OREANDA-NEWS. BM&FBOVESPA’s Socio-Environmental Investment Exchange (BVSA) presents on its portal five new projects from Brazilian organizations. The budgets of the projects listed on BVSA - a virtual donations platform in which individuals and companies contribute to social and environmental causes – range from BRL 30,000 to BRL 100,000. The projects have been rigorously selected in accordance with the eight UN Millennium Development Goals, and are:

Project changing the script, from the Organizacao Santa Fe – Sao Paulo/Capital;

Beija flor – prevention and alleviation of pain in premature babies, from the Organizacao Hospital Sao Francisco de Assis - in Jacarei/SP;

Community Development and Ecologically Sustainable Production Project – PRODEC, from the Community Association of Milagres Organization (ACOM) Milagres/CE;

Carbon Neutral – Recovering Permanent Protection Areas with Agro-Forestry Systems, from the ASPRAVI Organization of Agricultural-Hunter-Gathering Producers in Vale do Indio - Humaita/AM;

Dare to Dream – prevention of teenage pregnancy, from the Organizacao Instituto Kaplan – Aracaju / SE;

To become a socio-environmental investor just register at the portal, select the projects to which you wish to contribute – by theme, beneficiary public or region – and create your portfolio of contributions. Donations start from BRL 20.00 and can be made by credit card or bank payment slip. Companies enjoy the fiscal benefit of the value of their donations being deductible as operating expenses to a limit of 2% of the company’s operating profit (exclusively for firms that are taxed by actual profit). Since its creation, BVSA has raised more than BRL 12.7 million, destined to 107 projects throughout Brazil.

With the listing of these new projects BVSA now provides 13 in all, from organizations from across the country and which now have secure and transparent access to financial resources. All of the money that is raised is passed along by the BM&FBOVESPA Institute to the organizations, with there being no fee or deduction charged. The organizations, for their part, publish periodical accountability reports on the portal, just like a publicly-traded company.

BVSA is a pioneering initiative from BM&FBOVESPA and its brokerage houses and was launched in 2003. It has the support of UNESCO and recognition from the UN as a case study that has inspired other Exchanges, such as Johannesburg (South Africa) and Lisbon (Portugal), which have developed similar projects.