Vision & Mission

VISION

A world in which business is genuinely driven by social and environmental sustainability.

MISSION

Agora Partnerships is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create inclusive prosperity in Latin America through:

• Accelerating the growth of purpose-driven entrepreneurs, • Promoting social innovation in traditional small and growing businesses, and • Cultivating entrepreneurial ecosystems grounded in collaborative action and impact.

THE ROAD AHEAD:

Agora’s Next Three Years

THE ROAD AHEAD: Agora’s Next Three Years

Agora aims to be a leader in transforming small and growing businesses (SGBs) into drivers of positive change.

We are a regional organization working in partnership with local actors to support SGBs on the road to sustainability -- economic, social and environmental.

Plant Powered, a Dominican Republic “traditional” SGB producing 100% plant based food, had not considered the positive environmental impact they were creating. After Agora’s consultancy, and in partnership with CENPROMYPE, they realized the positive environmental impact of producing meat substitutes and learned to effectively monitor and measure that impact. The Agora team additionally helped them to further reduce their environmental footprint by considering more efficient energy options and improving packaging. Familia Perruna, a Nicaraguan pet supply and accessory business, worked with Agora to realize the real impact they were having on the environment, particularly the reduction of CO2 emissions by using 100% recycled textiles to manufacture their products. With Agora’s guidance, they also started measuring their impact on society, considering that 90% of their employees are women over 45, a population that is traditionally not considered by other employers because of their age.

EXCELLENCE IN PROGRAMMING

Agora will employ continuous improvement in the execution of its programming to verifiably influence enterprise success.

MASSIFICATION OF IMPACT

Agora will ensure impact is integrated in all we do. We will continue to serve impact entrepreneurs while extending our reach to “traditional” SGBs to inject social innovation into their models.

REGIONAL EXPANSION

Agora will engage in regional expansion via local partnerships, marrying local context with broader regional methodologies and networks.

COLLABORATIVE ACTION

Agora will partner and share with other ecosystem actors, recognizing that no one entity created the challenges we face and no one entity can solve them. Collaboration across Latin American, for Latin America.

Agora will employ continuous improvement in the execution of its programming to verifiably influence enterprise success.

KEY POINTS EXCELLENCE IN PROGRAMMING

• Client voice informs program design and revision • Internal systems for quality control and continuous improvement • Sharing information fluidly to create efficiencies • Flexible, actionable and digestible methodology is the Agora way • Collaboration on program and product design across the organization • Leveraging experts and upskilling the team to elevate program offerings

EXAMPLE IN ACTION

Formando Catalizadores, Agora’s train-the-trainer program, served 180+ entrepreneurial advisors in Central America in 2020. To enable continuous improvement with the design and delivery of this program, the following activities were undertaken: 1) short pulse-check surveys at the end of each module, 2) deep dive feedback sessions with key participants, 3) focus groups for feedback at pivotal points of delivery, 4) pre- and post-program survey, and 5) study of other train-the-trainer offerings in the market. Insights from these inquiries will inform the improvement of the program in advance of Formando Catalizadores implementation in Ecuador in 2021.

CRITICAL OBJETIVES

Identify areas of programming improvement and opportunities for new offerings based on Agora’s organizational definition of quality programming; ensure client (SGBs, entrepreneurial support agents) voices inform both.

Develop internal systems that allow for the efficient and effective collection and analysis of performance data, ensuring a balance between what is asked from clients and the value that is delivered to them.

Give the team space and time needed to implement identified improvements in programming and products, continuously asking ourselves if and why identified improvements will lead to enterprise success.

Catalog existing programming content for ease of replicability and to realize efficiencies across program design and delivery.

Create a branded and packaged modular methodology of “Agora’s way”; integrating best practices for adult learning, digital learning, learnby-doing, and choose-your-own-adventure; balancing high- with low-touch offerings.

Actively encourage the team to keep themselves informed of the trends and opportunities taking hold across the region and industry (e.g. conferences, reports, focus groups, deep dive interviews); implement mechanisms that allow for internal fluid sharing of information.

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Develop a space for co-creation among team members in order to capitalize on the experiences and ideas of diverse staff across geographies and projects and also to prevent siloed operations.

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Create a mechanism that allows team members to experiment with offerings and delivery (e.g. prototypes or mini-pilots), collecting lessons learned and communicating outcomes to the team.

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Provide the team with learning and upskilling opportunities (e.g. themes like digitization, lean manufacturing, and digital marketing identified from feedback or market opportunities) in order to continuously elevate the quality of our offerings and position ourselves as innovators.

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Identify experts in key fields (logistics, digitization, operations, impact, marketing) who can be called upon to support design and implementation of programming or directly hired as needed.

Agora will ensure impact is integrated in all we do. We will continue to serve impact entrepreneurs while extending our reach to “traditional” SGBs to inject social innovation into their models.

KEY POINTS MASSIFICATION OF IMPACT

• Impact-driven methodologies steer SGBs towards social and environmental sustainability • Promoting competitiveness via social innovation • Positive impact can move in parallel with business growth • Agora’s impact on the region will be defined by the transformation of

SGBs into drivers of social and environmental change

EXAMPLE IN ACTION

To put into practice our Massification of Impact ideals, we are designing with Walmart Central America and other Central American actors, a program to support 100 “traditional” small and growing businesses to integrate into regional supply chains. We will support these SGBs to build their organizational capacity while helping them to adopt environmental and social best practices into their models. Financing for sustainability adoption will be extended to prepared SGBs via a Matching Grant mechanism. The SGBs will be more competitive and sustainable, and Walmart CA will be able to more confidently purchase from local, sustainable suppliers while furthering their own environmental practice goals.

CRITICAL OBJETIVES

Develop and package simple methodologies that allow us to help “traditional” SGBs integrate sustainable practices and micro-innovations into their models. First focusing on integrating sustainability into operations and then working towards a mission-shift; employing ethical behavioral economics to aid adoption [six sigma of impact].

Integrate themes and practices of social and environmental betterment in all programming and offerings; principally by peppering the theme throughout content and activities, but also by offering stand-alone modules.

Increase the number of clients (social impact entrepreneurs, SGBs, entrepreneurial support agents) we work with by offering flexible modular programming and combining group and personalized interventions.

Design opportunities for traditional SGBs and impact entrepreneurs to learn from each other and integrate respective best practices into their models.

Employ a net-positive impact or sustainable value quotient that measures the net positive of business activities - starting with a baseline of how their activities affect social and environmental measures and then what has changed after our intervention.

Map how collective progress towards social and environmental practices can have an outsized effect on community and economic development in the region.

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Ensure all team members are well-versed in impact identification, monitoring, and evaluation, using existing impact frameworks like the SDGs, B Impact Assessment, IRIS.

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Develop systems that allow for the effective and efficient collection and analysis of Agora’s own impact data to determine the change we create.

Agora will engage in regional expansion via local partnerships, marrying local context with broader regional methodologies and networks.

KEY POINTS REGIONAL EXPANSION

• Best of both worlds: broad regional experience + unique local context • Diffusion of Agora’s team regionally for risk mitigation and networking • Expanding impact ideals to businesses across the region • Train entrepreneurial advisors to extend Agora’s footprint to early stage and geographically remote SGBs

EXAMPLE IN ACTION

We’ve begun a design process with Fundación Women’s World Banking Colombia and Promotora de Comercio Social to expand our work to Colombia. This new partnership will build the capacity and social innovation of 200 women-led micro- and small-enterprises in Colombia, connecting them with medium-sized retailers in the country looking to buy from local and sustainable providers and extending factoring financing to the entrepreneurs to meet their production capital needs.

CRITICAL OBJETIVES

Serve as a regional umbrella partner to local actors; engage with local partners based on either complimentary or stepped offerings, ensuring value is added as the regional partner.

Invest time in research and networking in countries of interest to identify factors that could impact the lives and work of our clients (SGBs, social entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial support agents) and/or partners.

Consider expansion based on country needs and opportunities for collaboration, with an eye towards expansion to areas outside major cities and those without as much entrepreneurial support.

Diversify the Agora team’s presence across the region for improved connection with local actors and mitigation of risk.

Ensure the Agora brand appears in regional communication channels and pieces, always including impact themes and having identified the best way to inspire the most actors to action (messaging associated with SDGs, impact, community development, economic development, etc.)

Be present in all pertinent local and regional conferences and events in order to identify key partners, key geographies of interest, and key needs.

Promote our train-the-trainer program in order to extend the use of our methodologies and our brand across geographies and to influence and support markets we are not able to directly address; consider a small grants program and implementation coaching.

Agora will partner and share with other ecosystem actors, recognizing that no one entity created the challenges we face and no one entity can solve them. Collaboration across Latin American, for Latin America.

• Working together across organizations to get entrepreneurs what they need • “Unusual” actors can broaden the impact space • Opportunities for peer exchange • Be a trusted resource to share learnings across the community • A united voice and shared agenda of Red de Impacto, a regional task force

KEY POINTS COLLABORATIVE ACTION

EXAMPLE IN ACTION

In collaboration with several other organizations, Agora co-leads Red de Impacto, a Task Force for Economic and Social Recovery in Latin America, that represents 60+ entrepreneurial support organizations across the region. This backbone organization seeks to align activities, extend our collective reach, co-create interventions with donors, and ensure the voice of the entrepreneurial ecosystem is heard on the world’s stage. For more information see our narrative here.

CRITICAL OBJETIVES

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With partners -- organizations, donors, and alumni -- ensure all programs and services provide clients -- SGBs, social entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial support agents -- with the three core components of success -- access to markets, access to finance, and organizational sustainability (business management and impact).

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Engage “unusual” partners in service-delivery in order to extend notions of impact across more industries (e.g. online aggregators for access to markets, fintechs for access to finance, telecoms for organizational sustainability1).

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Create spaces or mechanisms for entrepreneurs to share amongst each other and with ecosystem partners, whether usual or unusual.

Be a trusted source and reference of best practices and lessons learned for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Latin America, via publication of investigations, reports, case studies, blog posts, and speaking engagements.

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Promote and co-lead the collaborative effort of Red de Impacto, a Task Force for Economic and Social Recovery in Latin America to create a common vision and agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, and continuous communication.

1 programming that could employ the use of SMS messaging to deliver bite-sized organizational management + impact learnings with on-demand access to consultants for deeper dives.

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