Member Article

Commercial awareness illuminates Sunderland’s Foundation of Light

A leading North East charity is developing into a social enterprise, to support the business community that helps fund its life-changing work.

Foundation of Light is a charity which uses the power of football to involve, educate and inspire young people and their families across the region.

Harnessing the power of the Sunderland AFC brand and based from the Stadium of Light, yet operating independently of the football club, the Foundation is a business which relies heavily on its commercial income to succeed.

Traditionally, many charities have received government funding to support their projects, although with grants being cut and public donations declining, generating commercial income has become an increasingly necessary practice, for those operating in the sector.

To put it simply: for charities to continue to deliver high quality services and deliver their mission statements in the current climate confidently, it is essential that they supplement donations with their own sources of income and act more as a social enterprise.

Foundation of Light is a great example of a charity who do this successfully.

As one of the world’s largest and best developed footballing charities, the Foundation divides its income into two categories, restricted funding which comes from grants and unrestricted funding which is the commercial income.

Increasingly, the Foundation is working in partnership with businesses to deliver mutual benefit, focusing on Corporate Social Responsibility and delivering social return on investment by working closely with companies and delivering programmes in their community.

Altogether, they fundraise over £3 million and one third of this turnover must be made from the unrestricted side of the business. Therefore, the Foundation must raise £1 million commercially.

Of course, this is a challenge. The Foundation work with over 150 businesses, including a variety of North East SMEs, across the year. Many of which will be part of the Foundation’s corporate member group, paying a £250+VAT membership fee per year, entitling them to exclusive events throughout the year.

One such event, the ‘Tip Off Lunch’, recently saw Sunderland AFC Head Coach Gus Poyet speak and answer questions at a private members function.

Moreover, for many businesses in the region a partnership with the Foundation provides a unique opportunity to improve trust and value in their own brands, associating themselves with a brand positioned in the heart of communities in the North East.

A recent survey carried out said that 70% of SAFC fans look more favourably on and have higher levels of trust towards organisations that support Foundation of Light.

The Foundation have also diversified the community work they deliver, running 35 programmes which extend to the sport, health, education and world of work sectors.

To meet the needs of these programmes, the Foundation employs 180 staff including sports coaches, tutors and education workers.

However, with the business intent on maximising its commercial success in difficult conditions, the Foundation realised it needed its non-sales staff to become more commercially focused.

The Foundation therefore partnered the sales trainers, Arrow Sales under the leadership of Michael McMeekin, to improve the sales skills of Foundation employees to ultimately make them more aware aware of the brand’s power and be able to encourage more companies to take on more business with the Foundation.

The training programmes were completed in separate sessions which ranged from learning to think differently, to understanding the benefits of the Foundation’s brand value, to managing stress and time. The second session, working with people and understanding body language, was of particular enjoyment.

With this training and increased commercial awareness, Foundation staff are now armed with sales knowledge as well as their own expertise, with the potential to reward the Foundation with further commercial business.

At a time when charities, particularly in the North East, are struggling and failing to achieve the commercial turnover required to survive in today’s market, the Foundation certainly seem to be a shining light going forward.

Head of Commercial at the Foundation of Light, Philip King, said: “There’s no doubt about it, charity is changing and we work in difficult conditions as it is.

“We’re under pressure every year to generate the money we need to achieve the fantastic work that we do.

“We are lucky to have such excellent staff working for the Foundation and they should be commended on completing a training program that will not only benefit themselves and the company, but the North East as a whole.”

Director at Arrow, Michael McMeekin, said: “We were delighted to work with the Foundation and to contribute to an absolutely fantastic service, greatly valued in the North East.

“The staff we worked with were a nice, friendly lot and rose to the challenge of becoming commercially aware.

“Even as a Newcastle United fan its easy for me to say that the work they do there is very good and with the brand strengthened further I can only see the Foundation achieving more success in the future.”

For more information on how Foundation of Light can help your business or to discuss our bespoke Corporate Social Responsibility contact Phil King on 0191 551 5164 or email philip.king@safc.com.