Building Community: Why I Created My Own Networking Group

“I could see a lot of similarities and common interests between the people I was meeting,” she tells The Local. “That’s why I decided to eventually start organising networking events.”

She also knew at the time that her contract would not be extended, and felt like this could be a good resource for her to rely on in the future.

“It all started with informal events,” she remembers. “We used to meet at this restaurant which has now closed, and I promoted it on LinkedIn, sent a registration form to people and it was always a small, intimate group, but everyone had a similar energy, similar interests, values and experiences. So everyone really connected very well from the start.”

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Elizabeth, who goes by Ely, is originally from Ecuador and still has family there, but has been living abroad for most of her adult life, including stints in the US, the UK and a few other countries before coming to Sweden.

She first came to Sweden when her now-husband, who is from Nepal, got a job offer in Stockholm. What was originally meant to be a temporary relocation has now become something more long-term.

Ely loved Sweden from the start, despite not knowing much about the country before the move. There were some challenges along the way, such as the language barrier and initial difficulties finding work.

“I moved here in April and once I was ready to look for jobs and network, it was summer time. I didn’t know that things were going to be completely closed for so many weeks in the summer. So that kind of delayed my plans and my process.”

Her background is in social change and social impact, with a particular interest in women’s rights and gender equality.

“Aside from my jobs, I’ve often led my own initiatives or my own social impact projects. So I’ve had a very non-linear career.”

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In Sweden, she originally found work in an international organisation based in the country, where she worked for a year. However, work contracts in the non-profit sector are often temporary, so she’s spent a lot of time hopping between different roles in different countries.

“That’s been a big part of my Swedish experience, living here, but actually working for organisations in other countries. Opportunities in our sector are quite limited, so I’ve had to be creative and look beyond Sweden as well. But I think that’s also part of the experience in Sweden as well. We’re part of the EU, we’re part of something larger than Sweden, so I’ve made the most of that.”

“I’m always trying to see what else is out there, what else can be done to address these issues.”

While her husband came to Sweden with a full-time job which eventually became permanent, her career has not been as straightforward, and she had to invest a lot of time in networking in order to make friends and other professional connections. This started even before moving to Sweden, Ely says.

“I was already connecting with people on LinkedIn and asking them for virtual coffee or fika,” she added. “Then once I moved here I continued with that process of looking for people that I admired or that I was interested in learning more about, both Swedes and internationals.”

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These constant one-to-one meetings with different people quickly became “draining”, Ely says, and it took time to find the right people.

“I also joined Facebook groups, went to events and things like that, but there were times where I would go to an event that maybe just wasn’t for me, or maybe it wasn’t the right time to join. So it took a lot of effort to not fully give up on that process.”

She doesn’t regret making connections in this way.

“It was an interesting process in the sense that I connected with very interesting people and really learnt about Sweden through all of these connections. It’s one thing to do research online and another to have conversations with people who have lived here for longer or who are from here. I think you learn more through people.”

She started to host networking events to help the people she was connecting with connect with each other. She organised three or four in the first few months, after which the network started to grow, morphing into the Stockholm Nonprofit & Social Impact Network.

“Eventually we came up with the idea of starting a LinkedIn group, a place to connect in between events and share questions, opportunities or experiences. So we’ve had that group since 2022, we’ve organised over 20 different events in different places and it’s quite open in the sense that it’s for anyone working or interested in the non-profit sector.”

An event at Impact Hub in August 2024. Photo: Elizabeth Wright Veintimilla

Since last summer, they’ve started organising frequent coworking sessions on Friday mornings for network members, and they’ve just launched a mentorship programme with applications due at the end of January.

Ely says that she sees it as the network she needed when she arrived in Sweden.

“I would have loved to have this kind of LinkedIn group and this space to rely on, because there’s a lot going on in Stockholm and in Sweden in terms of events and projects, but there are very few things that are for people working in non-profit and social impact.”

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She has also had help from a number of co-organisers who have all contributed with their own expertise, from communication and marketing, to clarifying the goal and purpose of the group to planning the structure of future events.

Their LinkedIn group now numbers more than 180 people based in Stockholm and Uppsala, but they’re now working on attracting new types of people, as despite the fact that the network is welcome to all, there are still a few groups who are less likely to attend events.

“It’s quite diverse, in the sense that people work on many different topics, from migration to sustainability to tech to gender, all kinds of things,” she says.

“But we have realised that there are still always some people missing. It’s mostly women at most of the events, we have much fewer men, and it’s mostly internationals. We sometimes have one Swede, but we would love to have more Swedes join us.”

She thinks the events may be more popular with women due to the simple fact that there are many women working in the non-profit sector.

“In terms of it being mostly internationals, maybe the Swedes already have an established career and a community to rely on, and maybe that’s enough for them. But for internationals, we don’t have family nearby. We don’t really have a professional network here in Sweden, so we need to look for these spaces and be in these spaces, otherwise it gets very lonely.”

An event at Third Place in February 2025. Photo: Elizabeth Wright Veintimilla

Ely is now working on figuring out the next steps for the network, whether that’s partnerships with local organisations for support or a space to meet, or hosting more formal events.

“What else can we do for the community, aside from the casual events? Who can partner with us and support us? A big challenge we have is where to meet in Stockholm. We need a space that can host us after work, it has to be central, it has to be accessible, and that can be a bit of a challenge,” she adds.

Ideally, she said, this would be a place where the network can meet regularly, so they can dedicate more time to other things like strategy and logistics.

“It’s difficult to do things as a volunteer-led initiative. We don’t really have a budget to rent event venues or things like that, so we really have to be creative about what spaces we can use and who we can collaborate with. And it’s also a difficult time for the non-profit and social impact sectors, it’s difficult to access as a newcomer and as an international professional it’s difficult to find work opportunities or even volunteer opportunities.”

“I’ve noticed how much people have to give and how much talent and knowledge there is, and people really want to give to the local community in Sweden, so I hope we can create more opportunities for that to happen.”

One of the network’s earlier events in 2023. Photo: Elizabeth Wright Veintimilla

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The non-profit sector is “a bit of a bubble,” she says, with many people who have already broken into the sector often rotating between different organisations within it.

“A lot of organisations seem to prefer hiring people with ten or twenty years of experience, and there are a lot of people moving to Sweden who don’t have that, and they don’t have the professional network to break into this sector, and they don’t have the knowledge of which organisations are out there.”

Ely is also surprised that it can be so hard for internationals to find work in the Swedish non-profit sector, when a lot of the organisations in Sweden also operate internationally.”

“It would make sense to make it more accessible for newcomers, but it seems like you need to be established first. You need to learn the language. You need to have many, many years of work experience in order to enter the sector. There are exceptions of course, but it’s quite limited.”

That even applies to people who studied relevant topics, like human rights or gender, in Sweden, who want to stay in the country after graduating.

“They end up leaving, because there’s not much to do here after studying. Which is quite concerning.”

She adds that the country is doing some things right – for example work conditions and professional opportunities, and access to free education for some residents – although Swedish organisations could do more to “expand the bubble”.

“They want to hire people with many years of experience, which is valid, but I think it’s also valuable to have people who have different experiences to contribute with, no matter their age or their years of work experience. The non-profit sector in Sweden doesn’t fully represent what Sweden has. Sweden is quite a diverse country, but then you see the non-profit sector and you go to these organisations in person, and it’s not the same.”

There are a lot of initiatives for new arrivals working in STEM or tech, she says, but fewer for people in the non-profit sector.

“It would be great to create more spaces and initiatives for that in particular, which I think is one of the reasons that there’s so much interest in this particular network.”

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Her best advice for recent arrivals to Sweden, whether they moved over to Sweden with a partner or came alone, is to remember that “everyone’s timeline is different.”

“Some people can focus on the language first and then networking or job searching. For some people it’s different, first they network, then they learn the language. So whatever works for you. Don’t fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others who might seem further ahead. Own your own timeline.”

Another concrete piece of advice is to document your networking efforts.

“Keep track of all the information you’re learning about in a spreadsheet or something like that. There’s a lot going on in Sweden when it comes to social impact and international communities, so try and keep track of the people you’re connecting with and the organisations you’re finding, as you’ll forget, and it’s good to stay informed about what these people and these organisations are doing.”

Finally, she adds that you should see networking as “mutually beneficial”.

“Remember you also have something to offer, whether that’s your experience, your knowledge, your story or your international experience. The people you reach out to, they also want to engage with people like you. It’s a mutual learning process, not a one-way street.”

Interview by Emma Löfgren, article by Becky Waterton.