Leonardo Letelier (photo by Paula Giolito)

Leonardo Letelier (MBA 2002) was looking for purpose in his career when he launched SITAWI Finance for Good in Brazil in the mid-2000s. The nonprofit, an early participant in what is now called social impact investing, was conceived as a lending institution for nonprofits and for-profit social or environmental impact companies. Instead of relying on often restrictive grants, nonprofits with revenue-creating programs—say, an organization that offered free medical treatment in remote Brazilian communities and later received reimbursement for each patient served—would have access to the more flexible capital of a loan. Letelier started with his own money and began to attract grantors to fund SITAWI when he had a track record of successful projects. “My pitch to the donor was, ‘If you make a grant to us, we’ll multiply the social impact of your money.’”

In the years since, SITAWI has evolved to meet the ever-changing needs of the Brazilian nonprofit and for-profit positive impact community. It is now, in part, 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 social impact companies. It also offers philanthropic fund management, and it 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.

During the coronavirus crisis, as social organizations rushed to respond to increased need and companies were eager to contribute to the effort, SITAWI’s nonprofit organization mobilized nine times as much capital as it had the previous year and doubled the size of its workforce.

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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