Fe y Alegria: One or Many?

The case highlights the difficulties faced by a social organization that has been able to expand activities throughout Latin America by developing a highly successful organizational model that responds adequately to different local realities and characteristics, but faces serious limitations as it projects itself internationally. The case is set in September 2005, when the time horizon for the Global Development and Institutional Strengthening Plan is coming to an end; Fe y Alegria (FyA) must now determine how to position itself internationally in 2009, and what it must do to achieve its goal. FyA defines itself as "an international movement for integral popular education and social development" in which both laypersons and members of diverse religious orders participate. Towards the end of 2004, FyA operated in 15 Latin American countries, serving more than one million students in formal education programs (preschool, primary, and secondary), together with other educational activities (work skills, adult education, broadcast education, and other). In each country FyA operates as a nonprofit public service organization, with its own legal entity. Internationally, it operates as a Federation of national agencies. FyA schools had captured the attention of organizations and individuals concerned with improving the quality of education, especially that provided to the poorest segments of society.

• Corporate social responsibility
• Poverty
• Nonprofit organizations