My award account Awards Events Blog Get involved Our work About us Our strategy Home About us Our strategy We want a future where enterprising people are transforming our world for good. We believe that the best way to achieve this is to help social entrepreneurship go mainstream. Our Going Mainstream strategy is about finding ways to break down the barriers faced by social entrepreneurs when starting and growing their venture. This might be issues in accessing training, raising capital, selling products and services, or simply communicating what they do and why to potential partners. It’s a big goal that demands great focus. So currently, we concentrate on three approaches to helping social entrepreneurs. Realising entrepreneurial potential We believe that people with lived experience of a problem have some of the best solutions. We meet social entrepreneurs developing solutions because they too have been homeless, without work or they know what it’s like to care for an ageing relative. By spotting and nurturing entrepreneurial talent, we unleash the potential of those with the passion to improve society. In 2016/17 we helped 571 social entrepreneurs to start up and turn their ideas for social change into a reality. We backed 75 social entrepreneurs to scale their impact and grow existing businesses or projects. And our help makes a difference. 76 Social entrepreneurs on our Big Venture Challenge programme raised £13 million in investment. Thanks to our support the number of lives improved by each of the 120 Big Venture Challenge social entrepreneurs rose by 600% on average. We help social entrepreneurs become better able to act for social good. Maximising social impact A compelling evidence of need, together with the areas our social entrepreneurs' have already had the most impact, has led us to focus on three areas where we think social entrepreneurs can make lasting change with our support. We are bringing social entrepreneurs together improve access to employment, develop solutions for an ageing society and build more resilient communities. But if they are to make the greatest impact they can, we need to help them navigate the system around them. And where the system doesn’t work, we want to change it. No one solution or organization can do this which is why we are bringing together individuals, government and business to help drive systemic change for social entrepreneurs working in our focus areas. We're working with government, Scope, disabled entrepreneurs, UBS, Access - the Foundation for Social Investment and social entrepreneurs to tackle access to employment. Connecting to great support We believe that by collaborating and creating networks, we can help social entrepreneurs to access the right support at the right time. We want to build a diverse network of supporters and help other organisations provide quality support to social entrepreneurs. Our Lead the Change programme supported 12 not for profit community and voluntary organisations to develop their support for social entrepreneurs based in their local area. From online support, to hosting events where potential social entrepreneurs can simply talk to someone else who’s been through the same journey, we are finding new ways to help large numbers of social entrepreneurs start well and thrive. 1.2 million older people in the UK are chronically lonely. Disabled people being twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people. Social entrepreneurs have the solutions to issues like these that face our society. Social entrepreneurs like Cemal Ezel, founder of Change Please, a premium coffee seller that trains and employs homless people to work as baristas. We are taking social entrepreneurship mainstream. We are dedicated to helping social entrepreneurs become valued members of society. By 2020, we hope to make social entrepreneurs house-hold names and helped to create an environment where they can thrive. What our social entrepreneurs say “We received a huge amount of help from [UnLtd] advisors to grow our business. We were able to meet and learn from different corporates and social entrepreneurs. It’s been really essential in helping us to direct growth and strategy”. Cemal Ezel Change Please Previous Next Back to top UnLtd is a registered Charity No. 1090393. Head office address: 123 Whitecross Street, Islington, London, EC1Y 8JJ London 020 7566 1100 | Birmingham 0121 766 4570 , Bradford 01274 750 630 or free phone 0800 917 7113 Privacy Policy Complaints Policy Cookies Policy Terms & Conditions Contact us Careers Press office Hide this Message To provide you with the best browsing experience, By continuing to use the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.