The Path to Self-Sustainability

Guiding the transition from donations to renewable sources of money

The organization we will help is Saúde Criança, founded 1991 in Rio de Janeiro. This
nonprofit takes care of individuals who, after being treated at the hospital, do not have the
necessary means to continue their treatment at home, often leading to a re-admission in
worse conditions. The organization needs us to come up with a strategy for self-
sustainability which encompasses assessment of their resources, market research and
development of concrete solutions.

Social needs identified Sustainable social impact generated

Saúde Criança currently receives funding by
producing and selling handcrafted products and
from donations. The team’s task will be
to develop more sustainable funding methods,
preferably not based on one-time events such as
donations.
A method we want to extensively explore is
starting a consultancy branch within Saúde
Criança in order to spread its method throughout
Brazil for a fee. The final deliverable of the
project is a business plan to be implemented by
the organization.
Saúde Criança aims to help families to break the
vicious cycle that starts with poverty, leads to
health problems and hospitalization that prevent
to get out of misery.
Since its creation in 1991, the NGO has managed
to have a significant impact. They assisted nearly
14’000 people, including more than 9’000
children. Through their actions, they achieve
dramatically decrease in the number of days of
hospitalization (-66%) and improvement of
health status of the children they take care. They
also contribute to increase income of the families
(+32%), which is key for the sustainability of life
quality improvement of these families.

We want to make our contribution by helping

Saúde Criança to become self-sustainable and
allow them to expand this social impact.

Project Information Financial Needs

Students involved: 4 Duration of stay: 2 weeks

Area of Impact: Health Flight: CHF 10’000
Target Country: Brazil Accommodation: CHF 6’000
Target Organization: Saúde Criança Other Expenses: CHF 2’000
Time Frame: November 2010 – July 2011 Total: CHF 18’000