Charter of Principles for Patrons

Fundação Terra Agora

April 2024

The Charter of Principles for Patrons¹ presents the set of principles that guide relationships between the Fundação Terra Agora² and its Patrons. It is derived from the Fundação’s statutes³. The Charter of Principles for Patrons should be considered in conjunction with the Fundação’s Statutes, Charter of Principles and Code of Ethics.

This Charter was approved at a Meeting of the Fundação’s Board of Trustees in April 2024 and has been in force since that date. It will be reviewed at most every 5 years, the next review will be by 2028. Any proposals for changes should be sent to the Fundação’s Board of Trustees as soon as same arise.

The procedure to amend the Charter is:

• The Board of Directors consults all the parties, listens to all the Chairpersons of the Governing Bodies, as well as the Patrons and Guardians and collates the proposed changes;
• It drafts a new version and approves it at a Board meeting, submitting the approved version to the Board of Trustees;
• The Board of Trustees gives its approval after negotiating with the Board of Directors, the process being mediated by the respective chairpersons;
• The approved version of the Charter is sent by the Board of Directors to all interested parties and published on the Fundação’s website.
• The Charter of Principles, the Code of Ethics, the Charter of Principles for Patrons and the Charter of Principles for Guardians are 4 documents that form a unit and should be reviewed together.

Fundamental concepts

Patrons are individuals or organisations (‘legal entities’) who make material and immaterial goods available to the Fundação, free of charge, for example, urban or rural buildings, money, shares in companies, works of art, among others.

Donations (or free acquisitions) can be strategic or non-strategic assets — see Article 2 of the Fundação’s statutes⁴.

Contracts

The relationship between Patrons and the Fundação are governed by contracts named ‘Donation Contracts’⁵. Patrons and contracts are public, unless there is a confidentiality clause.

Contracts are concluded at the time of the non-monetary acquisition (‘donation’) of the assets.

Origin of the goods

Patrons have a duty to inform the Fundação of the origin of all assets, ensuring that they are held legally and ethically and do not come from activities that jeopardise the rights of the Earth, Life and Humans (e.g. arms trafficking, ecocide, slavery, human trafficking, animal abuse).

Patrons are also required to make available to the Fundação the history and legacy of each asset — (e.g. historical documentation, former rubbish dump, contamination by dangerous substances, litigation of all kinds, future plans such as building an airport or road, rights agreed with third parties) so that the Fundação can make the decision to accept in full knowledge of all the information and future responsibilities.