A couple of weeks ago we published Civio's 2016 Management Report. As in previous years, this is a critical exercise for us. It offers a unique chance to pause and reflect on a full year of activity, focusing on the impact obtained, the lessons learnt and the challenges that still lie ahead.
When David and I kickstarted Civio as 2011 came to an end, I think it is fair to say we were guided by a broad sense of mission: creating a professional civil society organization to help drive forward some much needed cultural and legislative changes in our country.
We had this vague intuition that a mixture of tools –including web technology, data journalism and targetted advocacy– could successfully be combined to strengthen civic empowerment, helping better informed and more critical citizens proactively tackle Spain's backward standards in terms of transparency and accountability.
What we didn't quite anticipate was the steepness of the learning curve ahead. Establishing and growing a non-for-profit civil society organization has proven to be plagued with issues, particularly in a country like ours. And this is precisely the reason why, amongst all the great difficulties, it feels really good to have come this far, with a team of eight –soon nine– committed professionals producing outstanding work, day in and day out, on every front.
With the conviction that the best is still to come, and that we will be able to rise to the challenge, I invite everyone to follow us in this wonderful journey, where all the help we can gather will undoubtedly prove invaluable!
PS: the report is currently in Spanish only. The full English translation will follow later this summer. Enjoy the read!
