At almost 40 years old, during discussions about family successionBartira Almeida asked herself a decisive question. “What do I want to do in the second productive half of my life?”
The daughter of engineers and part of a family that built a solid company in the real estate sector, she learned from an early age that achievement came from effort. With a degree in engineering, Bartira began her career at Morar Construtora, where she spent 20 years. She started as an intern, worked in different areas and became vice-president.
“I learned to work at Morar. I learned to do things well, to relate, to think about the long term. Everything I am as a manager was built there,” she recalls.
But even with financial stability and well-structured governance in the family business, she decided to seek a new purpose. The first step was to listen to those who had already changed their path.
“A lot of people who worked in social media said they received more than they gave. To me, that made a lot of sense.” Before founding any initiative, Bartira did what an experienced executive would do and went into the field. In two years, he visited 42 social projects.
“I found projects that were much more serious than I imagined, but with less management than I expected. I wanted a project with a goal, evaluation, number and result. As I didn’t find one, I understood that I would have to found one”, says the president of the Institute.
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The businesswoman participated in the program From Zero to Topwhich from this episode onwards also begins to tell stories of social entrepreneurship.
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The Ponte Institute is born
In 2014, Bartira Almeida founded Instituto Ponte with the goal of getting six donors willing to invest R$30,000 per year. She got five. The sixth, she decided, would be herself.
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“If I couldn’t do it, it was a sign that the project shouldn’t exist. I got the message. I was the sixth one.”
From the beginning, Instituto Ponte was structured with a business mentality: budget, goals, indicators, performance evaluation and results contracts.
“NGO works like a company. It has CNPJ, budget and people. What changes is the purpose”, says the founder.
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The Institute’s focus is to identify talented young people from public schools and accelerate their social ascension in a single generation. “We are the public school scout. We look for above-average intelligence and a real desire to change your life.”
Social ascension in a generation
Today, Instituto Ponte serves 466 students in 19 states. The most impressive data comes from income. On average, students who attend the institute earn six times more than the family’s per capita income when they graduate.
The university dropout rate, according to Bartira, also draws attention. Just 2%, against national averages of up to 40%. “Education is a long-term project. Our cycle lasts 10 years. When I place a student today, I am making a ten-year financial commitment”, he says.
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Over the last three years, the Institute has grown by around 30% per year. But Bartira treats expansion as a high-risk strategic decision. The goal is to reach 650 students by 2029, which requires R$30 million in financial resources and around R$80 million in partnerships. “I manage impact as cash flow.”
Without public resources, the Institute depends exclusively on private donations. Bartira defines her role with humor and candor. “I went from being vice president to becoming a walking beggar.”
The transition from the private to the social sector brought mutual learning. “I took numbers, goals and objectivity. They taught me acceptance and equity. You can’t talk about meritocracy without talking about equity”, says the founder
To find out more details about Bartira Almeida’s entrepreneurial journey and how to run an NGO, see the full episode on . The program is available in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , , and .
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About From Zero to Top
The Do Zero ao Topo podcast is produced by InfoMoney and brings, each week, the stories of prominent women and men in the Brazilian market to tell their story, sharing the biggest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used in building the business.
