Luiza Serpa founded and directs the Phi Institute, one of the most important NGOs in Brazil and a reference in the sector. Luiza was born in Rio de Janeiro, her restlessness began early. Like so many young people fresh out of college, her priority was a solid corporate career and financial independence. Graduated in advertising, she even migrated from Rio to São Paulo in search of professional fulfillment. But, working in the metropolis, she found herself dissatisfied with the path she was beginning to tread. She had a permanent concern with injustices and wanted to act, to make social transformation happen. She returned to Rio de Janeiro and, among some job offers, accepted the one that made sense: she left corporate communication and went to work for an NGO, Junior Achievement. A few years later, seeking new challenges, she received from the philanthropist Marcos Flávio Azzi the proposal to set up in Rio, from scratch, the branch of the São Paulo Azzi Institute, a bridge between high-net-worth individuals and social projects. Its mission would be to seek people who wanted to donate $ 200,000 or more per year without any tax benefit. Not easy for a country with little culture of giving. Luiza eagerly embarked on the venture. Luiza’s biggest challenge, however, was yet to come. After consolidating the institute in Rio de Janeiro, together with her team, she noticed that she could expand activities. The exclusive focus on very wealthy donors limited Azzi from turning resources from people with lower purchasing power and companies to social projects. She began to think about a new institute, to deal exclusively with these audiences. What she achieved was even better: Marcos Flávio Azzi offered financial support if Luiza founded, at her own risk, a new institute to continue the work she had already been doing and seek the new audiences she wanted. In 2014, the Phi Institute was born, the third and riskiest of Luiza’s major changes. Today, in nine years of existence, the Phi Institute has supported more than 1,400 social projects, all evaluated based on solidity, transparency, potential for impact and quality of management. The donations came from about 200 investors – approximately R$174 million, impacting the lives of more than 2 million Brazilians in socioeconomic vulnerability. One of the winners of the Social Entrepreneur Award of Folha de S. Paulo, in 2020, articulator of MAIS – Map of Social Impact, which is mapping the philanthropic ecosystem in the country, senior fellow of the Skoll Foundation, responsible leader of the BMW Foundation, member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Latimpacto and member of the international community Nexus Global, Luiza has been consolidating the Phi Institute as an agent for strengthening the culture of philanthropy: more than distributing financial resources, the organization’s mission is to work so that all citizens have a commitment to the promotion of collective well-being
