Celina de Sola, founder of Glasswing International is accelerating community development by tearing down walls between government, business, and community groups, building a new culture of shared responsibility and cross-sector collaboration, rooted in trust. Celina’s background in humanitarian aid led her to pioneer a social enterprise- even during the financial crisis of 2008. Since its founding, Celina has since expanded Glasswing to eight other countries in Central and South America. In their thirteen years of operation Glasswing has impacted 1.1 million people and mobilized over 120,000 volunteers.

In this interview, Celina expands on how she views intrapreneurship and the value of taking risks and applying rigorous tests and evaluations. She shares her knowledge on how to find funding through strategic partnerships and the importance of establishing honest partnerships between donors and communities. Celina reveals the strategy behind creating a robust program that involves multi-sector partnerships between the private and public sectors. Finally, she discusses the challenges of maintaining sustainable growth as a multi regional social enterprise.