Sustainable Solutions Consultants

This project is focused on solving the needs and flattening the unemployment curve that the young Nicaraguan population is suffering. We support young people in 2 ways:

• Free advising to develop their local organizations, initiatives and social enterprises, while we accompany them in fundraising processes.
• We’ve created a Youth Professionals Network, to share our knowledge and experiences, so that they can be part of projects developed by our allies and in our consulting services.

We consider that our solution is viable, because, we’re creating connections between young people who have lived different experiences and who have different professional backgrounds. In this way, the knowledge spread will have no limits and we will be able to empower young people to own their destinations.

Youth unemployment is a global problem, according to International Labor Organizatión, it represents 35% of unemployment worldwide. In Nicaragua, a developing country, the problem is greater, where 58.3% of the population is in poverty (Central American Integration System).

 The engine of our economy should be youth, who represent 61% of the population, a large part of these are unemployed or informal employment. Statistics in our country aren’t an indicator to determine the severity of this problem, because, there is a lot of manipulation by government organizations.

 For example: Of the total youth, 69% are under the age of 18, they aren’t considered part of the economically active population, but they are forced to look for a source of income due to the fragile economic situation of Nicaraguan families. 

Another fact is that for the government only 10% of the population lives in unemployment, but our reality is very different, since informal employment is not being taken into account, according to La Prensa, 54 out of every 100 Nicaraguans are in informal employments, without social security or regulated working conditions.

The solution is our social enterprise, we want it to become a physical and digital space for young professionals and social entrepreneurs to access training, workshops and information that allows them to develop their capacities and skills, so that they can create their own organizations, initiatives and social companies, by at the same time that we provide temporary employment opportunities in social projects and consulting services.

 Accessing employment while you are young and inexperienced is almost impossible in our country, therefore, we have created a Youth Professional Network committed to the sustainable development of our country. Our network is made up of young people with experience who will serve as mentors to young people with no experience, to together create the spaces and connections that allow the integral development and empowerment of youth.

 We want to be the guides and support for these young people in times of crisis, since emotional and psychological problems increase when they feel unproductive and without job opportunities. We want to be that light in the darkness that we are going through, and show these young people that they are worth a lot and that they are not alone.

Our target are young people between the ages of 18 to 30 years, but they´re segmented into 3 groups:

1. Allies: They´re youth who are professionals, have work experience or develop their own social projects or companies, and who have a high social commitment. They’ll be included as mentors to accompany our youth.

2. Developers: They’re young people who lead or want to lead their own social projects, initiatives and enterprises. We will support them with free advice and support in raising funds.

3. Beneficiaries: They’re young people who are finishing their university careers or have already finished it, but haven’t had work experience and who are highly motivated to develop social change and grow professionally.

We are focused on young people living in marginal neighborhoods or in conditions of poverty in the country's capital, however, we want to reach young people from all over the country or other countries through a digital platform.

 The founders of this company are young, therefore, we know the problems that our peers live, we are also learning about their life stories and inspirations through social media. As young people we have the energy to fight for the labor rights of our youth.

Currently, being young in our country is difficult, many youth are afraid to start a business or develop their own social projects, young people are being marginalized in a country of youth, we’re not receiving the spaces or the tools to promote economic and social development.

 Through our digital platform, we want to create collaboration networks and contacts around the world, to include young people in different opportunities, additionally, we want to provide them knowledge, methodologies, tools and capabilities so that they become better professionals and make them more easy to develop their own life projects.

We are part of Bridge for Billions, this is an incubation program developed for Impact Hub Managua y Bridge for Billions. This helped us to identify our competition. In this case we did not found any enterprise that offer that same services in Nicaragua. We are a new business idea in our country.

This are the services we offer:

Consulting: There are many independent professionals and enterprises that work with consulting, but most of them are outdated. Working abroad provided us with updated knowledge such as innovative and creative methodologies focused in change behaviors. The most important thing is that we all are young.

Fundraising: There are not enterprises nor independent professionals that offer our same services. We provide free advice to local organizations, independent initiatives and social entrepreneurs that cannot afford this service.

Projects Portfolio: We provide a projects portfolio that allow us and other project developers to offer our ideas to NGOs and companies that want to execute or support social projects. Most of these projects are identified with the change behavior methodologies and can be adapted to the funding necessities. There are not companies nor platforms that offer this service in Nicaragua.

Young Professional Network: More than a product or service, we consider it as our commitment with the personal and professional growth of young people, in order to facilitate them the acquisition of work experience. There are companies and organizations that support young people, but they only advertise job opportunities, sometimes they charge for this service.

We consider technology as an important element. We foment the building of connections between several sectors in order to develop projects and social enterprises, where we could provide jobs to young people who are members of our young professional network

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our business model; therefore, we have been adding effors in order to set up a digital platform that allow us to achieve the following activities:

• Make ourselves known to the public opinion.
• To offer our services.
• Show our projects portfolio.
• To create a site that provide access to knowledge.
• Provide training opportunities for young people.
• Attract partners and beneficiaries.
• Increase our connections
• Fundraising spaces

This platform will allow us to reach more young people an have further impact in our society. We want them to have full access to this modern and safe spaces.

Additionally, we support entrepreneurs and social organizations that are currently working with technological products to positively impact society.

Our youth support model is very easy, just follows these steps:

• Identify young people interested in this idea, review their personal and professional profile.
• Select young people who have great social commitment.
• Classify them according to this structure:
  • Allies: Young people with the desire to support other young people, or share activities in order to promote the development of our country.
  • Developers: Young people who have project ideas and social enterprises. They will receive support from allies and will recruit beneficiaries for specific tasks.
  • Beneficiaries: Young people with high motivation and desire to excel. They will be the final beneficiaries by facilitating access to formal employment.

• Start the training, mentoring and counseling processes.

In order to potentiate our connections, we need to use social networks. We are already present on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Business and LinkedIn; However, we consider it necessary to hire a community manager from our Young Professionals Network. They will be in charge of making advertising campaigns and using strategies such as Facebook Ads.

But our most important technological element will be our digital platform, which is a kind of website that is combined with a digital learning environment. It is like a mixture of the following web pages: www.zoharconsultoria.com and www.coursera.org.

The digital learning environment will be exclusively accessible to people who have been selected to be part of our Young Professionals Network, who will access online courses, audiovisual resources, personalized advice, workshops, blogs, etc.

Activity 1:

Establish our social enterprise as a space to create connections between young people, organizations and private companies in order to share knowledge and experiences that allow the development of skills and access to formal employment for young people.

Outcomes 1:

Young people are empowered to start their own projects and social enterprises.

Young people are trained and develop skills to access formal employment.

Short Term Outcomes 1:

Young people want to be part of our Young Professionals Network.

Young people feel supported by our initiative and are interested in their personal and professional development.

Creation of a digital platform that serves to maximize our connections.

Long Term Outcomes 1:

Young people carrying out different projects, initiatives and ventures that promote the sustainable development of the country.

Young people are independent and promote youth employment in the country.

Activity 2:

Provision of consulting services to design, manage, develop and execute research, campaigns and social projects, in which we can involve young professionals.

Outcomes 2:

The company generates income to develop and execute our own social projects.

Short Term Outcomes 2:

Young people are trained to be part of the consulting processes..

Long Term Outcomes 2:

Young people gain experience to acquire employment or create their own companies.

Currently, we work with the following people who are part of our YPN:

• Allies: We have the support of 6 professionals who are specialists in various topics,
• Developers: 2 local organizations (Planting Change Foundation and Centro de Atencion Integral Corazón Contento), 3 local initiatives (Centro de Educación Ambiental, EcoHuertos and Proyecto Meira) and 2 social companies (Academia Posse e Ideas y Comunicación)
• Beneficiaries: Currently, we have at least 50 potential beneficiaries, of which, we want to select one person to hire permanently and 2 people as interns.

In 1 year, we hope to have the following distribution:

• Allies: 20 professionals.
• Developers: 5 local organizations, 10 initiatives and 10 social entrepreneurs.
• Beneficiaries: At least 200 people in the database.

In 5 years, we want to be ambitious to have the following numbers:

• Allies: 50 professionals.
• Developers: 15 local organizations, 30 initiatives and 30 social projects.
• Beneficiaries: A database of at least 800 selected people.

Our direct impact is to provide employment opportunities. We are starting with 3, but in one year we hope to have placed at least 25 young people in different projects and companies. In our 5-year projection, we want to maintain a conservative perspective and we hope to have created jobs for at least 100 young people who represent a 12.5% of our database.

The indirect beneficiaries are countless, since each project, initiative and social enterprises that we support will have their own effects on the target population.

Currently, we are in a stage of development and expansion of our ideas. We are sure that we have the potential to make this a national and global initiative, we have many organizations, initiatives and entrepreneurs on the waiting list, since we do not yet have sufficient operational capacity to respond to all of them.

Our vision is to become a social company developed and recognized nationally for being driven by young people, who provide different services to promote sustainable development with a holistic approach to behavioral changes.

We want to become a center of national and international connections where knowledge flows and the creation of ideas that help young people generate sources of income, without forgetting their social commitment to their communities.

The way we plan to achieve our goals is through global partnerships. We also want to expand to Costa Rica, where there is a large part of the Nicaraguan youth population that has decided to emigrate in search of new opportunities. We want young human capital to find opportunities in the country and we want young people who have emigrated to return so that together we can rebuild the country, and thus succeed together.

One of the main barriers we face is not having legal status, since this is very expensive, therefore we need the support of other allies to allow us to apply to consulting processes on their behalf and to be able to use their bank accounts.

Another barrier is the fragile social and political context of Nicaragua, although we are sure that young people have the power, energy and spirit to rebuild our country and support our families.

Access to technologies is another barrier for young people to access our digital platform, since most are of limited resources, have difficulties accessing technological resources and the internet permanently.

We have started a savings and fundraising plan through third parties that allows us to complete our legal constitution.

Empowering young people will help us create alternatives and ideas that allow us to change the current context of the country or adapt our work to these conditions, without forgetting the social impact we want to achieve.

We want to create a Co-Working space so that young people have a space to access the platform and can be part of meetings. We want to start by making available 3 laptops, 1 printer, and a camera kit. A visiting schedule will be designed so that the greatest number of young people can access these resources.

We hope that over time we can grow to the point of becoming a company recognized for having training spaces for young people who are passionate about social development and who do not have the resources to access digital platforms.

We did not select it.

Currently we are only 3 collaborators who have the following functions:

1. Wilbert Ríos is the executive director and coordinator of strategic alliances.

2. Tarik Gutiérrez is the Operations Coordinator and the Research, Methodologies and Projects Officer

3. Rodrigo Medina is the Marketing and Fundraising Coordinator.

However, we are going to hire a full-time person to support us in managing our Young Professionals Network and attracting opportunities for beneficiaries. Additionally, we will hire 2 interns, the first one will supports us in the development of research, methodologies and projects and the other will support fundraising.

We met through an international project called Exchange for Campaigning, Empowerment and Leadership, funded by the Norwegian Cooperation Department (NOREC) and a British NGO called Raleigh. For 6 months we were trained to design and develop behavior change campaigns and projects in Norway, Tanzania and Nepal. Thanks to this project we identified that we had the passion to develop social impact projects, below is a description of our team:

Wilbert Ríos is economist, has a specialization in economic and territorial development, and has studies in sociology, administration and statistical and econometric software. He has vast experience in the national financial sector and in social projects. Since 2015, he was devising a social company called Soluciones Crea+, but for work reasons he could not continue.

Rodrigo Medina is a student of Architecture and Sociology, he has worked as a customer service specialist, in addition to having carried out different social volunteers. Since 2016 with a group of friends developed two social projects, one was called Eco-Kitchens and the other Cinema in the Community, due to the socio-political crisis of April 2018 it was almost impossible to continue executing the projects.

Tarik Gutiérrez is a graduate in Diplomacy and Political Science. He has experience working with international organizations on project development, research processes and vast experience in fundraising processes. In addition, he has done different jobs as a volunteer in various social organizations.

We are partners of Fundación Ciudadanía y Desarrollo, this organization support us to apply for consulting processes, because we do not have a legal constitution, but we need to involve part of their team in the consultings and we have to pay an amount.

Another ally is Planting Change Foundation, an North American Organization, that support us with their accounts in US and Nicaragua, if we receive a prize, donation or funds they lend us thei bank accounts for free.

We are partners of Impact Hub, because we were selected for a Business Incubation Progran, as well we paid for a membership to have access to contacts, consulting opportunities and workshops.

Customers and beneficiaries

Our clients are organizations that request consulting services, non-profit organizations that seek to hire fundraising services, and we have a portfolio of projects for companies that are interested in developing their areas of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While the beneficiaries of our projects are young people passionate about sustainable development.

Products or services

• Consulting: We offer professional services, with innovative methodologies for consulting. We have a technical team, which is made up of young professionals with experience in developing social projects in behavior change.
• Fundraising: We support organizations to develop their projects through the fundraising service. We create connections between our clients, international organizations, companies and our Young Professionals Network.
• Project Portfolio: We support companies to develop their CSR Areas through the execution of social projects in our portfolio. Additionally, we offer them the benefit of shared advertising.

Distribution channels

Our main channel is digital media, the first steps are always online, we start with an email and remote meetings. If given the possibility, we carry out activities in specific areas and meet in person.

Customer needs:

NGOs are constantly looking for consultants for specific activities, others need to contract low-cost fundraising services, and large companies need to reward their profits with the population, but they don't know how.

The way to generate income is through the services we offer, most of these services are not monthly invoiced, but when we manage to be contracted, the income is enough to keep us operating for a certain time.

So far we have no significant fixed or operating expenses, since we do not have an assigned salary and all income we receive is destined to a savings account for our company. Only, we prioritize internet payments and electricity, since for this business the essential resources are our computers, the internet and the ideas that we can generate.

However, if we need to raise funds to execute our projects and the developer’s initiatives, therefore, we have to be in a continuous search for funds through prizes, grants and donations.

We believe that as our company grows, we will be able to have enough capital to be self-sustainable and develop our social projects, using the funds generated from our commercial activity, in addition to hiring more people.

We apply to Solve, because we consider that our social company has the potential to respond to the needs of young people, we want to prioritize those young people, who like us have a high commitment to their communities.

We know that if we access these funds, we will be able to use them in a good way and demonstrate their use transparently. We believe that these funds will be the impulse for our company to continue positioning itself nationally and possibly regionally.

We want to make alliances with organizations like MIT, since they provide different alternatives and opportunities that we can use for our beneficiaries. We are confident that if we receive these funds, we will have the opportunity to show you what we are capable and we can be a long-term ally of your organization.

When we read about your organization and the prize, we felt that this opportunity was designed for us, we decided to apply with great fear, since we felt that the time was not enough, but since we already had a defined business and social structure, we were made easy to fill out the applications.

Being a social company, we are guided by the Sustainable Development Goals, we want to support organizations, companies and young people who are committed to the following objectives:

• No poverty: All our projects are oriented towards making behavioral changes that allow young people to access sources of income, while adapting production models, ventures, and work activities to current global conditions.
• Climate Action: We promote the rational and sustainable use of natural resources, at the same time that we promote the care of these, especially our forest areas. We want to reduce the effects of climate change, through different behavior change activities, developed and lead by youth.
• Partnership for the goals: To achieve greater impact, we have started a process of creating a local network of young professionals, in addition to making alliances with other local and foreign organizations that work with the same objectives.

We want to create alliances with international organizations that support young people with different types of opportunities, from scholarships, exchanges, learning opportunities, and seed funds.

As well, we want to make alliances with government agencies, improving youth-government relations, in addition to making political advocacy. We want to create networks of entrepreneurs, social organizations and companies.

We believe that the most important thing for our company is to create connections that allow creating opportunities for Nicaraguan youth.

Again we want to emphasize that our company is committed to young people, we want to become the social company that joins our young people with any type of national or international opportunity that allows their integral development.

We want to provide knowledge, experiences and skills, so that young people are empowered to the point of owning their destinies and generating income, from obtaining a job, to creating their own projects and social enterprises.

As well, we are high motivated to create a change and support youth in their personal and professional development. Aditionally, we believe that we have the knowledge, experiences and connectios to be a good partners for our youth.

We are currently working with different clients and we signed a contract with them to involve young people of our Youth Professionals Network in their projects and enterprises.