Hello readers! It’s been a while. So much has happened since you last heard from us.
As we enter the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, here at FSI we are taking stock of our impact in 2020. We are proud to say that our team has directly contributed over 50,000 hours towards supporting Hong Kong’s social impact community, and raised HK$9,075,381 to help our partners weather through the challenging times last year. And the numbers keep rising, as we continue to support our partner companies on the path of recovery.
Want to learn more about our Shared Impact? Read on!
FSI Happenings
Stakeholder Meeting
We had our first-ever stakeholder meeting on 23 February! It was great to be able to share our work and impact with our stakeholders, and reconnect with our former Impact Lab students. If you would like to learn more about how we support our partner companies in driving systems change, feel free to access the meeting’s recording and presentation decks here. Stay tuned to our newsletters and social media, as we will be releasing our impact report soon. If you or someone you know share our passion for the current and upcoming projects at FSI, get in touch!
Community Business Support
Last year, the team helped Box of Hope, our partner company and a Hong Kong-registered charity, improve its digital processes and information systems by building out a scalable database and automation solutions that are both powerful and user-friendly. As the scale of Box of Hope’s operations continues to grow, the new, coherent information system architecture will enable it to communicate with its stakeholders more quickly, measure and compare the productivity and efficiencies more fully, and over time, scale their operations. Read our case study here.
In case you missed our stakeholder meeting, we would like you to meet Darius Agbeko Kokou Dzadu, founder of Legends Sports Academy, who is currently working in our Community Business Support team, which helped him with business planning, website and logo design, and company incorporation.
Brace for Impact Webinar Series
At FSI, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the social impact space in Hong Kong and Asia, and so we are launching the Brace for Impact Webinar Series, through which we hope to provide a critical response to the British Council’s recently released report on “The State of Social Enterprise in Hong Kong”.
Our first webinar will focus on the inclusivity problem in the social impact space in Hong Kong. Register here, and bring your insights and proposed solutions at the event on 23 March. Help us share the event on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram!
From Our Portfolio
GREEN Hospitality
In less than three years, GREEN Hospitality has grown from an annual conference to a nonprofit organization that is increasingly garnering industry recognition for its work in connecting stakeholders in the hospitality industry, promoting dialogues and knowledge exchange, and facilitating innovative solutions for a sustainable way forward.
To date, GREEN Hospitality has held 12 events, connecting over 1,000 professionals from various industries, and published six in-depth reports and toolkits on the sustainability challenges faced by the hospitality industry while providing solutions.
With the support of Eat Without Waste and Orca Asia, GREEN Hospitality will be conducting a baseline study on the food and packaging waste in the hospitality industry in Hong Kong. And, recently incorporated as a nonprofit, GREEN will be hosting a series of events next month to introduce its upcoming initiatives and its new membership program. Subscribe to GREEN Hospitality’s newsletters and follow its social channels to learn more!
EmpowerU
If you are a long-time subscriber of our newsletters, you would remember that in one of the FSI Digests last year, we talked about the new members on the EmpowerU team. With the addition of Bradley Aaron and Sumi Gurung, the nonprofit educational and empowerment platform for migrant domestic workers is currently expanding to ethnic minority youth in Hong Kong. The team created a really cool “PowerThru” video series, which features the stories of young pioneers from ethnically diverse communities in Hong Kong, pursuing career paths in a wide range of industries. Follow EmpowerU’s Instagram account and watch the IGTV series!
LIVIN Farms
As an innovative ed-tech committed to creating a more sustainable food system, LIVIN Farms will be hosting an online series from April to July, to help us navigate the maze of the food system, understand its contradictions, and lead us back to a healthy relationship with what we eat.
The “Misplaced” series will feature 30-minute conversations with experts and founders striving to feed the world while saving the planet through their work and organizations. Among those experts is Lucia Loposova, Director of GREEN Hospitality, who will be speaking about changing the hospitality industry in episode 18 on 24 June. Register to join the discussion, if you, too, care about changing the food system for the better. Until then, read our Brace for Impact newsletters on creating a better and more sustainable food system here and here.
COVID-19 Challenges and Resilience
Last year, we spoke to some of FSI’s partner companies to find out the challenges they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they resolved the challenges. Read more in our Perspectives section, and stay tuned to our social media channels to learn why our partners think more funding and collaboration is needed to support high-impact organizations and projects in Hong Kong.
