Fundacion Brotario
Brotario creates nature-based learning experiences that help children develop life skills, wellbeing, and care for the environment
Fundación Brotario is a Chilean nonprofit based in Puerto Varas, in the Los Lagos region, dedicated to nature-based education for children. The organization was founded by Sofía Schmidt, Florencia Pérez, and Mariajesús Parada, who bring backgrounds in landscape architecture, economics, and occupational therapy to Brotario's work.
Brotario began in 2021 with a pilot of its flagship program, the Jardín Nativo de Aprendizaje (Native Learning Garden, JNA), funded by CAPES UC and implemented in rural schools in the Puerto Varas, Frutillar, and Llanquihue municipalities. Based on the early results, Brotario partnered with Fundación 99 and secured multi-year strengthening grants from Fundación Mustakis and Fundación Colunga, which allowed the program to grow. Brotario later became an independent foundation to continue expanding JNA and related initiatives.
Brotario believes in the power of nature to help build a more conscious and compassionate society that lives in harmony with its environment. Guided by this vision, its mission is to promote learning experiences in contact with native nature so that children and their communities develop life skills and conscious habits that support both personal wellbeing and the environment.
Today, JNA is active in 10 schools, reaching over 400 students, and has resulted in more than 300m² of native gardens built and over 1,500 native species planted, alongside measurable gains in school attendance and socioemotional skills. Beyond JNA, Brotario offers community tree-planting days, native flora workshops, socioemotional workshops, and customized nature-based sessions for schools and companies, including corporate team-building programs and pedagogical consulting services for other organizations.
Looking ahead, Brotario is focused on building long-term financial sustainability through a mix of public and private grants, corporate partnerships, and fee-based services, with the goal of reaching operational breakeven by 2027 and full sustainability by 2028. Planned priorities include strengthening its fundraising team, deepening ties with regional government, school networks (SLEP Llanquihue), and corporate allies, and continuing to expand JNA's reach across Chile.
Fundraisers
Official fundraiser
Plant a Native Learning Garden in a Public Chilean School 🌱
In southern Chile, children grow up surrounded by some of the world's most unique temperate rainforests, yet few learn about them at school. At Fundación Brotario, we turn schoolyards into native learning gardens : living classrooms where students plant, observe and care for the plants of their own territory. Each garden is built with the school community. Older and younger students team up, research native species, design their own signs and plant the garden together. When we leave, the school keeps a permanent learning space that every class and every teacher can use, year after year. For six years we've worked with 450+ children in 10 rural schools in the Los Lagos region and planted more than 1,500 native plants. Every school we've worked with has increased student attendance. With USD 2,100, we can create one complete native learning garden for about 140 students. What your gift makes possible: $15 brings one student into the garden experience $50 plants 7 native species, such as murta , matico or canelo $100 mulches and protects the new garden $320 builds and installs a large interpretive totem that tells the garden's story Help us give one more school a place where children learn from nature, by being in it.
- Raised
- $40
- Goal
- $2,100
2 supporters
DonateDonors
Juan Lecaros To the fundraiser: Plant a Native Learning Garden in a Public Chilean School 🌱1