From Charity to Social Business
The same week as winning the Guardian Charity Award I got a call from the bank – things were not looking good.
I also had customers telling me that our quality was slipping.
In short – I had developed a fantastic but deeply unsustainable charity funded almost entirely by grants.
Like any entrepreneur, I fought hard to save my organisation.
In the following months I worked with my team and some fantastic external advisers to come up with a plan to turn Speaking Up into a social enterprise selling professional advocacy services to councils, PCTs and the independent sector.
Investment from venture philanthropy pioneers the Impetus Trust saw us grow five-fold and work right across the country.