‘Once you’ve travelled to Manaus, you’re committed’ – Latimpacto’s fifth annual conference opens in Brazil’s Amazonian centre

In 2022 Latimpacto hosted its first annual conference in Cartagena, Colombia. It was a big deal for the new network of impact capital providers, still very much in startup mode and finding its footing amid Covid-19 lockdowns. CEO Carolina Suárez Visbal was so relieved when the first ticket for that event sold that she bought the buyer a thank you gift. 

Five years on, Latimpacto is firmly established in the region and worldwide, with more than 240 members, major partnerships and several impact funds. 

Just before its fifth 'Impact Minds' conference, this time held in Manaus, Brazil, we spoke to Suárez (pictured top) and Latimpacto knowledge director Catalina Herrera (pictured below) about bringing hundreds of impact investors, philanthropists and others to the heart of the Amazon.  

• Read more: Turning dialogue into concrete action in the heart of the Amazon – Impact Minds 2026 preview

Pioneers Post: You’ve said it’s more difficult for you to organise the conference in Manaus; it takes longer for people to get here. So why is it still worth it?

Carolina Suárez: If you want to invest in Latin America, it’s best to get out of the common epicentres like Bogotá, Mexico City or Sao Paulo, and to come here to the city that is not so well known. Sometimes when you mention Manaus, people have in their mind forests and monkeys. There are a lot of misconceptions.

Something that we promote all the time at Latimpacto and particularly at Impact Minds is how you can have more humble conversations, more open conversations. When you are out of your comfort zone, it’s a good motivation. Because you’re relaxed, and because [once you travel to Manaus] you can’t have parallel agendas – you are committed.

For me it was really important to host this conference in Manaus. It was difficult in terms of logistics. We have fewer people compared with the previous edition in Medellín; even in Oaxaca [in 2024], we had almost 800 people. This year it’s 600. But at the members’ dinner [on the first night] I was so happy to see in the middle of the humid weather, people hugging each other…I’m so glad to see this commitment, this openness.

Catalina Herrera: Investors need to understand different perspectives to include in their projects, their decisions. We try to encourage our members to listen to other voices and have this connection with the territories and with other realities.

Carolina Suárez: Sometimes we miss how to listen: we want to act, we want to propose our project, we want to propose our investments, instead of listening to others and asking how we can build together. This is about how you can connect better with your peers in a complex time.

It was difficult in terms of logistics... but I'm so glad to see this commitment, this openness

Pioneers Post: Your first conference was five years ago. What has changed for you since then?

Carolina Suárez: The attendees value this conference – we were saying maybe we want to skip next year, but our members and the community are asking for a conference like this one. It is the only space that we have today in Latin America that carries all these capital providers in one single space and I’m so glad of that. 

At the beginning, as you remember, there were a lot of people trying to understand the concept of the continuum of capital, but here I’m seeing how most of the people already understand this concept and how they can apply it.

Yesterday, we had our first Families Day. We brought together 40 people: family foundations, family offices, next-gen [wealth inheritors], and it was an amazing conversation. We had different interpretations and roundtables to discuss how families can be more bold.

Delegates on their way to the members' dinner outside the city on Tuesday (photo: Latimpacto) 

Pioneers Post: What are the aims of this conference?

Carolina Suárez: We only bring capital providers; we do not open the space. There will be some entrepreneurs who are invited by the Skoll Foundation or the Bayer Foundation, but most of the people that you will find here are capital providers. And we’re very selective, if you want to come to our conference, you should request. And we accept or not.

Catalina Herrera: The idea of this conference is to create a safe space. To share not only the exits, the successes, but even the bad things.

Pioneers Post: It can be hard to get the funding to sustain an infrastructure organisation like this. Has that become easier or harder since five years ago? 

Carolina Suárez: It is harder, because these organisations cannot be sustainable in the short term, in only five or six years. 

Now we have more than 240 members – this is a mobilisation. I tell my funders that they should be proud about what the organisation is doing and how we have changed the way that people are thinking about philanthropy, thinking about the programmes, interacting with each other.

• Read more: Can we save our vital social impact infrastructure?

When we started Latimpacto, we said, okay, let’s connect and let’s create knowledge. And now we are translating this knowledge into specific and concrete actions. And there are the funds that we are mobilising: we have the STEM funds [pooled funds bringing together several investors] in Brazil, Mexico, and now Argentina. And we're looking at how we can replicate this fund in other countries in Latin America, particularly with a focus on girls.

We have the second cohort of the Culture Fund in eight countries in Latin America. We have the Green Catalytic Fund in the whole region, and other initiatives like Innature Lab, that is an initiative that we run in partnership with CAF, the Latin American Development Bank and with Trafigura Foundation, and we are supporting entrepreneurs in the Amazon basin developing nature-based solutions.

Delegates join a field visit to learn about the indigenous-led Podaali Fund on the outskirts of Manaus

Pioneers Post: Do you need to go out and find more funding every year? 

Carolina Suárez: Of course. This is a big question for us. We would love to see more funders saying, as Doug [Miller, the founder of Latimpacto and its sister networks] and other funders do, ‘I believe in Latimpacto because we need an organisation like Latimpacto.’

Pioneers Post: What are the hot topics among Latimpacto’s members right now?

Carolina Suárez: Exits, liquidity and fundraising. There are a lot of funds raising money and in the US, with the new administration they are not seeing Latin America as a market. Africa and Ukraine is the priority for Europe and even South East Asia. So what we need right now is we need more families like Ticiana [Rolim] committed to creating impact. We would love to have more Ticianas because I don't know people like her in Latin America. She's our Mackenzie [Scott]!

Pioneers Post: But there is wealth in the region. What do you think would help to redirect it?

Carolina Suárez: It’s understanding the opportunity that you have when you invest with an impact investing lens. But [many investors] don’t want to take the risk in this geopolitical moment. In Brazil there are elections next month. In many countries we’re moving from the left to the right: in Colombia, in Mexico. So, how do you feel comfortable investing in these markets?

Pioneers Post: What else have I not asked you that is important to emphasise?

Carolina Suárez: Coming here to the Amazon is the way that you can understand the region, and you can connect with the best peers to leverage your influence. One of our funders said: ‘I am investing in Latimpacto, because it will help me to open different doors.’ Latimpacto helps investors and philanthropists to create the conditions for the ecosystem as a whole to invest better.

Pioneers Post is attending this week's conference as a media partner; Latimpacto covered our reporters' travel costs. Check back soon for more stories.

Top photo: Carolina Suárez opens the Latimpacto annual conference on Thursday 10 September in Manaus, Brazil (courtesy of Latimpacto).