronts. One, we must rapidly address Brazil’s serious learning crisis — fully half of the 50 million children in Brazilian public schools are still illiterate by third grade. Two, we must equip Brazil’s leaders with the tools and opportunities they need to drive social change.
Effectively tackling these imperatives requires drawing on the power of Brazil’s most precious asset: its people. It is our people who innovate, our people who solve complex social problems, our people who create the conditions of possibility for a more advanced, more equitable Brazil.
To accelerate people-centric development in Brazil, the Lemann Foundation supports a range of innovative, scalable initiatives that not only benefit millions of people in our country but can serve as a model for equitable development around the world.
We also recognize the immense value of leveraging the experience and expertise of international philanthropies, mission-driven organizations, and civic-minded entrepreneurs. Collaboration a pillar of our approach. That includes collaboration between historically privileged and historically underprivileged groups. Collaboration between the public, private, and third sectors. And collaboration between those abroad and those in Brazil. These joint efforts can only serve to amplify the power of our home-grown initiatives. This collaborative approach aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 17: to “revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.”
Through our work with partners like Google, YouTube, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and with storied institutes of higher learning such as Harvard, Oxford, and Yale, the Lemann Foundation strives to guarantee access to high-quality public education for Brazilians of all backgrounds while supporting the development of leaders committed to the social transformation of Brazil.
The convergence of these ambitious, wide-reaching initiatives empowers a diverse cross-section of Brazilians to make meaningful contributions to their communities, laying the groundwork for a brighter, more equitable future.
