Fundación Felisa was founded by Iker Marcaide and Margarita Albors in 2022, driven by their determination to generate a positive impact across the foundation’s three areas of work: promoting children’s wellbeing, fighting poverty and protecting the environment.
It grew out of a firm commitment to join forces and pour their experience into these challenges.
In 2009, while living in the United States, Margarita discovered the world of social entrepreneurship. For her it was a genuine awakening: she saw that companies could be far more than generators of financial returns; they could become powerful instruments for triggering real, positive change in society and the environment. Margarita realized that focusing solely on financial gain would have damaging consequences for people and for the planet.
Convinced of the need to respond to these challenges, in 2010 she founded Social Nest Foundation, a pioneering organization that uses innovation to generate social and environmental impact. The foundation works tirelessly with a wide range of economic players: companies, entrepreneurs, investors and governments, using innovation as a response to the challenges of our time. Margarita is currently President of Social Nest.
At the same time, also in 2009, Iker founded Flywire (then known as peerTransfer). He did so driven by a clear mission: to help make the world a fairer place for everyone, whatever their financial situation, by drastically reducing the fees and banking costs of international transfers. Iker successfully led the company through its early years until it became the first Spanish-founded company to list on the Nasdaq.
In 2014, Iker created Zubi Labs, an innovative platform set up to co-found purpose-driven projects which, as it grew and consolidated, became Zubi Group. From this ecosystem it builds and invests in companies whose central goal is to generate a triple environmental, social and economic impact. Iker remains President of Zubi today.
Our shared wish to devote our efforts to challenges that matter to us led us to work in similar fields, but in parallel at Social Nest and Zubi, alongside exceptional teams.
In the year Fundación Felisa was created, we found ourselves facing specific challenges that we wanted to take on together, united as a family and from a philanthropic perspective. That is how our joint initiative was born: Fundación Felisa.
We work in innovative ways and in partnership with social and economic players to co-create projects that drive a better future. Our efforts focus on giving every child access to a thriving life, on tackling the social exclusion of vulnerable people, and on protecting the environment by promoting a sustainable way of life and a circular economy.
We like to believe that everything big starts small. With modest beginnings but a great deal of enthusiasm, we set out on this path to become catalysts for the change we believe is essential.
Felisa is a tribute to Iker’s grandmother and to Margarita’s great-grandmother. We were surprised to discover this beautiful link between our families through such an uncommon name.
It speaks to us of love of family, the warmth of grandmothers and the strength of two hard-working women of humble origins, always devoted to the wellbeing of those they loved. It also reminds us of happiness: “Felisa” comes from the Latin and means happy, fortunate, prosperous.
Is that not what we are all looking for in our lives?
