The co-founder of Glasswing International on unlikely alliances, a boy named Kevin, and why every donation is a flutter of wings.
Celina de Sola knew what she wanted to do with her life by the time she was 12. Born in El Salvador in the 1970s, she grew up watching how much of a person’s future was decided by the circumstances they were born into. “Nobody’s future should be determined by arbitrary circumstances,” she told Iconic Original Media. “Potential is everywhere, but the opportunities are not everywhere.”
That conviction became Glasswing International, the nonprofit she co-founded with two other social entrepreneurs. Today it counts a team of 500 people and thousands of volunteers across roughly 12 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and New York City, where de Sola lives. We sat down with her in New York for a bilingual conversation about leadership, legacy and what one donation can set in motion.
Strengthen what is already there
A nonprofit built inside public systems, not beside them
Where there is poverty, violence and a lack of opportunity, de Sola explains, governments often lack the funding to provide every service people need, from health care to mental health support. Glasswing’s answer was not to build a parallel system. “We decided to start the organization to strengthen and build on what was already there,” she says. “We work within public schools, we work within public health systems, just to help people access the best quality care they can.”
Alongside that work, Glasswing provides something harder to budget for: role models and caring adults in children’s lives.
Unlikely partners, one cause
The hardest part of the work is also the most exciting
Asked what has been most challenging about growing Glasswing, de Sola points to the same thing that energizes her: bringing together people and institutions that have never thought of working together. Public sector, private sector and civil society do not always agree, politically or on matters of faith. “But when it’s about social change, a lot of times you can really pull people together,” she says. “At the end, we all want the same thing for our children and youth, and that’s for them to unlock their potential.”
Glasswing’s reach now extends beyond its own offices. Through partner organizations in India, South Africa and elsewhere, teams train one another in their programs and share what they learn. “It enriches what we do a lot,” she says.
Kevin, from glee club to the data team
Be the person you needed when you were younger
When we ask for the story that reminds her why the work matters, de Sola starts with a number. At least 20 percent of Glasswing’s staff are former students of its programs, and that share keeps growing.
Then she tells us about Kevin. He joined a Glasswing glee club in Guatemala City at nine years old. After-school clubs meet two hours a week, all year, led by volunteers who show up consistently. Kevin stayed in the clubs throughout his schooling, then became a volunteer for younger children. After graduating, he completed a year-long fellowship with Glasswing’s monitoring and evaluation team, where he discovered he loved technology. He is now studying technology and systems, and he still volunteers.
“Be the person that you needed when you were younger.”
Ayesha Siddiqui, quoted by Celina de Sola
“Kevin’s story for me is one of those stories where you’re like, this is amazing,” she says. “This kid, at nine, was supported with mentors and role models who believed in him. And now he is that person for other people.”
Communities of care
Change is driven by young people themselves
De Sola is careful not to cast Glasswing as the hero of these stories. “Young people are the ones who drive that change,” she says. “We almost just create the spaces and the opportunities.” The region has been through a lot and continues to, she notes, and children are resilient. The work is to strengthen the skills and adaptability they already have, and to make sure they know someone believes in them.
That, to her, is what mental health really comes down to. “It would be hard to always have psychologists everywhere,” she says. “We can be someone else’s person, and lots of people’s person, and other people can be our person.”
Leadership means knowing when to step aside
The leaders she admires most are rarely famous
De Sola has worked alongside institutions such as the World Economic Forum and the Obama Foundation, yet she calls her own leadership a work in progress. “A lot of leadership is to know when to get out of the way,” she says. “There are so many leaders in any organization. I may not be the best positioned to lead in a given situation, and someone else might be.” Good leaders, in her view, are curious, ask the most questions and rely on the people closest to a challenge.
The leaders she admires most are teachers, nurses, community leaders and first responders. “The everyday acts are sometimes super challenging,” she says. “There are incredible acts of leadership and courage in what we consider to be everyday, but is really extraordinary.” Her shortest summary: “There’s no leadership without a collective.”
Credibility is built on integrity
Transparency, respect and rigor
Glasswing has earned the trust of governments, companies, foundations and communities. De Sola credits authenticity and transparency first, then respect between institutions even when they disagree, then hard work and rigor in measuring results. “Are we achieving what we want to? Are we changing lives the way that we want to?” she asks. “At the end, it’s about integrity, and showing up, and being consistent.” That includes admitting when something is not going well.
Where a donation goes
Ninety-five cents of every dollar
According to de Sola, about 95 percent of every dollar donated goes directly to programs, with overhead at roughly 5 percent. She offered concrete examples of what giving can fund:
In New York, Glasswing works in six public high schools with students who arrived in the United States within the last three or four years, offering mental health and after-school programs. One girl in its girls’ program told the team that her mentor “saw something in me that I hadn’t seen in myself.” Says de Sola: “When you invest in young people believing in themselves, you unlock all these other things.”
Giving is not only financial. Glasswing matches volunteers in pairs so a missed week never leaves a club uncovered, and companies can run corporate volunteer days that give a school a makeover, fix a playground or revitalize a park. In Mexico, where the organization has worked in Mexico City, Tijuana and Chiapas and is expanding, the team is led by country director Valeria Suárez.
The butterfly effect
A message for anyone who wants to leave a legacy
Asked what she would tell philanthropists, executives and investors, de Sola borrows from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax: unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. The size of the world’s challenges can be overwhelming, she says, so start anywhere. “Just take the first step. Be that person for someone else.”
For her, a legacy is measured by what a gift makes possible. “It’s not just what you gave in money or resources. It’s what that made possible, how that unlocks this transformation that is sustained over time.” She compares it to the butterfly effect, where one small flutter of wings in one part of the world can generate a storm in another. “If we all flutter our wings through small actions, imagine what the world could look like. Glasswing is a butterfly, and we want to be partners in that.”
To visit Glasswing’s programs in Latin America or New York, or to get involved, reach the team through glasswing.org. “We’d love to team up,” de Sola says, “to unlock the potential of every child, every young person that we can.”
Inside Glasswing’s Programs
After-school clubs, volunteers and students across the region
This interview was conducted in English and Spanish and has been edited and condensed for clarity. Figures are as stated by Glasswing International.
