I am part of a civil organisation in Mexico called Fundacion Promover AC, which has focused on the development, training, and support of microbusiness owners since 2017. We have directly impacted over 4,500 businesses, their families, and communities with key performance indicators such as job creation, business sustainability, and qualitative factors that reflect our ongoing efforts to promote social mobility in our country.

This year, we had the opportunity to participate at Latimpacto’s Impact Minds: Beyond Frontiers 2024 conference, an event held in Oaxaca, MX. The participation led me to explore new ways to generate greater impact, collaborate with key stakeholders, and expand our vision of creating sustainable changes in communities.

I want to share some reflections and new concepts discussed at Latimpacto that I believe to be significant to nonprofit organisations looking to become more sustainable:

• The importance of inter-sectoral collaboration: Complex issues like poverty or inequality require solutions that involve different actors like government, other civil society organisations, businesses, and the educational sector. Strategic alliances are essential, meaning we must seek key stakeholders with whom we can share knowledge, capabilities, or access to new markets to create a significant collective impact. These partnerships are common as they enable the involved parties to access new resources and skills that would otherwise be difficult or costly to develop independently.

• Innovation in impact models: Traditional philanthropic models have fallen short in many areas, so we need to consider new ways of making an impact with more holistic approaches that involve greater engagement from people in communities, starting from their needs and local contexts. If we don’t move in this direction, we will remain obsolete, working on short-term projects without creating systemic changes that address the root of problems rather than just their consequences.

• Transformative philanthropy, beyond money: This approach proposes a much more strategic focus, and seeks not only to create short-term changes but also to address the roots of problems by empowering communities to become agents of their own change. It aims to create systemic, long-term changes rather than merely alleviating immediate issues or symptoms of crises. It is characterised by its focus on addressing the underlying causes of social, economic, and environmental challenges and its willingness to take risks to achieve meaningful and lasting impact.

Unlike traditional philanthropy, which tends to focus on delivering resources for specific or short-term needs (like funding an organisation or project), transformative philanthropy aims to generate structural change in society, promoting social justice, equity, and sustainability. It has the potential to reconfigure entire systems, achieving deeper and more lasting solutions to social problems. While it may take longer to see results, the impact is much broader and more sustainable, as it seeks changes at the root of issues.

• Achieving the SDGs: We are very close to the deadline to contribute to the SDGs set for 2030 as global priorities, and it is important to evaluate how we are contributing to each one and identify what else we need to do as part of the sector.

• Blended finance: This is a financing strategy that combines public, philanthropic, or impact capital with commercial private capital to fund projects that generate social, economic, or environmental benefits. The goal is to mobilise greater amounts of private investment toward areas that traditionally do not receive sufficient funding, such as sustainable development projects, renewable energy, education, health, or infrastructure in developing countries.

In addition to these significant learnings, I can summarise that my experience at Latimpacto helped me build new connections and expand my network, learn from similar models to Fundación Promover AC in other countries, which helps us enhance what we do and broaden our vision, challenge us to think differently and inspire us by exchanging experiences with individuals and companies focused on social responsibility.

Lastly, I would like to share a phrase that encapsulates my experience: Sustainable change must be co-created with those who will be the true protagonists.

Mayte Cardenas Ortiz is the CEO at Fundación Promover and has helped the development of nonprofit organisations since 2002.