Brazil builds a culture of giving with almost no tax relief on donations
Brazil is building a culture of philanthropy without any broad tax relief on donations, according to Rhodri Davies, director of philanthropy knowledge at Alliance, writing in October 2026 after a visit to Sao Paulo. He spoke at the launch of Instituto Benera, a new organisation set up to coordinate the infrastructure for giving in Brazil. Only minor tax breaks exist, for gifts to specific projects aligned with government priorities.
Brazilian donors get almost nothing back from the state, so every gift is the donor's own choice about what to do with surplus wealth. Rhodri Davies notes that this weakens an argument common in the United Kingdom and the United States: that tax subsidies make philanthropic assets partly public. In Brazil, deep distrust of government keeps the state largely out of the debate on how that wealth gets used.
Source: Alliance Magazine · October 9, 2026