27 Jan Sitting on the other side of the table

Today CrowdGuard team member Tina Büchler acted as a member of the mid-term jury of the Social Impact Start program powered by Social Impact Berlin and the Social Impact HUB  Zürich. The program provides workspace, workshops and professional coachings for social start-ups. CrowdGuard was once part of this program, too, and profited greatly from its inputs.

Exciting and extremely diverse projects are underway: Mr Green Trading seeks to establish waste recycling programs in Africa building on local stakeholders; Farmtasy is working on reconnecting Swiss consumers with the producers of the food on their table by using innovative IT solutions; The Green Fairy has developed most delicious vegan, organic and fair trade ice cream (we were allowed to taste it… it does speak for itself) and is now looking for a way to scale their product, and, finally, there is a mining project – yes you’ve read correctly: the Indigenous Mining Equity Foundation wants indigenous peoples living on mineral-rich land to get a piece of the mining cake by supporting them in taking over mining concessions on land that big mining companies have explored but deemed not profitable enough for large-scale exploitation (be it because there is not enough to get mineral-wise or be it because there is too much social and political instability). IMEF envisions to fund such indigenous mining projects, which also aim at co-creating exactly said social and political stability. A pilot is running in Haiti.

It was exciting to sit on the other end of the jury table for once, and Tina says the opportunity also helped her to regain a new perspective on the CrowdGuard project. She enjoyed the supportive spirit of the program and encourages start-ups to sign up for the next round – the program starts twice a year. Look here.