About Us

Ordinary Professionals, contributing to Extraordinary Community Organizations

Depending on who you ask, LocalMotion is a Hong Kong based social enterprise, an ambitious intitiative to re-engineer skills based volunteering, or a startup dedicated to providing charities and social enterprises with the professional skills they need to make more impact.

If you ask us, we are a group of professionals (and joyful, unshakeable optimists), who are lucky enough to make volunteers, charities and social enterprises happy for our living. We are very serious about contributing to positive social change, and very practical about executing it.

LocalMotion was founded by Belinda Poole and Sarah Fowler, on the idea that what each of us does with our time counts. As a former lawyer and marketing professional, we struggled to find opportunities to give back our skills to trustworthy social and environmental organsiations in a meaningful, personal and useful way.

Yet at the same time, almost every charity and social enterprise we knew found it hard to find skilled professionals to assist them.

Since 2016, we have been obsessed by the question: "How can we help charities and social enterprises get skilled projects done?". In 2018, we were joined by Instant Karma Technology Group, an online volunteering platform originating in Spain, to shake up skills based volunteering.

Our focus is on helping charities and social enterprises take skilled projects off their plates. We support volunteer professionals to complete high quality, highly useful short term skills based volunteering projects. The projects result in concrete deliverables that social and environmental organisations can put to use immediately for measureable outcomes.

In the process, we help professionals like us to make deep connections with the social sector and to use their skills to make meaningful contributions to charities and social enterprises.

And that is a pretty fun space to be in.

Board and Team

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Adrian Valenzuela

Director

Adrian is a finance professional with has more than 20+ years of experience in global markets. He is he CoFounder and CoCEO of MCM Partners, a Hong Kong- based financial services boutique providing bespoke advisory, research and execution services to a diverse and sophistocated clientele. Adrian is also a Chairman of Board of Trustees at Hong Kong Academy and Board Member of Instant Karma Technology Group

“I’m a believer in the future, by forging a base in our present, and leaving our mark in the past. Giving back to our community helps make our shared future better for us all.”

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Belinda Poole

CoFounder, Managing Director

Belinda is a Director and the CoFounder at LocalMotion managing daily operations. A former lawyer, government worker, corporate advisor and (by some quirk of fate), a recovering CTO, Belinda has 15+ years experience advising on and rolling out strategic projects. Creating value for charities and social enterprises and supporting them to make impact is the best job she’s ever had.

“Skills based volunteering is the ulimate selfish pleasure. Doing things you can be proud of with people you like to build something great that benefits everyone. It doesn’t get better than that!”

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Bertha Wang

Creative and Community Manager

Bertha is the Creative and Community Manager at LocalMotion. Before obtaining her Masters in Photography at University of London, she used her creativity to social enterprises in Hong Kong at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is an avid urban photographer who believes that photography can serve as a wonderful means for communicating urban stories and helping people to understand each other.

“Every small piece of help counts! Never underestimate the power of helping others, your little bit of help might cause big changes!”

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Sarah Fowler

CoFounder, Director, Consultant

Sarah is a Director, CoFounder and Consultant to LocalMotion. Sarah’s background is in marketing and corporate social responsibility and she has worked in both the corporate and social sectors. She particularly likes to use her marketing skills to support non profits and social enterprises to tell their stories more effectively and to raise awareness to their causes. Sarah is currently undertaking a course on Social Impact at the University of Pennsylvania and will be completing her Masters in Sustainability.

“Skills based volunteering is about finding that sweet spot between what you do best, the organisations you care about and where you find purpose.”

Advisory Board

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Linda To

Advisor

Linda is the founding member and the former Executive Director of HER Fund (2007-2017). She has over 25 years of work experience for the advancement of human rights with women from diverse backgrounds. Linda is currently the Board member of Women’s Fund for Asia, a regional women’s fund grant- making organisation for women’s rights in Asia.

“To be able to give is a blessing! Never expect returns, as you never know when your good deeds will come back to you. Follow your heart and you will see the difference. Believe in giving for a good cause!”

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Matthew Gow

Advisor

Matthew’s background in the tech sector has helped him develop numerous services to help tackle the world’s most pressing problems. Currently Director of Strategy and CTO for Crossroads Foundation Matthew has led the development of apps including GlobaHand.org, and buisness.un.org, which helps companies engage with the UN in support of the Sustainable Development Goals. He is also the project lead for the GoodCity.hk which which facilitiates thousands of “in kind” donations for a more sustainable and generous Hong Kong.

“Using our hard won skills to help another person is as addictive as it is impactful. Try it – it will change your life.”

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Nicola Oldfield

Advisor

Nicola is an entrepreneurial leader with 17+ years of marketing, events and communications experience where she specializes in linking public relations with branding, marketing, digital and commerce. She is currently Director of Marketing and Client Services for APAC at TEN Group, a tech-enabled lifestyle and travel company. Since 2016 Nicola has been a Member of the Hong Kong Board of Directors for WGI, an international organisation promoting literacy. She was appointed as the Hong Kong Chairman in 2018.

“In today's fast-paced world, and particularly in Hong Kong, it's so important to find meaning in what we do. I love the concept of skills based volunteering - it is so inspiring and I believe it can add so much shared value between volunteers, charities/social enterprises and companies.”