ReCivitas is a nonprofit organization in Brazil that has established a local basic income in the village of Quatinga Velho with funding provided entirely by private donations. The coverage of Recivitas’s basic income expanded by six people in April 2011. A total of 83 people in Quatinga Velho now receive a basic income of R$30,00 (Brazilian Reals) each. The project has been gradually growing since October 2008, when it made the first basic income payment of R$30 Brazil to 27 people.
Four babies have been born since the project began. The organizers say that these are the first four people to receive a BIG “from the first day of life.” The organizers hope soon to cover the entire village and eventually to expand the project to other villages—inside and outside of Brazil. The organizers have a unique model in which they donate their time and money for the overhead of the project so that 100 percent of a private donation goes directly to providing a basic income to someone in Quatinga Velho.
The organizers are in the process of chartering the “Basic Income Guarantee Social Bank,” which will be able to fund the basic income with investments rather than donations. The bank will function as an investment bank, but its profits will fund a basic income instead of being given to shareholders and executives. They have already attracted investments of R$500,000 from person-to-person appeals through their social network, and they are hoping to increase the number of investments by ten fold in the near future. The organizers hope to use some of the first revenue from the BIG Social Bank to support the BIG Pilot project in Otjivero, Namibia (see above), and then to create Basic Income Guarantees in more communities around the world.
If you would like to donate to ReCivitas or if you are interested in learning more about the BIG Social Bank, please contact the organizers at:
ReCivitas <recivitas@gmail.com>
For more information see their website at:
https://www.recivitas.org.br/