Autonomia no terceiro setor: estudo de caso sobre a Fundação de Amparo ao Menor em Alagoas

Abstract

This research is a qualitative case study that aims to address the following problems: to what extent political and financial autonomy related issues impacted the achievement of the objectives and the institutional mission of the “Foundation for Child Support” - Fundanor. Fundraising strategies used by Fundanor managers regarding financial sustainability were verified; we also sought to observe the existence or not of disputes between the different management groups of Fundanor and how these disputes interfered in the political autonomy of the institution, preventing or impelling it; in addition, we analyzed whether and to what extent the relationships established by Fundanor with the State, the Market and the Third Sector have caused or not loss of its autonomy. With regard to the main theoretical aspects, we presented the following categories of analysis and their respective theorists: strategies of fundraising, based on Teixeira (2003) and Melo (2013); institutional relations and disputes between management groups, also based on Teixeira (2003); construction of autonomies, following the discussions of Lyra (2005) and Medeiros (2008); and, on the instrumental and communicative rationalities, from Habermas (2012). In this case study, we delimit our corpus of analysis based on the selection of data obtained through the semi-structured interview, applied to ten interlocutors and the choice of some documents (minutes, reports, offices). Through the analysis of data, it was possible to perceive that, despite having managed to build itself politically autonomous, Fundanor failed to materialize the project of becoming an autonomous institution financially or, in the words of the interviewees, to become self-sustainable.