Adventures in South America: Land Of A 1000 Dances

Argentina, Chile and Peru followed on from Mexico and Brazil and flew by in a blur of colour and music and beautiful people. I arrived back in the UK, knackered from months of working hard and playing hard, and bleary eyed from a journey from Lima that took almost an entire day. Fortunately arrival was immediately followed by fun times and great food with friends in London!

Arriving cold and bleary eyed into the London winter



Immediately brightening up after friends and great food!



Out there I was so immersed in the things I was doing that about all I could do was take notes and hope that I’d remember enough to write everything up when I got back. It seemed like such a waste to waste days writing or blogging when I could be living the experience.

As it turns out though, the million photographs I took mean that I have a pretty good diary of my life on the road, and the mind-maps, notes and documents I created mean that I have great reminders of the things I worked on. When you add the fact that I’m still in touch with almost everyone I met, and am continuing to help a number of the organisations I worked with, the act of retrospective recording isn’t proving to be too difficult a task. The challenge lies in the scale of it. I recently did a small analysis of time spent, and over the last year alone it works out to around 1000 hours of pro-bono work across approximately 60 social enterprises and NGOs ranging from start-ups to global entities.

So anyway, this should hopefully be the first of more regular blog posts, but for now I just thought I’d share a small glimpse of who I’ve worked with and what I’m planning to write up – I’ve got as far as draft lists :)

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Organisations I engaged with in 2009
London

• Ashoka International
• UnLtd
• Red Foundation
• Imediate
• i-Genius
• BANG Edutainment
• Bold Creative
• Positive TV
• Living Lens
• Carbon Outreach
• DigiTalk
• Cool2Care

Mexico

• Ashoka Mexico
• Ojos Que Sienten
• Revolucion con Letras
• Fundacion de Investigacion y Desarrollo Educativo
• Fin Comun
• Sustentavia
• Fairtasa
• Yansa

Brazil

• Ashoka Brazil
• Catalytic Communities
• CDI
• The International Exchange
• Factory of The Future
• Ayllu Initiative
• Artemisia
• Barca
• Ocarete
• Movimento Nosse Sao Paolo
• Article 19
• Projecto Alavanca
• IDEC
• Sitawi

Argentina

• Ashoka Argentia
• La Usina
• Fundacion Leer
• TangoVia
• Cimientos
• Help Argentina

Chile

• Regala Tu Compleano
• Escuela de Guias
• Rodelillo
• Corazón de Chileno

Peru

• Ashoka Peru
• Instituto Del Peru
• Care Peru
• Grupo Geo
• Ciudad Saludable
• EnseñaPerú

India

• UnLtd India
• Grassroutes
• Youth Factor
• Dream A Dream
• Youth Venture India

United States

• Shareable.net
• Charity Champs
• Broncs Weblog
• Literacy and Poverty Project

Nigeria

• Paradigm Initiative Nigeria

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Things I’m planning to write about in the next month or so

Regional – Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru

• Travel Reflections – Places and Cultures
• Social Issues Covered + interview transcripts
• Social Enterprises worked with incl. ideas and changes

Article Topics

• Principles of Social Design – Ecosystems, Timeframe, Impact focus
• Practical mechanisms of scaling for social enterprises
• Differences between mature and immature information economies – developed vs. developing economies
• Inclusive Business
• Hybrid Value Chains
• Social Business
• Fair Trade vs. Direct Selling
• Micro-Resourcing – Shared Service Centres
• Incubator Design
• New Social Lending Models – Recycling grants
• Failures in Global Support Systems
• The problem with focusing on Innovation
• The problem with Training Social Entrepreneurs
• Crowd-funding for Social Organisations
• Microfranchising
• Creating Identity
• Projects Transforming Communities – True Social Enterprises?
• Designing Movements
• Creating donation cultures
• Mobilising the Facebook Generation
• Partnering for Financial Sustainability and Social Impact
• Financial Sustainability - Business Model Innovation for the Social Sector
• Social discrimination and Economic Status
• Collaborative models for addressing poverty

How To’s – Guides for Social Enterprises

• How to build successful a social organisation – 20 steps
• Creating useful mission statements
• Understanding the difference between Mission, Vision, Strategy and Tactics
• Creating flexible 5 year plans
• Board Responsibilities for Charities
• Using Brand to Achieve Your Social Mission
• Using Social Media to Achieve Your Social Mission
• Tips for Successful Fundraising
• How to Write Good Fundraising Applications
• Critical factors in managing social projects/initiatives
• Understanding Social Return on Investment

Hopefully this gives you an idea of where I’m going with this project. Drop me a note if you’re in London anytime during February and have any thoughts you’d like to discuss or add. All inputs welcome!