Photo by Paula Giolito

Photo by Paula Giolito

About five years after Leonardo Letelier (MBA 2002) graduated from HBS, he found himself at a career crossroads. He enjoyed the work he was doing as a consultant, but something was missing. He didn’t have the word for it. “Today, everyone talks about purpose,” he says, “but that wasn’t a common discussion back then.” He thought about his work, about the projects he had undertaken around the world that had left him satisfied and about those that made him proud; and, finally, he thought about a meeting with Vera Cordeiro, a Brazilian social entrepreneur for whom he was doing pro bono work. “I left each meeting feeling like a better person,” Letelier recalls.

Letelier launched SITAWI Finance for Good in 2008 to recapture that feeling—and to introduce new financial tools into Brazil’s nonprofit and impact sectors. “If you think specifically of nonprofits, the sector’s most pressing need is money,” Letelier says, and the grants that typically power nonprofits don’t typically offer organizations the flexibility of the financial products available to for-profit companies, which can mean everything from bootstrapping and commercial bank loans to venture capital funding and capital markets.

Letelier’s original vision for SITAWI—which means “to develop and flourish” in Swahili—was as a lender. He would solicit grants the organization would in turn use to give loans to nonprofits. “My pitch to the donor was, ‘If you make a grant to us, we’ll multiply the social impact of your money,’” says Letelier.

About a quarter of nonprofits offer some revenue-creating programs, Letelier observes. For instance, a nonprofit offering free medical assistance in remote Brazilian communities would be eligible for government reimbursement for each patient served, but the organization would first need to purchase the equipment necessary to provide treatment. Letelier wanted to offer loans—which would not require the same outcomes that many grant-makers look for—to help such an organization expand, reaching more people and recouping the investment through the government reimbursement.

The concept proved successful—nonprofits and for-profit social or environmental impact companies did benefit from access to loans—but the model did not. SITAWI did not see the necessary volume in deals to be sustainable as a lender. So Letelier pivoted, turning the nonprofit into a lending platform. Instead of directly making loans, the organization provides the infrastructure for crowd-sourced loans and investments to both nonprofit and for-profit positive impact companies.

“Our board complains that we’re always innovating,” says Letelier of the company, which is ever-evolving to serve the needs of the nonprofit sector. In addition to its lending platform, SITAWI offers philanthropic fund management and has partnered with a for-profit consulting firm that focuses on responsible investing to provide additional services to clients. By 2019, SITAWI had mobilized about $11.7 million in capital through its lending platform and fund management, and the consulting firm has influenced the allocation of more than $6 billion in assets. Letelier was expecting to grow “the usual 30 percent” in 2020 when the pandemic hit.

With the infrastructure in place to facilitate donations and loans, SITAWI was well situated to respond to the coronavirus crisis, as social organizations rushed to respond to increased need and companies were eager to contribute to the effort. SITAWI served as a liaison between the two, taking care of all the necessary behind-the-scenes administration. In 2020, SITAWI’s nonprofit organization mobilized nine times more capital than in 2019 (reaching $36.2 million accumulated) and doubled the size of its workforce. In 2021, it is poised to grow its impact and staff even more.

During the crisis, Letelier found the sense of purpose he was missing earlier in his career by ensuring that SITAWI delivered on its mission while caring for its employees. “We wanted to help the country, the organization, and the people,” Letelier says. “Holding all that together was the challenge of 2020. I don’t know what the next challenge will be.”

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