Episode 104: Celina de Sola, Founder of Glasswing International

In this episode, Celina De Sola talks about the growth and development of Glasswing International, a non-profit which aims to address the root causes and consequences of violence and poverty in communities in El Salvador, and other Latin American countries. Celina talks about the importance at the outset of understanding the roots of violence, rather than the symptoms. She highlights the critical importance of applying rigorous tests to measure social impact. She shares her experience on how to find funding, form strategic partnerships and highlights the importance of establishing honest partnerships between donors and communities. Celina also discusses the strategy behind creating a robust program that involves multi-sector partnerships between the private and public sectors. Finally, she touches on the challenges of maintaining sustainable growth as a multi-regional social enterprise.

Glasswing is a non-profit which aims to address the root causes and consequences of violence and poverty, by building partnerships across public, private, and civil society sectors to implement public education, health, and community development programs. Set up in El Salvador,  Glasswing has 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.

Celina de Sola has more than 20 years of experience in international development and social change. She’s worked as a consultant for organizations like the Population Council and family foundations. Celina was also a crisis interventionist for Latino immigrants in the US, and subsequently spent over five years as Director of Emergency Response for AmeriCares, leading responses to complex humanitarian crises. Celina is a Fellow of the Obama Foundation, Ashoka, LEGO ReImagine Learning, Penn Social Impact, is a Skoll Foundation Awardee and a Tallberg Global Leader. Celina holds a Masters degree in Public Health from Harvard University and Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice.