Where I come from

I am not stepping into your world, I come from it.

Six years inside nonprofits. Four at Fondation Le Refuge, between Nice and Paris: I came in as a digital communications assistant and left as head of marketing and communications. I learned nonprofit communications from inside a nonprofit, not from an agency: national campaigns and their written calendar, the year-end campaign that decides the year, brand partnerships carried through to the contract, and local branches run by volunteers. Six hundred volunteers supported, from Le Refuge to Remember Me France, whom I equipped and followed at their events. Today, Remember Me France day to day, alongside the organization and alongside its president. I do for others what I did there, with the same constraints and the same seasons. I set up EXPawa in Tallinn, Estonia, so that one day I can settle in Asia for good; Porto is the middle ground in Europe, as close as possible to the nonprofits I work alongside.

2020 to today

The path

2020August

Fondation Le Refuge, Nice

Digital communications assistant. First mailings, first campaigns, first local branches supported.

Sunset over the tiled roofs of old Nice and the bay, the sea and the sky orange in the distance. — Nice

2023June

Head of marketing and communications

National campaigns, public statements and the tools of the local branches. At the same time, a work-study master’s in digital marketing, IAE Université Côte d’Azur.

Adrien and a television host, back to back in suits, in front of the partner wall at a Fondation Le Refuge forum — Forum du Refuge

2024October to December

Nepal, Annapurnas

Two months walking alone, the Mardi Himal. Time given to an orphanage in Kathmandu, the New Nepal Society Center.

Adrien in a black jacket and hat on a ridge at daybreak, a Nepalese flag in his hand, the snow-covered Annapurna range behind him. — Annapurnas

Adrien holding a child with two others beside him, thumb up, under the covered yard of the Kathmandu shelter, in the evening. — Kathmandu

2025March to May

Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong

Angkor Wat, the Ha Giang loop, the end of the trip in Hong Kong. That is where the idea of EXPawa takes shape.

Adrien seen from behind on the causeway of an Angkor temple, the stone tiers of the sanctuary straight ahead of him. — Angkor

Adrien, arms open on a promontory of the Ha Giang loop, a Vietnamese flag in his hand above the valley. — Ha Giang

Adrien sitting on a rock beside the Ha Giang road, the turquoise river at the bottom of the valley below. — Ha Giang

Adrien alone at the end of a wooden pontoon laid on a river, the limestone peaks of Vietnam in the mist behind him. — Vietnam

Hong Kong bay seen from a peak at dusk, the city towers between the wooded ridge and the water. — Hong Kong

Two backpacks side by side on a low wall, in a Hong Kong street: the end of the trip. — Hong Kong

2025August 6

EXPawa is born

EXPawa/ɛksˈpa.wa/: Power · Pawathe power to act, which evokes vital energy, awakening, movement

EXPawa OÜ, Tallinn, chosen so that I can settle in Asia for good within a few years. Since then, Remember Me France day to day.

Presented to Remember Me France on May 29, 2025: seven pillars, which became nine domains, the manifesto, the lexicon.

The word EXPawa in white letters on a cobalt background, blurred sheets of coral and butter behind it. — Tallinn

2026March

Porto

EXPawa settles in Porto, the middle ground in Europe to be as close as possible to the nonprofits it works alongside.

2026July 3

The Remember Me France website

Live, fed on its own by data from the field.

Today

Remember Me France

Current home page: donation form on the left with its tiers, full-frame headline over an aerial view of the shelter. — AfterThe website in production, fed by data from the field

Visit remembermefrance.org

2022 to 2024

What I led at Fondation Le Refuge

2022November
The year-end campaign
"EffaceMonEnfant.com": a fake website that turned hate into a fundraising appeal, ambassadors armed with messages written in advance, a review across every channel.
2023May
The foundation’s twentieth anniversary
A press conference in the late afternoon, an evening run from end to end, an opinion survey presented on stage. With Amazon: a statement from Alexa for Pride month, written by me, artwork reworked until it ran on every screen, a donation path that can be measured, and the plan to install Alexa where the young people are taken in.
2023
Corporate sponsorship and campaigns
With IKEA: a panel broadcast for Pride month, the people who were going to speak on it prepared one by one, and the STORSTOMMA bag sold in stores with a share going back to Le Refuge. The institutional poster campaign, the TV spot.
2024January
The website changes host
The website and its donation page factory change host, with a move-out date imposed. Backups asked for again the day before rather than taken from three weeks earlier, green light given once the new website was standing.
2024March to May
The Inclusive Sport Tour
Five cities, three sports, a tour carried by the Fondation pour le Sport Inclusif and co-produced with the foundation. Supervision of the partnership on the nonprofit side: spokespeople decided before the first call, the sentence they would repeat written in advance, the regional daily and the local station to call identified in each city, the press release co-signed with the federations and the leagues.
2024June
Rhinoshield for Pride
A product-share partnership carried through to the contract, and the brand’s copy read over before it went out. The end of the Refuge chapter.

Why EXPawa

Born on the road

Before EXPawa, I walked two months alone in the Annapurnas, and gave time to an orphanage in Kathmandu. Then Cambodia and Vietnam. The idea was born on the road, with a single question on the way back: where does every hour saved show the most? In a nonprofit. I kept a rhythm from the trip: one step after another, and look back at where you come from.

Tools should give it back,not take it.

What I believe

Volunteers’ time is the most precious resource a nonprofit has

I also believe you only serve a cause well when you have carried it yourself. During my master’s, I volunteered with the LGBT+ young people taken in by Le Refuge, and my thesis dug into the underlying question: to what extent is degendered marketing a driver of growth specific to the nonprofit world? I say it because it is a conviction: a nonprofit’s communications are only right if they respect the people it defends. Volunteer at Petits Débrouillards, at Fondation Le Refuge, at Remember Me France, and at the New Nepal Society Center.

How I work

One person, a pace that holds, tools that are watched

Check before claiming. A number given to a nonprofit comes from a measurement, never from an impression.
Fix at the root, not in the promise. The fix lives in the tool, with its history, verifiable, lasting.
Go and look. A campaign that runs is not a campaign that works: the ad as it appears, the link it leads to, before believing the report.
Document so someone else can take over. Dated reports, written decisions, no knowledge that exists only in one head.

The manifesto

At EXPawa, I don’t just connect tools.

I pawa momentum.

I pawa ideas looking for their rhythm.

I pawa causes that want to carry further, and louder.

To pawa is to instill the right energy, and to respect the essence of every mission.

I don’t sell packages.

I am the person you call when things get stuck, and the one still there the year after.

Explicit. Exacting. EXPawa.

The entity

The company

EXPawa is a European company, run by Adrien Navarro from Porto. The contract, the invoice and your work come back to you exactly as they would with a French provider, and everything happens in French, from Europe. The full identity is on the legal notice page.

Write to Adrien