Commercial Charity Book
How business thinking can help non-profits grow impact and income. Everything you need to know about earning income and using business techniques to deliver social change.
Private Mentor Programme
These programmes will commence formally in April 2020. For those who wish to begin early, a 20% discount and two free months of programme membership will be offered to those who signup prior to 31st January 2020.
CEO Breakfast Seminars
Our twice-yearly, invitation-only seminars are the only place where CEOs of the UK’s largest charities come together to share their insights and experiences around the sector’s greatest challenges and opportunities.
Time to shed the shackles
Anyone reading the press over the last year could be forgiven for thinking that working in the charity sector is like living through The Blitz. It feels like the sector’s […]
Finding the diamonds
There’s an old story about a Persian farmer that a lot of struggling charities might find extremely relevant. It was popularised by the 19th century Baptist minister Russell Conwell and it goes like this…
The Changing Face of Charities
Between 2001 and 2011 the charity sector’s income grew from £31bn to £41bn a year. Not through fundraising or grants, or legacies or investments, but through commercial trading. Public donations […]
Finding the energy to rebuild
The most important first step for rebuilding an organisation is awareness. Awareness of how this unique situation is affecting different people in profoundly different ways, why, and what you can do to help.
This is what happens next
Scenarios exist to create discomfort – to make you think, to generate more radical ideas and solutions, to mentally prepare you for the possibility that something like it may someday happen.
What the best CEOs are doing now
Over the last two weeks I’ve seen a dramatic shift in CEO focus, from dealing with the issues of today, to looking at the challenges of tomorrow; of Summer, Autumn and Winter; and of what comes after that.
Coming out stronger
The uncertainties our sector has experienced in the last few weeks, the fluidity of the situation, the financial pressures, the waiting for announcements, and the constant need to react and respond; all of those things will be with us far longer than we’d like to think
Crisis actions with strategic payoffs
Why we need to learn from the progress we’ve made in this crisis; build on the change it has catalysed; and drive forward, with as much urgency and commitment, those huge strategic moves that we’ve put off for years.
Insight and inspiration
Every day, charities and social enterprises are doing incredible things, endlessly innovating and making a transformational difference to people’s lives. It just doesn’t make it into the media.
Should we stay or should we go now
Despite having been thoroughly debunked, the fable of the frog and boiling water continues to thrive in business commentaries. But research shows there’s actually no shortage of charity frogs reaching for their towels right now.
The entrepreneurial opportunity
The biggest lessons that charities can take from businesses are not the models or the mechanics of money-making – their roots are just as deep in the sector as they are anywhere else.
Executive open seminar May 20th 2020
A rare, free public seminar, open to all executives and senior managers within the non-profit sector who are looking to explore, develop or improve the performance of commercial enterprise, to generate profitable income and deliver sustainable social impact.
Commercial Charity Forum May 5th 2020
To mark the launch of Martyn’s new book, The Commercial Charity, we will be celebrating the rich history and huge potential of social business, on 5th May 2020, kindly hosted by Coram, one of the world’s oldest commercial charities.
