Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA)

Diego Ontaneda is Founder and CEO of Latin American Leadership Academy (LALA), a non-profit institution that seeks to find, develop and connect a new generation of values- and purpose-driven leaders for Latin America.

Diego previously worked at McKinsey & Company in San Francisco and at African Leadership Academy (ALA) in Johannesburg. Here, he was inspired by the potential he saw in empowering young leaders to solve their own communities’ biggest problems. Two year later, he co-founded LALA with David Baptista in 2018.

Diego is an Echoing Green Fellow, and has spoken about social entrepreneurship, youth leadership and education innovations at global conferences. He graduated magna cum laude with a BA in Political Economy from Williams College, and holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Miller Social Change Leadership Award. Diego is originally from Lima, Peru, and now lives in Medellín, Colombia.

Latin America has struggled to achieve sustainable and shared prosperity. As the current pandemic has highlighted, much of our population lives in real vulnerability, and our leaders have been unable or unwilling to tackle our biggest challenges. Unfortunately, we do not currently have an intentional pipeline of the representative, diverse, ethical, purpose-driven and innovative leaders we need.

LALA exists to develop a new generation of such leaders. We search the entire continent for young leaders with a demonstrated sense of purpose and the potential to solve the biggest problems in their communities. Then—through holistic educational programs, partnerships, community-building, mentorship and access to opportunities—we accompany them on their lifelong leadership journeys.

As our students often say, “LALA does not just develop better leaders; it develops better people.” Indeed, we aim to empower our students to become their best selves, to author their futures, and to uplift their own communities.

LALA addresses two mutually-reinforcing problems. First, Latin America has a shortage of ethical, diverse, capable, collaborative leaders who are committed to tackling the region’s most pressing challenges. We see this in the public, private and social sectors in every country. This situation has held back our social and economic development efforts, leading to the highest income inequality in the world, dismal social mobility, rampant corruption, lack of trust, terrible educational outcomes, widespread violence and discrimination, and more.

Tragically, these issues lead to perhaps the bigger problem: every year we lose hundreds, if not thousands, of potentially transformational leaders. They are the rural boy who can't read. The indigenous girl whose education was deprioritized. The afro-descendant discriminated by recruiters. The emerging social entrepreneur who can’t afford university. The entrepreneur that burnt out. 

Unless we can systematically find these would-be change-makers when they are young—before we lose them to poverty, discrimination, violence, lack of opportunities, burnout, and more—their flames will continue to die out in silence and obscurity, and the continent will continue to lose out on these authentic, proximate leaders who have the values, commitment, local know-how and potential to solve our biggest problems.

Our model has three pillars:

1. We search the continent to find young people who dream that a better future is possible—and who are taking action to bring it about. Our feeder partners include NGOs, public sector entities, private and public schools, foundations, as well as social entrepreneurs, community leaders and, increasingly, our alumni network (already 530-strong, from 16 countries)!

2. We develop them through an ecosystem of development opportunities that are complementary to the traditional education system. Students enter our lifelong community by first participating in our Leadership Bootcamps. Our community then gives them an abundance of inspiration, support and access to resources (e.g. mentors, mental health support, information and guidance about universities, scholarships, conferences, etc.). Finally, we are developing a gap-year Leadership Academy for our alumni who wish to go much deeper into leadership, ethics, entrepreneurship, social innovation, social emotional learning, and critical thinking.

3. We are building a continental community of values- and purpose-aligned leaders. This is crucial to provide our emerging leaders the social and financial capital they need to succeed, but that most of them lack.

Together, these strategies aim to systematically develop and support the people who will bring shared prosperity to Latin America.

We are building and serving the community of Latin American dreamers and fighters who seek to actively bend the “arc of the moral universe” towards justice.

Just like how intense heat and pressure create diamonds, the injustices and inequities that plague Latin America are developing exceptionally empathetic, resilient, and purpose-driven youth. 

But the current state of things makes it likely that they will never reach their full potential, and it is a tragedy when this happens. This is where our urgency to find them while they're still young comes from.

To understand their needs, we have prototyped and experimented with every piece of our model. We listen and seek their input and feedback. We involve them as volunteers, interns, coaches, and mentors (e.g. they are advising us on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access). We are building LALA with them, creating as many co-leadership opportunities as we can.

Ultimately, we think of two big questions: 1) What do our young leaders need to enter "the arena"? And when they do, 2) What does it take for them to flourish and succeed? Our students already dream of it; all we do, we do to help them succeed at it.

Latin America's income inequality, lack of social mobility, discrimination and underdeveloped education systems are leaving countless young leaders behind.

We systematically address this. We build a feeder network to actively search for them—wherever they are. We run a holistic and contextual admissions process to remove traditional biases and advantages. We offer need-based scholarships to remove financial barriers. We offer them world-class development opportunities.

And through our socioeconomically-diverse, values-aligned community, young leaders from marginalized communities meet privileged young leaders as equals. Promoting these connections and mutual understanding is fundamental for them all to flourish as humans and as leaders.

When I was 12, we went bankrupt. My sister was 20, and had to drop out of college. I was luckier; scholarships kept me in great schools, and then won a full need-based scholarship at Williams College. I studied Political Economy because I felt a moral obligation to use my luck and privilege to do something about the unjust systems I had seen growing up.

One idea plagued me, though. With so many problems all over Latin America—most of them in marginalized communities that I had not grown up in—what could I do? What was the highest-leverage strategy to unravel the complex and interconnected problems that plagued my continent?

In my global search for inspiration, I came across African Leadership Academy (ALA), which sought to develop a new generation of African leaders. I worked there for three years, and fell in love with the idea: they key was people, leaders, entrepreneurs, social innovators, ethical politicians—we just needed more of them!

I went to business school to give myself time to incubate and adapt the concept for Latin America. I met my now-cofounder, David Baptista (the most brilliant educator I’ve ever encountered!), and we’ve been working on LALA since July 2017.

I see myself in our students. I have been in their shoes. I know the pain and impotence of taking on problems that are too big for you, holding to hope by a thread. I know what it’s like to see your parents despair over money, and to start working as a teenager. I know the feeling that it’s not enough to get into university; complete strangers must also give you a full scholarship. And I know how difficult it will be for them to juggle supporting their families—financially and emotionally—while chasing their own dreams.

I got here through sheer luck and some altruistic institutions and individuals. But most people coming behind me will not have access to these, or won’t have my luck. To know that there are hundreds (likely thousands) of younger versions of me who will lose their fights brings back all those pains and fears I know too well. It cuts to the core. To know that their communities, and our continent at large, will miss out on these potential leaders is intolerable.

I do this because I cannot not do it. I hope you meet our young leaders to understand my sense of urgency!

I don’t know if I am uniquely positioned, but I do believe I have the skills, background, experiences, networks and team to enter this arena and fight this fight.

I am from Peru. I grew up privileged and also knew poverty, so I can understand the diverse realities our students come from.

I acquired global experiences and networks—both crucial because the Latin American strategic philanthropy space is woefully underdeveloped. 

I combine two necessary skill areas: 1) Business (worked at McKinsey & Company; got an MBA at Stanford University), and 2) Social Innovation & Non-profits (worked at African Leadership Academy; received the Stanford GSB Miller Social Change Leadership Award).

Most importantly, though, this problem is too big for me, so it is not about me. For instance, I am not an Education expert! This is why I searched the world for the best educator I could find, to join me as co-founder. There is not enough space in this answer box to do David Baptista justice, but trust me when I tell you that LALA is unique, and beautiful, and powerful, because of him. And then us as a duo—that is where our real innovation and creativity and growth come from.

But then again, it is not about the two of us! It is about our team, our alumni, our advisors, our board, our donors, and overall, the community we seek to build. It is all of us who, collectively, have what it takes to make this change happen.

When the pandemic started, we were piloting our Leadership Academy in Medellín, and were planning to run eight Leadership Bootcamps this June-August. Our model, which relies on forming deep connections and trust, was in serious risk.

We created a swift and inclusive decision-making process that consulted our students, their parents, our team, and our donors. Then, we combined our research and their inputs, made an executive decision: to close the Academy and cancel the Bootcamps. We then acted rapidly, and sent our students home just before airports closed. 

Next, we began to innovate. Within 10 days, we designed a virtual model for our Academy, which we offered heavily discounted, and all our students opted in. We are now piloting virtual Bootcamps, and continue to experiment, excited by the access and inclusion that virtual programming offers.

Finally, we are bringing our community closer because of the crisis. We have created more opportunities for alumni leadership, which have led to webinars, community hangouts, mentorship and mental health support initiatives, and more. 

At the end of the day, we re-connected with our mission, values, and community, and are creating vehicles to channel our collective wisdom and energy to come out stronger, together.

I try to live and role model the belief that the best leaders empower others to lead. LALA is not about me. It is the team I am building, and the alumni community we’re developing, that are leading the change. More beautifully, our alumni are already becoming the heroes of countless other youth in their communities!

On a more personal note, my biggest challenge was launching LALA. I entered business school while supporting my family financially and paying my sister’s university fees. I had savings for two years, and then I would graduate with no money—neither for myself, nor for LALA, nor for my family. Committing to a full-time MBA, while piloting and fundraising for a non-profit, all in an unforgiving timeline, took everything I had. 

My story is a story of finding a cause I could not turn my back from, and then going all in, without excuses, even if it seemed irrational to launch a non-profit in Latin America while supporting my family. I hope that others will find that their imagined fears are just horror stories they tell themselves, and that—especially if they involve others in co-creating their dreams—they too can take on seemingly unwinnable fights.

Selection: Our criteria don't correlate with socioeconomic status at birth. We deprioritize standardized metrics and focus instead on purpose, values, character, and history of past action. We evaluate holistically and contextually. We allow re-applications to send a loud message: everyone can become better, and everyone can do more.

Curricula & methodologies: Our Bootcamps and gap year Academy aren't "formal" education programs, so we have complete freedom to innovate on our curricula and to run experiments. Specifically, we actively search for world-class content and methodologies, and then adapt them to our local context and to youth. We combine evidence-based excellence with on-the-ground experimentation and localization to create powerful new 21st century skills educational strategies for Latin American youth.

Activating lifelong learning: After the Bootcamp, our alumni enter a community where they can access inspiration, supportive peers, experiential leadership opportunities, mentorship, and a world of resources to own their own learning. The LALA Community functions as a decentralized, self-organized (but curated and guided) “after-school” program that complements traditional schooling. Our ecosystem enables up to 5000 hours of (often free!) development opportunities for alumni between 14 years old and professional life. This is the prolonged and deep learning channel that our youth need to master 21st century skills.

Network: We are building the first Latin American network combining all our diversity (geographic, socioeconomic, racial, political, and more), united by purpose and values. Such connection, trust, mutual understanding and desire to collaborate will create the conditions for unimaginable new innovations and collaborations.

Activities

• Build feeder partnerships

• Run holistic, contextual selection processes; offer need-based scholarships

• Adapt world-class educational content & methodologies

• Run educational programs focused on leadership, entrepreneurship, social innovation, SEL, ethics, and critical thinking

• Build psychologically-safe spaces to foster growth

• Co-construct LALA Community with alumni

• Build opportunity partnerships (e.g. universities, scholarships)

• Recruit inspirational mentors into network

• Disseminate LALA student stories

Outputs. Our students...

• Connect deeply to their purpose, values, to their community, and to Latin America at large. Students develop a robust image and love for their future self (better predictor than IQ for creative output over a lifetime)

• Report significantly higher levels of motivation, engagement, hope in the future, & sense of agency.

• Grow in Resilience Quotient

• Develop effective wellness, learning and working habits

• Access further development opportunities and resources (e.g. 40 low-income alumni have already received 90+% need-based scholarships at global universities).

Outcomes. Our alumni...

• Have strong alignment between identity, values, community, purpose, and intended high-impact career

• Self-organize: volunteer, launch ventures, practice mindfulness, and more. Over 5 years, they accumulate up to 5,000 hours of self-led development.

• Fend off regional “brain drain.”

• Fight the social and psychological risks of loneliness.

• Cultivate high-impact careers to serve their home region.

Impact

• Alumni are inspired and empowered to "enter the arena." Even if scary, risky, financially disadvantageous, etc., they now have the determination, courage, skills and support systems to pursue their most daring dreams of social and economic development.

• Alumni that have "entered the arena" are able to do so sustainably; they find self-transcendent purpose, happiness, wellness and belonging in these high-impact lives and careers. 

• Our supply of ethical, capable, entrepreneurial, innovative talent enables the success and impact of existing impact-driven initiatives.

• As our alumni age and reach positions of influence in the public, private and social sectors, a new wave of socially-beneficial innovations, policies, collaborations and ventures are launched, promoting shared prosperity, equity and justice. 

• New generation of inspirational & impactful leaders begins to change Latin America's definition of success. It becomes acceptable and desirable to dedicate one's career to the common good.

To date, LALA has served 530 students. Since they are now part of our lifelong community, they are the population we serve. In addition, this year we are enrolling an additional 150 students through our Leadership Bootcamps. Note: this number would have been 480, but we had to cancel many of our programs due to the pandemic.

Next year, we will run 16 in-person and 4 virtual Bootcamps, reaching 30 students each (600 new students), so our community will reach 1200 young leaders. Note: our Academy enrolls outstanding Bootcamp alumni who have shown over the span of months, sometimes years, that they have the highest levels of commitment to their own development and to lives and careers of impact in Latin America, so the Academy does not increase our total number of beneficiaries.

Five years from now, we aim to:

1. Double our number of in-person Bootcamps, from 16 to 32, so we will be serving an additional 1000 young leaders per year.

2. Continue experimenting with our Virtual Bootcamps concept. I would like us to run 10 per year, and to have found how to run equally-powerful camps with 50 students. If this works, V-Camps would be serving another 500 young leaders per year.

3. We aim to have grown our Academy enrollment from 20 (in 2020) to 100 per year.

Therefore, five years from now we will have an alumni network of 5700, and it will be growing by 1500 each year.

2021:

• Consolidate in-person Bootcamps model: 16 per year, reaching 480 youth. 

• Virtual Bootcamps product-market fit; consistently deliver with highest quality at scale.

• Build foundations for year-round Leadership Academy. We ran a three-month pilot Feb-May 2020. Get ready to begin continuous year-round programming starting September 2021.

• Secure permanent facility for the Academy, which will serve as a source of stability and security (funding has been committed for building purchase!).

• Pilot first LALA Hub: Our continental community will be stronger if organized around local self-organized, locally-led “Hubs”, inspired by university alumni chapters and localized in-country models like Endeavor. We are currently incorporating LALA Brazil, our first Hub experiment. 

By 2025:

• Scale Bootcamps to 32 in-person and 10 online, reaching 1500 young leaders per year. 

• Product-market fit & scale for LALA Hubs concept to sustainably provide a value-add membership to the individuals and institutions we wish to partner with this way. Aiming to have LALA Hubs in 10 countries.

• Build Leadership Education Lab. We are experimenting with and adapting world-leading evidence-based educational content & methodologies to the needs of Latin American youth. Over the next 5 years, we aim to launch a bigger idea: a Leadership Education Lab that will distill, package and share this new know-how to unleash a wave of educational innovations across Latin America.

• 100 Latin American Heroes. Latin Americans need local, accessible, relatable inspiration. Five years from now, 100 LALA alumni will be well-known inspirational Latin American Heroes. To start, meet Giullia!

2021:

• Consolidate in-person Bootcamps model: Main risk is another pandemic. 
• Virtual Bootcamps product-market fit: broadband access for students across Latin America; training and technologies for our staff.

• Build foundations for year-round Leadership Academy: Another pandemic; current pandemic’s effect on our and our students’ ability to fundraise.

• Secure permanent facility for the Academy: legal & real estate guidance.

• Pilot first LALA Hub: Funding for staff. São Paulo is expensive, so we will staff it with a Medellin-based leader and Brazil-based volunteers, alumni & advisors.

By 2025:

• Scale Bootcamps: We already have product-market fit and exceptionally high quality (we measure NPS per Bootcamp; our current scores are all 90+ (note: scores above 50 are considered Excellent and above 70 are “world-class”), so we just need to strengthen our Feeder Network, our operational capabilities, and our funding streams.

• Product-market fit & scale for LALA Hubs concept: Knowledge of information, management, incentive and quality assurance systems to ensure that self-organized, locally-led Hubs (which will mostly be led by volunteers and local Boards) are excellent and self-sustaining. 

• Build Leadership Education Lab: Expertise on curricular evaluation and continuous improvement methods; know-how on how to "package" new curricula and methodologies; knowledge on delivery systems (e.g. teacher training, video series, educator playbooks, etc.). Find impact & business model for the Lab. Funding for research and experimentation phases.

• 100 Latin American Heroes: Media, communications, branding & PR training, expertise and connections. Podcasting know-how. Video-production capabilities. Funding to make this possible. 

2021:

• Pandemic risk: We are already piloting virtual programming, so we are prepared. 
• Broadband access across Latin America: We will include in our financial aid packages funding for high-speed data bundles. We currently don't know how to reach entire regions that don't have Internet access though. 
• Training and technologies for our staff. We are already signing up our facilitators for https://www.digitalpedagogylab.com/dpl-2020-online/.

• Students’ ability to fundraise: We are experimenting with fundraising training, coaching and accompaniment for our students. 

• Academy facilities: currently searching for Legal & Real Estate Advisors.

• LALA Brazil funding: Will recruit founding Brazilian Advisory Board; seeking seed local funding will be primary objective.

By 2025:

• Strengthen Feeder Network: Currently searching for two roles, Marketing/Comms Manager and Hispanic America BizDev Manager. Piloting LALA Alumni Ambassador Program to empower alumni to build new partnerships for & with us.

• Knowledge, expertise & connections for new experiments (Hubs, Leadership Education Lab and 100 Heroes): continue current strategy of searching world-class experts who share our values and purpose, and invite them to join us as Advisors or Board Members. If funding allows it, and if it becomes necessary, we would also hire to bring this expertise into the team.

• Funding for new experiments (Hubs, Lab, Heroes): Build investment theses for these; search for right-fit funders (likely, higher risk profile & excited about potential for at-scale systemic change). Intentionally carve out time for this fundraising. 

• In general: Continue our "lean startup", experimental approach to taking on big, new, unproven ideas.
  

While we don’t yet have contracts with any organizations, our model is built on the idea that systemic change is possible only through partnerships and collaborative approaches.

So far, we have:

• Feeder Partners nominate young leaders and help us spread the word; we further support their students. E.g.: COAR public schools (Peru); MLK Fellowship (Colombia); EducationUSA (Paraguay).

• Opportunity Partners (e.g. college prep programs, universities, scholarship programs) offer funding, development and connection opportunities for our alumni; we feed them talent. E.g.: Dartmouth, Daquiprafora, Three Dot Dash.

• Curriculum Advisors bring us world-leading content and methodologies. We give them a platform to grow their impact, brand and knowledge. E.g.: Leah Weiss (intrapersonal skills), Carole Robin (interpersonal skills), Eduardo Briceño (growth mindset).
  

• Facilities Partners lend us spaces; we bring them visibility. E.g. Amani Institute (Brazil); Universidad de Piura (Peru); RutaN (Colombia).
  

• Community Partners design intimate tours for LALA students; we bring them visibility. E.g. Favela da Paz (Brazil); Urban Oasis (Colombia).

Our big vision is to create leadership pipelines and communities (feeders, opportunity-providers, mentors, funders, etc.) around Geographies, Identity Groups, and Issue Areas. 

For example, for Afro-descendants (an Identity Group), imagine the power of uniting dozens of organizations like MLK Fellowship,  TalentoTotal, VidaAfrolatina, and Baobá Fund. These connections currently happen haphazardly. Our continental reach, our focus on values and purpose, and our diverse and distributed leader network will enable us to systematically bring these organizations together to facilitate collective learning and action. 

1. We run in-person Bootcamps. We are both premium & aspirational for privileged students, and accessible to historically-disadvantaged students. We charge US$1500 to full-fee students (10% of students), and US$300 to lowest-income students (40% of students). The remaining 50% of students are in the middle. On average, marginal costs = US$13,000; revenues = US$16,000.
2. We challenge, train and support admitted students to fundraise a portion of their fees. Our lowest-income take an average of four months to raise those US$300. We keep doing this because they always describe it as "one of the most empowering experiences of their lives."
3. We are piloting Virtual Bootcamps. We offer them at steep discounts (US$200-300 per student). First V-Camp marginal costs = US$1,000; revenues = US$7,000.
4. After Bootcamps, students enter our lifelong community, where they gain access to a wide range of support and development opportunities. We don't charge them for any of them.
5. Our Leadership Academy is a 1yr online Fellowship + one semester in-person program (15-16 months total). During the Fellowship, students learn to fundraise (and raise US$3,000 to pay their Academy fees!), do yearlong LALA internships (earning an additional US$3,000, deducted from their fees), and receive mentorship and college guidance. This way, their families don't have to pay for them to participate. Academy marginal costs = US$6,000/student; revenues = US$6,000.
6. With all this, we currently raise ~US$300,000/yr in philanthropic funding to cover the 50% of our budget not covered by the above strategies. This includes US$3,000/student to fund the Academy internship model.    

Short-term:

1. Strengthening admitted student fundraising model. We currently admit students five months before their camp; in this time, they can raise ~US$500. By bringing our admissions processes 3-5 months forward, and by strengthening our fundraising curriculum and accompaniment model, admitted students may be able to raise an additional US$200. This could increase revenues by ~US$100,000 in 2021.
2. Optimizing bed utilization. Last season, we had last-minute cancellations, resulting in ~5 empty beds per camp. Most of our camp costs are fixed, so this is costly. By improving our admissions process, yield forecasts and waitlist strategies, filling all beds could increase net revenues by US$3,000/camp (US$50,000 in 2021).
3. Our main funders, The Efrusy Family Foundation, have generously committed to purchase a facility in 2021. This housing will save us ~US$100,000/yr in operating expenses.

Medium-term:

1. Create a local sponsor program (ideally organized by LALA Hubs) to fund lowest-income applicants. We believe that US$1,000/sponsorship is accessible to a significant number of professionals who may not yet be philanthropists. With 200 students every year falling in this income bracket, the total bottom line impact could reach US$200,000/yr.
2. Strengthen our impact measurement, grant-writing, and other fundraising efforts to build a larger and more diverse philanthropic funding pool.

Long-term:

1. Alumni giving: Like the main educational institutions in the world, LALA alumni donations should become a major funding source. In a way, then, the external philanthropic funding we seek in the short & medium term are bridging us until the LALA alumni community can take over this responsibility.

All figures in US dollars:

2017

• Bootcamp revenues: 15,000
• Crowdfunding: 11,000

2018

• Bootcamp revenues: 54,000
• Philanthropy (total: 182,400)
  • Efrusy Family Foundation: 75,000
  • Foundation (Anonymous): 40,000 
  • Echoing Green: 30,000
  • Crowdfunding: 25,000
  • Three individual donors: 12,400

2019

• Bootcamp revenues: 252,000
• Philanthropy (total: 283,400):
  • Efrusy Family Foundation: 175,000
  • Foundation (Anonymous): 60,000 
  • Echoing Green: 30,000
  • Three individual donors: 18,400

2020

• Revenues (total YTD: 94,000. Full-year projection: 150,000) 
  • In-person Bootcamps: 45,000 (heavily affected by COVID-19).
  • Leadership Academy: 42,000
  • Virtual Bootcamps: 7,000. Assuming conservatively that we will replace end-of-year in-person Bootcamps for V-Camps due to COVID-19, projecting another 56,000 by EOY).
• Philanthropy (total YTD: 152,400. Full-year TBD).
  • Efrusy Family Foundation: TBD
  • Grousbeck Family Foundation: 66,000 + up to 40,000 matching grant (13,000 already unlocked).
  • Echoing Green: 30,000
  • Five individual donors: 23,400
  • Keller Family Foundation: 10,000
  • Crowdfunding: 10,000
  • Three previous donors ($5K-$10K range): TBD

2021 (Projected, assuming no pandemic)

• Revenues (total: 398,000)
  • In-person Bootcamps: 310,000
  • Leadership Academy: 60,000
  • Virtual Bootcamps: 28,000
• Philanthropy: Prefer not to speculate publicly.

2022 (Projected, assuming no pandemic).

• Revenues (total: 515,000). Note, to make estimates conservative, these estimates only consider our projected growth in number of programs per year. They do not assume that the "Strengthening admitted student fundraising model" and "Optimizing bed utilization" strategies (listed in previous question) have happened.
  • In-person Bootcamps: 360,000
  • Leadership Academy: 120,000
  • Virtual Bootcamps: 35,000
• Philanthropy: Prefer not to speculate publicly.

At LALA, we forecast:

1. Scenarios that project A.) Revenues, B.) Ongoing donations from past donors, and C.) Costs. 

• Optimistic
• Baseline 
• Pessimistic 

2. Then, we project different operating models: 

• Barebones
• Baseline
• Comfortable
• Incremental Growth 

To simplify this answer, the numbers below reflect the "Baseline" scenario for Revenues, Ongoing Donations and Costs, and the "Comfortable" operating model. All figures below are for new grant funding we will have to raise:

2020: Still need to raise US$276,000 by year end (of which US$40,000 must come from new donors).

2021: Current fundraising target: US$450,000 (of which US$130,000 must come from funders who do not currently support LALA).

2022: Total fundraising target: US$550,000 (of which US$230,000 must come from funders who do not currently support LALA).

2020 Total Expenses: 575,000

• Payroll: 330,000
• Programs (marginal costs):
  • In-person Bootcamps: 100,000 (note: Bootcamps heavily affeced by COVID-19).
  • Academy: 118,000
  • Virtual Bootcamps: 9,000 (assuming V-camps replace end-of-year in-person Bootcamps).
• Taxes + banking, legal & other fees: 18,000

2021 (assuming no pandemic) Total Expenses: 848,000

• Payroll: 450,000
• Programs (marginal costs):
  • In-person Bootcamps: 215,000 
  • Academy: 100,000
  • Virtual Bootcamps: 4,000 
• Financial, legal & other fees: 29,000

I am organizing our goals and barriers in order of where I believe you can most dramatically impact our work:

1. Goal: 100 Latin American Heroes 

• Barriers:
  • Media, communications, branding & PR training, expertise and connections. 
• Elevate:
  •  This is your specialty! Your expertise and connections will be invaluable to make this possible for our alumni.

2. Goal: Build LALA Leadership Education Lab

• Barriers:

  • How to "package" and deliver new curricula and methodologies?

  • Finding right impact & business models for the Lab. 
    

  • Funding for research and experimentation phases.

• Elevate:
  • MIT must have deep expertise in these areas. Please help us find the right mentors.

3. Goal: Virtual Bootcamps product-market fit and scale

• Barriers:

  • Broadband access across Latin America.

  • Training and technologies for our staff.

• Elevate:
  
  • Connections to innovative last-mile wifi providers across Latin America
  • Advisors/mentors to upskill LALA in tech solutions and digital pedagogy.

4. Goal: Double Bootcamps scale

• Barriers:

  • Funding.

  • Feeder Network size.

  • Operational capabilities.

• Elevate:

  
  

  • Marketing & media mentorship/coaching/support/exposure to enhance fundraising and feeder partner outreach.
  • Mentorship/training on reaching and sustainably partnering with different types of organizations (e.g. from the most elite private schools to community-based organizations) to grow feeder network.
  • Operations, management & systems coaching/advising/upskilling. 

5. Goal: 10 LALA Hubs by 2025

• Barriers:

  • Local leaders & funding.

  • How to ensure that self-organized, locally-led Hubs are excellent and self-sustaining? 
    

• Elevate:

  
  

  • Guidance and connections to recruit the right founding board members, advisors, and funders for each Hub.
  • Coaching/mentoring/upskilling around information, management, incentive and quality assurance systems.

Our biggest, most audacious goals all aim in one direction: building a continental movement and creating systemic change at scale. For LALA to jump from where we are now (incremental growth; programmatic excellence) to there, we need training, guidance, networks and visibility in areas where we are not yet world-class: technology, marketing, media, fundraising, packaging & delivering educational know-how at scale, and building excellent people systems at scale. I believe that MIT and The Elevate Prize Foundation, together, are world-class in precisely these areas.

1. Potential Feeder Partners, to help us find young leaders everywhere.

• Every Ministry of Education in Latin America.
• Ashoka, Acumen, Peace Corps: their social entrepreneurs & volunteers can be ideal spotters & nominators.
• The Catholic Church: while LALA does not affiliate with any religion, the has an unmatched footprint all over Latin America.
• Rotary International: Global & service-driven community likely to be a great feeder.

2. Potential curriculum & pedagogy partners. We would love to collaborate to experiment adapting their work to Latin American youth, using LALA as a laboratory and thus contributing to their research too.

• Transformative Action Institute: science-based curricula on Positive Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Non-Violent Communication.
• Digital Pedagogy Lab: digital education methods.
• EL Education: school design & teacher training. 
• The Presencing Institute: introspective, authentic & collaborative leadership.
• MIT Media Lab: multidisciplinary learning and digital technologies. 
• The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values: ethical leadership. 

3. Potential community & network-building partners, to help us develop and articulate the continental community and movement we seek to build.

• Facebook/LinkedIn/Mighty Networks: to help us build the online components of the LALA Community.
• Ashoka, Acumen, Endeavor, Sistema B, United World Colleges, Echoing Green: These organizations already have communities that have important overlaps with our mission & strategy. Their members could be mentors & connectors for us; we could feed them exceptional talent. Longer term, we could coordinate larger collaborations.