Pious Shares.

A Rio church embraces the stock market.

EAGER TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE MARKET PLACE, Providence Bank, the organization that manages the Roman Catholic Church's charitable programs in Brazil, is selling "shares" via the Rio stock exchange. The bank hopes to raise US$600,000 to help street children, recovering alcoholics, AIDS victims and prisoners recently released from jail.

It was serendipity that brought the plan about, Maria Cristina Sa, one of the bank's directors, fretted to a friend about the church's need to more effectively compete with other charities. That friend, Paulo Renato Marques, the head of investor relations at Light, the Rio power company, raised the idea of the stock exchange. He suggested that the bank function like any other listed company and seek corporate donors in the same way that Light raised $1 billion in 2000.

"The bank is planning to spend almost 3 million reais ($1.6 million) this year, but only about 1.7 million reais was covered," explains Marques. "So the idea was to arrange a way of covering the difference and finding a formula to raise money every year that would give the bank's projects continuity."

After publicity shoots with Rids Cardinal Eugenio Sales, stock exchange VIPs and public relations executives, Marques made the rounds of Brazil's major corporations to explain bow their money would be spent Although church officials call them shares, they concede they are merely corporate donations. The "stocks" don't fluctuate, shareholders have no voting power and the only dividends are the social dividends of the bank's charity work.

What corporate donors do receive, however, are tax deductions, balance sheets every three months detailing where the money is spent and recognition plaques. "You are investing in people. When you invest in material goods you run the risk of losing through inflation, through revolution, through the fall of the government," says Sa. "People are always going to be there. This is an investment of an inestimable value."

Donation scheme. Auditors at Deloitte and Touche are overseeing the sale; Matos Filho, Brazil's second-biggest law firm, is offering legal help and the U.S. publicity firm Citigate Dewe Rogerson is handling marketing. These companies are giving their time and resources free of charge. "They believe that it is a form of helping and they recognize that this is a serious project, says Marques.

Providence Bank was formed 40 years ago by now-retired Archbishop Helder Camara, well known for helping the nation's downtrodden. Today, the bank's Rio chapter finances four daycare centers, three adult-education schools, a hospice for AIDS patients, an orphanage for the children of deceased AIDS victims and a clinic for patients with sexually transmitted diseases. The bank also gives poor Brazilians loans of $60 apiece to help with overdue bills or short-term debts. More than 20,000 people benefit from the bank's social programs annually.

In the past, the bank raised almost three quarters of its revenue at an annual fair where volunteers sold cheese, wine, clothes, sporting goods and other donated items. The remaining 25% of the annual income came from corporate donations and the Sunday collection plate.

If the stock market venture is successful, such fundraisers will soon be obsolete. Church officials plan to expand the stock experiment annually, with an eye on bankrolling the entire budget through corporate investors within four years.

Using the stock market to secure funds may clash with the pope's warnings on the dangers of consumerism, but Marques denies that the church is capitalizing on the same money-making vehicles that have been criticized for using people as pawns of profit.

"We are saving lives, not adding to consumerism," he says. "The companies are investing in creating a better society in making a better life. That is the best kind of investment. The social benefits are much better than the fiscal benefits."