Through online shopping, NGO raises money for social projects in Niterói

Did you know that you can support several social projects by shopping online without spending a penny more than the value of the goods purchased? Gustavo Braga, 45 years old, publicist and resident of Niterói, came up with this wonderful idea. Gustavo has always participated in volunteer work in several areas and is always striving to get more actively involved and help those in need. He believes that we should seek our well-being, our professional, economic growth, but without forgetting the neediest people and, above all, without forgetting God.

How the NGO Compro e Ajudo works

In action since March 2022, the NGO Compro e Ajudo (‘Buy and Help’ in English) has partnered with the largest online stores in Brazil and, whenever a customer buys in these stores, entering through the links within the Compro e Ajudo website, the NGO earns a commission. The value of this commission helps in the permanent sustainability of several social projects existing in the communities of Niterói, a municipality in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. The institution gives residents the opportunity to help needy people in their city just by buying on the internet, at no extra cost to them and in the future a permanent supporter for the actions and social projects of the locality.

Gustavo’s motivation came from the fact that he already had an expertise in this part of the website and partnership with online stores and, when he got to know more closely the need of people living in the communities and the difficulty of social projects to help these people, he realized that he could create a mechanism that would transform this reality of scarcity, without the need for direct financing, without anyone having to invest money.

Gustavo says that the objective of Compro e Ajudo is very big because the proposal does not depend on the direct investment of anyone’s money, not even the State, institutions or society in general. It is enough that a purchase is made, in the store that the person already has the habit of buying, the difference is that, instead of going directly to the store’s website, it does through the NGO’s website and there inside accesses the link of the preferred store. Following this path, customers will automatically be helping those in need without having to spend anything extra.

He believes that solidarity is fundamental to help people with material needs, but it can also help many people who live a great existential emptiness. Gustavo says that the purpose of Compro e Ajudo is to stimulate solidarity to help everyone.

Impacts

“We have just started and we are still far from the impact we want, because we depend on people knowing about our NGO and using our website. Although it does not generate any cost for anyone, we have made a very big effort to make our initiative known, especially since we do not have money to invest in publicity”, explains Gustavo.

Gustavo Braga says that the big challenge is undoubtedly to make the residents of Niterói, who buy on the internet, know the proposal and engage. The search is now for well-known people who can help with dissemination and other ways to give visibility to the project.

“We can help thousands of people, but we are just starting out, we need help to make our proposal known,” he ends.

Did you like the initiative? 

Visit the Compro e Ajudo website and good shopping!

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