Football For a Cause

Football for a Cause aims to improve access to education through national passion: football.

We created a social business that generates resource to increase the investment in educational projects with the goal of increasing the marks that Brazil has reached in Ideb (Index of development of basic education).

Usually during a soccer match, several sports materials are used. These items do not have a precise destination, but have a great added value for the fans. So, why not use this idle material to generate financial resources and transform the world reality? Our team recovers any kind of sports accessory that was used by players, we sell on our online platform and invest half of all resources in institutions that have a major impact on basic education.

Due to innovation in its business model it is possible start in other sports, other areas and countries making our impact even greater. 

My hometown, Rio de Janeiro, is plagued by striking social inequalities. The educational problem is multifactorial, including factors such as poor teacher training, which together with the precarious structure or even the lack of sufficient schools, do not encourage students to continue studying. In this way, a precarious and exclusive public educational system is created, in which historically people who have depended on it have hardly been able to improve their own reality.

In Brazil about 70% of students who finish high school do not reach the basic level of knowledge of Portuguese and mathematics. That is, about 13 million youth are affected by this problem. In addition, currently in Brazil about 11.8 million people are considered illiterate, according to data from the PNAD Continuous survey of 2016.

In a country where more than 30% of investments related to education have been cut over the past few years, it is perceived that this is not a priority issue of the government, and therefore, we can not expect solutions that will come from him. Therefore, we prefer to take the responsibility of overcoming this challenge, using the national passion: football, to generate educational funding.

This initiative will impact the lives of humble people who do not have access to quality basic education. During the first two years we will focus on Brazil and then expand overseas as well.

Our target audience, who will finance this social impact, is different from the public benefited. This audience is made up of football supporters and fans, composed of an average of 85% of men between 18 and 44 years of age, belonging to the A, B and C + classes (although it has already been sold to the public in class D.) we are focused on the Brazilian market, but we intend from 2020 to expand to other countries.

In a country whose population has such a strong relationship soccer, we decided not to question ourselves whether this relationship is healthy or not. Because, it will not help us solve any problem.

Usually during a soccer match, several sports materials are used, such as: Goalkeeper's glove, shorts, balls, shirts, boots, among others ... Often these items do not have a precise destination after being used, but have a great added value for the fans of that team. So, why not use this idle material to generate financial resources and transform the reality that we would like to see changed?

Our team recovers any kind of sports accessory that was used by players during games or soccer training, and after collecting them, we sell on our online platform, investing half of all resources generated in institutions that have a major impact on basic education.

We are in a commercial launch phase of the venture. Today, the biggest challenge facing us is access to the world of football teams. But in 2018 we started to close concrete partnerships with Brazilian clubs, which made us realize that we are on the right track but now we need more people to support our cause and believe in our solution.

Currently, more than 110 people have already been directly impacted. We fund 2 educational projects in 2 countries.

- The construction of a school in Malawi. This project was developed by the DAPP (Development Aid from People to People) institution.

- Estate Mágica” - that transformed into books the stories written by 50 students of a public school in Rio de Janeiro. This activity revealed new perspectives, and empowered students.

Referring to our current state in the world of football: We were invited to the annual CBF Social Responsibility Seminar, and currently we have partnership with Flamengo, Santos, Cruzeiro and Bahia (Brazilians soccer teams). In addition, we were invited to the Game of the Stars that occurred on 27/12/2018, where we obtained equipment from Zico and Julio Cesar, former goalkeeper of the National Team.