Eduardo Carrera knew something was missing. During his ten years as CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Puerto Rico, he saw firsthand the persistent challenges facing children there—57 percent of whom live below the poverty line. While his work was making a difference, the absence of a key ingredient was stifling progress: outside financing.
“I felt a responsibility to do more for communities like the one I grew up in,” says Eduardo. “We need systemic change in Puerto Rico, and we weren’t taking advantage of all the resources we could be bringing in.”
In 2022, Eduardo founded Platform for Social Impact (PSI) to bridge global capital with local communities. The organization identifies capital that has not traditionally come to Puerto Rico and then works with local nonprofits to design and deliver essential services. The model proved successful: PSI secured a $30 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) to significantly expand services in the OASIS Hub—a new community space in San Juan’s Villa Prades neighborhood. PSI financed the hub, currently under construction, by raising $43 million from a variety of sources. The new hub will offer educational programs, after-school activities, healthcare services, and workforce training through partnerships with local organizations.
“Villa Prades and the surrounding communities are some of the most densely populated areas in Puerto Rico, yet they lack significant quality services. What we’re offering will be a catalyst for changing lives in the community,” Eduardo says.
To help maximize this opportunity and plan for long-term success, PSI worked with a pro bono McKinsey team to navigate challenges, define goals, and build a foundation for growth.
“We’ve been inspired by PSI’s multifunctional approach that emphasizes well-being while lifting up local communities,” says Todd Wintner, the McKinsey partner who led the engagement. “The OASIS project is an opportunity to build a replicable model for not only Puerto Rico but local economic mobility programs across the country.”
Benchmarking ambition
With the new OASIS center, Eduardo, with partners Jobs for the Future and Vimenti, wanted to expand PSI’s focus to include young adults through workforce development—which was new ground for the organization. McKinsey stepped in to research workforce programs across the globe and help PSI shape its approach.
“We helped them think through their targets for placement rates and employer partnerships, and what best in class would mean here,” says Jessica Kaushal, the engagement manager at McKinsey who worked with PSI. “Because their aim is excellence.”
The collaboration helped PSI define what success should look like—and how to measure it.
“If we’re going to put $1 into the community, what should we get back in terms of program results?” says Eduardo. “Looking at ourselves in comparison to what has worked makes a major difference in making strategic decisions.”
With McKinsey’s support, PSI developed a plan to place 1,000 people in good jobs over the next five years.
Building the muscle of governance
In just three years, PSI has grown into an $8 million organization with nearly 20 staff members. That rapid growth was a boon for the community—but came with internal challenges. With McKinsey’s help, PSI strengthened its governance structure from the ground up.
“We looked at our organization on a deeper level than we had before,” Eduardo says. “It wasn’t just an org chart but what were the relationships we needed? What should the job descriptions say? How often should we have meetings, and who should attend?”
The function of asking these questions and drafting plans goes beyond the term of the exercise with McKinsey.
“It was about strengthening the organization’s muscles to track outcomes across a very complex set of new partnerships,” says Jessica.
McKinsey and PSI co-created a detailed 100-day implementation plan, rewrote job descriptions, and launched a steering committee to make governance decisions.
“We had previously operated on a project-to-project basis, and now we are having organization-wide discussions and making decisions at the executive level,” says Eduardo.
A strong finish
When McKinsey began its work with PSI, the organization had just secured its $43 million capital stack and was a finalist for the EDA grant—one of only 22 out of 565 applicants. Already in a strong position, PSI benefited from McKinsey’s help in refining its storytelling, improving how it explained the program’s complexity and data-driven approach, and maximizing the application support time provided to the EDA finalists.
“We brought an outside perspective to their narrative,’” says Jessica. “We could see where they shined relative to other programs, so we focused on how bolster that story through data.”
Ultimately, PSI was one of five organizations to receive the EDA grant. Eduardo was ready.
“We did all this work with McKinsey on strengthening our organization and our plans during the time of the final application,” he says. “A lot of that organizational work often comes after receiving the grant, but we were prepared right away.”
This type of meticulous planning and infrastructure building isn’t always the first instinct for mission-driven leaders. Eduardo describes the collaboration with McKinsey as a “transfer of knowledge” that expedited PSI’s ability to deliver real change.
“I have been guilty of sometimes trying with all the passion and commitment in the world to do the work without the right tools,” says Eduardo. “But now we have the capacity to give back to these communities.”