Open Circles Foundation - Virgin Unite Connection Trip

Making a better world -- together with Richard Branson

It all started when we wanted to kick our philanthropic activities via our Open Circles FOUNDATION (http://www.opencirclesfoundation.org) into a higher gear...

We knew we're too small in money and manpower to do it on our own, and we were looking for a great partner that works with a similar vision to ours, with projects that are close to our hearts, and have the resources AND the experience in the field.

After a long research and much debate, we decided to partner up with Virgin Unite -- Richard Branson's not-for-profit foundation which made it its mission to "... unite people and entrepreneurial ideas to reinvent how we live and work in the world to help make people's lives better. With the aim is to revolutionize the way businesses, government and the social sector work together -- driving business as a force for good."

A few months ago we flew to Virgin Unite's headquarters in London with a plan to donate a substantial amount of money to one of Virgin Unite's projects -- the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa.

But... we insisted on donating the money only if we could also contribute our time and expertise to the young entrepreneurs...

During our brainstorm session in London we agreed to take a trip to South Africa to meet the entrepreneurs themselves, the centre leaders, Virgin Unite's CEO (Jean Oelwang) and ... Richard Branson -- in order to build the best program we can offer to accelerate the success of these young entrepreneurs -- the future of South Africa.

Fast forward 3 months...

We're just back from 5 ultra-inspiring days in Johannesburg and Richard Branson's private game reserve, and in this video you can see some of our impressions...