With refugees in Germany, suddenly everyone had an opinion. Regardless of individual points of view, everyone found themselves confronted with the stream of refugees in 2015. All over Germany initiatives started to rise, a lot of them started by young people without any practical experience in building a business. Still, a few of these projects have taken off into organizations with hundreds of people involved. One of these projects was our client, Kiron Open Higher Education. Kiron provides refugees with access to free-of-charge, top-quality higher education. What separates it from any other available means of higher education is that refugees don’t require the usual papers for enrolling.

 

With Kiron approaching us for communication support, we were able to be a small part of their beautiful and important mission to give refugees a self-determined life back. Through higher education, people forced to quit their studies and leave their country get a new perspective – and a real chance at integration.

For us, it was a pleasure to see Kiron develop internally but also to see them get more and more coverage and credit from media worldwide. After just a few months, Kiron was one of the most popular projects, noticed all over the world and with thousands of fans in multiple countries. In the end, Kiron collected more than 500,000€ in crowdfunding, making the project the most successful crowdfunding for a socia cause in Germany ever. Thanks to this funding, more than 1,000 refugees were able to start the pilot study semester in September. Right now, Kiron is in the final round for the Google Impact Challenge 2016 – just at the end of the first semester.

Needless to say, Kiron was one of our favorite projects in the last year and has left us pretty inspired. The Kiron case tells us that taking a crisis as a chance is not just a hollow phrase but a realistic option. Seeing this student project making such an impact, we think there are a few things every organization can learn from Kiron:

• Concentrate on your mission, always keeping in mind WHY you do what you do. Even commercial enterprises have a core idea apart from earning money.
• Don’t be afraid of taking a bold move, even if no one thinks it is doable. No innovation can ever come alive if no one is willing to leave their comfort zone.
• Done is better than perfect. Especially when time is of the essence. Making a plan is good advice – but be prepared to have things change as you go along the way. Don’t bother with perfection and focus on the core results.
• Don´t let company structures hinder innovation. If Kiron had waited until everything was in order and following a company procedure nothing would have happened by now. Structures are made to support ideas, not to prevent them.
• Use digital channels. For all too long, digital was understood as complementary to the “real” efforts. In fact, Kiron activated thousands of supporters in multiple countries via Facebook, blog formats, crowdfunding platforms among others. Even the internal workflow was mainly taking place online – with amazing effects in the offline world. Online is not the opposite of real!
• Motivate and onboard your team. Visionary ideas need people to share this vision.
• When you achieve something, take a break and CELEBRATE!