By the year 2023, Latimpacto already has close to 170 members, from nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and eight other countries located in the rest of the world. However, it is not the number of organizations that makes us proud, but the stories behind each one of them, such as the one we bring today in our Blog 'Sharing stories'. The organization 2811initially formed in Chile in 2016, was created as a response to the social, environmental and economic regeneration of the region. In this opportunity, we spoke with Luz Mila Lancheros, Director and Co-Founder of 2811 in Colombia, who told us about the motivations and expectations of the organization to belong to Latimpacto.
Interviewer (E): Why is it called 2811? What are the main activities you do to generate impact?
Luz Mila (LM): 2811 is named after a date, which is November 28, 2015, which was the first time that Chile exhausted the natural resources available for a calendar year before it ended. It was a moment where we said "this is a date to remember and work to not consume the resources of future generations but rather, not only sustain, but regenerate social, environmental and economic systems, and that is what we do in 2811."
We are a social enterprise where we work on capacity building and education for regeneration in 3 areas: social, environmental and economic. We talk about a concept beyond sustainability, where we not only look at how we sustain the resources and systems we have but how we regenerate that which has been damaged. Through social innovation methodologies we approach projects and work with various impact actors, academia, education, private sector and government entities, as well as other social sector organizations.
E: Why did you decide to join Latimpacto?
LM: We have known Latimpacto since it emerged and settled in Latin America. We coincided when we arrived with 2811 in Colombia. At that time we were mapping the identification of actors in the impact investment ecosystem in Colombia and Chile. We realized that we were having a similar objective, especially in that particular project of mapping the ecosystem, to understand that the way to install these issues is by connecting different types of actors, and that is also the way we work from 2811. With the Latimpacto team we had that 'click' of having similar missions, focus on Latin America and extrapolate our activities and impact to the United States and Europe, where Latimpacto, with its sister networks, is part of those geographies. We approached each other exploring different ways to collaborate, and thanks to this last year we worked together in training spaces and developed a case study, together with New York University (NYU), on issues of measurement and impact management, and so we got closer and closer, always with the interest of being part of the network, and this year we materialized the desire to belong to the community.
E: What are your expectations of belonging to Latimpacto?
LM: Not only is the interest of being close to the Latimpacto team to continue co-creating and collaborating, which is already quite fruitful for us, but also to get closer to other players in the ecosystem, at the Latin American level to generate more partnerships. At 2811, our priority is always to work with allies, from a collaborative and co-creation perspective. We are always looking to build bridges and unite different types of organizations. I believe that what we are going to get by being part of this network is to expand the impact of the projects we are having, to be able to add other actors to these initiatives, to generate ties and, above all, to generate the radical collaboration we believe in for the ecosystem. Being part of this network will allow us to achieve the objectives we have set for our thematic areas of action. Latimpacto is also prioritizing several of the issues that we have prioritized from 2811, such as migration, gender and climate action, so we have great expectations to reach more actors in the Latin American and global ecosystem, to join efforts and facilitate the flow of financial and non-financial support to projects.
