"A good social entrepreneur does good and inspires others to do likewise"

Xavier Bosch is Chief Executive of Reach Out!, a charity originally founded in Manchester with only a handful of volunteers mentoring on projects in Hulme, Moss Side and Longsight. Starting out as a homework club, the charity has rapidly grown to support 200 children’s academic and personal development each year.

What is Reach Out?
We are a mentoring charity working with children in deprived areas of Manchester and London on a one to one basis. The purpose of the mentoring is to help mentees grow in character (fairness, self mastery etc) and competence (numeracy, literacy etc).

How would you describe yourself in 3 lines?
A struggling chief executive, battling funding cuts and increased demands for our services.

Why did you create Reach Out? How did it born?
We were founded in 1994 by my predecesor. He saw an opportunity: thousands of university students with plenty of time in their hands for three years of their lives, and thousands of young people who could benefit from a mentor, but could not afford it.

Which are the main difficulties you found with Reach Out?
Managing growth. Funding.

What works better for getting money in Reach Out?
When people understand that we are good at doing good.

Do you think that society recognizes your social work and the efforts of other social entrepreneurs?
Yes, but they are not always ready to put money behind it.

Can you tell us any touching history that happened to you these years?
There are many. Parents telling us that we are the best things that has happened to their children. Young people telling us they avoided prison (unlike their peers or siblings) because of us, people with no university background in their families going go to university. Etc.

Which are the most important characteristics of a good social entrepreneur?
Wanting to do good and inspiring others to do likewise. Generosity.

What helped you the most to keep the organization going?
Having a wonderful team to work with.

What would you ask for Reach Out?
Being able to recruit train and manage the best mentors.

What would you change in today’s society?
The Government.

IN PERSON

-  A personal dream is: People to value the family.

- A must-see film: It’s a wonderful World.

- A must-read book: The Screwtape letters

- Who historical or contemporary person would you have a coffee with?: Jesus. Gregory the Great.

Written by Jaime Sánchez-Carpintero

"See the hope in the eyes of our fellows keeps me going every day"

Facundo Garayoa is a social entrepreneur from Argentine who launched FONBEC in 1999. This Foundation began implementing a scholarship system for students with high academic results but serious economic problems so they could continue studying. The scholarships was implemented through a system of godchildren and godparents.

Facundo, engineer and now social entrepreneur, has been working on this initiative for more than a decade. Up to date, Fonbec has succeeded in helping over 1,100 students from 12 cities in Argentine and Bolivia.

How would you describe yourself in three lines?
A passionate about helping, focused on providing opportunities for people to improve their living conditions.

What’s the main aim of FONBEC?
FONBEC is an organization that links people with high potential and limited resources with other willing to help. In FONBEC we find the ideal environment to practice brotherhood. And it goes beyond the mere solidarity because "everybody give and everybody receive."

How and why did you create FONBEC?
Fonbec was born to improve the world in which we live. We try to narrow the social gap, which hardly would achieve our beneficiaries without tools such as study and access to skilled work. In this process, the beneficiary becomes the benefactor, as he achieves his own development and helps his family and his entire community.

Fonbec was born joining two extremes: a good student in a neighbourhood with few resources and a professional from the best neighbourhood in my city.

What difficulties did you encountered?
The main difficulty I find is myself. There’s so much to do! The rest of the problems are minor.

What are the main needs of FONBEC?
We need many sponsors - businesses and individuals - to "save" our children with a small financial contribution.

Do you think that society recognizes your work and the labour of other social entrepreneurs?
Yes; social work is more and more valued. Social entrepreneurs could not work without support. I hope one day –soon- NGOs, state, business and society in general will work together.

Any touching story that has happened to you over the years?
Thousands ... is what keeps me going on with this. I can highlight two from the last week. We have recently created a lending library. Well, the other day I was told that a 6 years girl who beneficiates from Fonbec was at the library with two other girls -4 and 5 years old- reading aloud. The two small cannot read.

Nearby, another family consisting on two girls and their mother were surviving on $ 400 a month (less than 100 Euro). It's a desperate situation. As an emergency, before get a job for the mother, we asked a neighbour who just started working on his own bakery to bring a homemade bread to this family every day. This man is also father of two girls who beneficiates from Fonbec. He gladly agreed. At least this family had the "daily bread". Luckily, we have found a job for this mother!

What helped you the most when trying to releas this NGO?
Seeing the hope in the eyes of every one of our beneficiaries. This, along with the joy that we find when a former grantee becomes godfather, pushes me every day to do more for them.

What would you ask for FONBEC?
For FONBEC, nothing. For my boys, the moon! We always have outstanding students on the waiting list.

IN PERSON

- A personal dream: that in every city, village or cluster of people, everyone spend at least a couple of hours a week to help others.

- A movie everyone should see: Many people suggested me “Pay It Forward”.

- A book everyone should read: the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

- With who (historical figure) would you spend one hour or have a coffee? With "Che" Guevara.

5 PR Lessons From Kony 2012 Campaign

The video campaign "Kony 2012", prepared by "Invisible Children", which we mentioned in InterMedia before, has not only become the most visited video in the shortest period of time on history. Its more than 100 million visits and $ 5 million fundraising donations have also raised a number of criticisms.

Among the most notable, many people have pointed the campaign for being too simplistic, support military intervention or not being clear with the final destination of the donations.

According to PR Daily, an online journal specializing in public relations, marketing and social media, this critical situation that envolved "Invisible Children" have been an example of how an NGO can face a crisis in the media.

In fact, there are at least five lessons that can be extracted from the performance of “Invisible Children” that we show now:

1. Communicate immediately. The longer an organization stays silence, the most it is perceived as being hiding. The same day the video about Kony appeared and, criticism raised. And that same day, a member of Invisible Children answered to the media giving their point of view. A few days later, the founders of “Invisible Children” appeared in several TV shows and online newspapers promoting and defending the campaign.

2. Address specific issues. When Invisible Children's website collapsed at the unexpected high demand of visits, they restored the website including a series of answers, point by point, to all the criticism they had received. Far from hiding, they faced every criticism, including financial, organizational, etc.. They didn’t shied away from any topic.

3. Include "social media" in the responses. In line with its viral campaign, Invisible Children used Twitter and Facebook to meet the concerns of users. In some cases, they even answered directly to specific people.

4. Let others speak for you. In a crisis situation, credibility is always affected, and that even if the allegations are false. To regain that credibility is very effective to make others speak for you. 24 hours after receiving criticism, “Invisible Children” bradcasted a video in which a woman corroborated the story. In that same day, a boy protagonist of the campaign who had been abducted by Kony's guerrillas spoke to The Guardian newspaper in Kampala, praising the organization's efforts to end the terrorist’s acts.

5. Ask for help from everybody. Far from hiding, “Invisible Children” seeks to involve everyone in his campaign and ask for help from politicians, other nonprofit organizations, people affected by the activities of Kony, and the general public to improve the organization’s work. They encouraged everybody who had any criticism to get specific: find facts, dig deeper, and then Invisible Children would gladly continue the conversation from there. They also asked, if someone does not agree with some point of the campaign, to suggest an alternative and they will pay full attention of the world.

These five lessons on how to manage a crisis are fairly universal and therefore can be applied to virtually any other similar crisis situation. Almost certainly, Invisible Children already knew they would raise critical voices, so they were prepared for that. Their reactions were not a result of improvisation.

Kony 2012 campaign had probably a "manual action during a possible crisis" that they followed faithfully. In the same way, any campaign should be prepared for a potential crisis to react immediately and in the appropriate way, turning crises into opportunities.

Las claves del éxito del vídeo viral de la campaña Kony 2012

En el inicio de este año 2012 hemos asistido a la puesta en marcha de una campaña internacional para poner fin a las actividades de uno de los terroristas más buscados y sanguinarios del planeta: Joseph Kony.

La campaña, lanzada por la organización “Invisible Children”, pretende dar a conocer a este terrorista de Uganda a todo el mundo con el fin de conseguir su arresto.

En tan solo unas semanas, la campaña ha conseguido estar presente en páginas web, redes sociales, periódicos, revistas, telediarios, tertulias, foros…

Aunque la campaña no ha hecho más que comenzar, resulta sorprendente el enorme éxito de difusión que ha obtenido el vídeo “Kony 2012”, de casi media hora de duración. Según “Visible Measures”, ha sido la campaña de vídeo con mayor crecimiento de la historia. El vídeo ya ha superado los 100 millones de visualizaciones en Vimeo y Facebook y ha sido trendic topic en Twitter. Además, en sólo 48 horas, ha conseguido recaudar más de cinco millones de dólares.

Más allá de las polémicas que ha suscitado la campaña por imprecisiones, simplificaciones, dudas sobre el destino final de las recaudaciones, etc., merece la pena fijarnos en las virtudes que efectivamente posee este vídeo y procurar imitarlas a favor de nuestros intereses.

Un artículo publicado en un blog de tecnología del periódico español El País, firmado por Delia Rodríguez, destaca una serie de elementos del vídeo que hacen posible su éxito. A continuación destacamos los 15 más significativos:

1. Plantea una lucha entre el bien y el mal. El malo es muy malo y muy fácilmente reconocible.

2. La narración es en primera persona y parte de lo cercano para después irse a lo general.

3. Termina con un llamamiento a la acción y además le pone fecha límite: 2012.

4. Aparecen muchos niños. No sólo pequeños africanos de color, a los que nos vamos acostumbrando cada vez más. En el vídeo también aparece un niño que perfectamente podría salir en un anuncio de televisión como prototipo de niño ideal.

5. Utiliza un lenguaje audiovisual muy moderno. Parece casi un reality shoy, donde se mezclan imágenes íntimas y personales con flashbacks y flashforwards. Todo ello con un ritmo de imágenes muy actual y apoyado con la música.

6. En el propio vídeo se hacen llamamientos a replicar el vídeo, colgarlo en el muro de cada uno de Facebook, etc.

7. Copia el lenguaje electoral de la campaña de Obama para llamar a la acción

8. Utiliza argumentos de autoridad: documentos, etc.

9. Utiliza famosos: George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga…

10. Es largo. En otro contexto sería un inconveniente, pero aquí consigue parecer más un documental que un anuncio.

11. Todo el contenido está explicado para niños. Descaradamente para niños.

12. Hay muchos elementos épicos: muertes, secuestros, violencia… pero empieza y termina de manera optimista. Su objetivo es que después de visualizar el vídeo se vean las cosas de forma distinta.

13. Interpela al receptor del vídeo y le halaga constantemente: “tú puedes cambiar el mundo”.

14. Da instrucciones muy concretas y claras: comparte el vídeo, haz una donación…

15. El vídeo está acompañado de otros soportes. Entre ellos destaca el de las pulseras, todo un síbolo de las campañas virales.

Estos son algunos de los elementos que han conseguido que el vídeo de Inivisible Children haya alcanzado un éxito sin precedentes. Probablemente haya más factores que expliquen su rápido éxito. Pero sin duda son elementos que nos pueden servir a nosotros a la hora de preparar un vídeo o una campaña.