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 […]
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.
NCVO Conference April 20 2020
Thinking differently about income generation:
On April 20th 2020 Martyn will be speaking at the annual conference for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). Get your tickets via the NCVO website.
The business of charity pay
It looks like the subject of charity pay is about to be in the news again, creating the opportunity to challenge the biggest misunderstanding about the sector.
CEO Breakfast April 2020
April’s exclusive CEO breakfast will focus on collaboration and consolidation for the sector. My guest speakers will be Carol Homden, CEO of the Coram Group of charities and Chris White, CEO of the social business Catch22.
Influence in the UK
Much of the new UK Government’s agenda is, as yet, unclear, but there are two observations and several early signs from which we can draw two scenarios: one conventional, one much more radical.
