ABOUT

Throughout her work as a founder, Annamaria has successfully:

  • Built ventures from a visionary idea into concrete action

  • Developed brand and complete communications

  • Built communities from scratch

  • Mobilized thousands of volunteers who, over decades, put in hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours

  • Expanded political advocacy on local, national, and global scenes

  • Fundraised millions of Euros with local, national, and global funders

  • Fronted and organized nation-wide campaigns with global stakeholders

  • Built sustainable infrastructure, teams, and programs

  • Completed successful succession, allowing robust organizations to grow on the strong foundation she created

In her work as a journalist, Annamaria has worked in all sides of reporting, including as a writer for magazines and news outlets in three languages, a long-term professional blogger, a researcher and fixer for international media in Berlin, an editor and executive producer on a podcast, and a book author.

News outlets Annamaria has written for include Verso, SVD, ETC, Bang, ELLE, Omvärlden, Baltic Worlds, Sydsvenskan, Arena, RES, Arts of the Working Class, and UNT.

Annamaria Olsson is a Swedish activist, writer, and multi-awardwinning social entrepreneur who has lived in Berlin since 2008. She has founded the NGOs Give Something Back to Berlin and Stories from the Beauty Parlor, as well as served as a freelance journalist for publications in both Swedish, English and German. She is a respected speaker and educator, having presented at locations including the UN Headquarters in New York and Humboldt University in Berlin, as well as contributed to courses at Harvard University on refugee integration in Germany. Her extensive global and German network in philanthropy, politics, and NGOs makes her appreciated as a consultant and coach. She loves creating and developing initiatives that blend storytelling, activism, community mobilization, and the arts, pushing boundaries to foster change in the critical issues of our time.