Member Article

Inspire* Ball to celebrate philanthropy in the North

Social business inspire* is set to celebrate its work with the region’s charities at its inaugural ball at Gorton Monastery on 6 February.

inspire* works with 24 charities in the region, providing business mentors to the charity CEOs as well as bringing those CEOs together, to network and share learning. The business aims to support charities that do not have the profile or access to corporate funding or support that they need, largely because of the domination of this market by the well-known, ‘big cause’ charities.

According to inspire*, common gaps in resource include in-house fundraisers, digital marketing skills and strong office administration. Their work has highlighted the fact that there is plenty of ineffective CSR in businesses at present.

Darryl Cooke, founder of challenger law firm gunnercooke and board member of inspire*, said: “The connection between business and philanthropy was hazy at best and it became obvious that companies would get involved in the charitable world because it seemed the right thing to do, as oppose to linking ‘doing good’ with doing well in their business. This makes it much harder for business leaders to engage their employees with a cause, resulting in CSR strategies which pay lip service to philanthropy, as oppose to making a definite impact on both the cause, and their business’ success.”

Darryl Cooke founded law firm gunnercooke in 2010 to challenge the way legal services were delivered and create a legal practice that was not just about growth and profits. Following the success of gunnercooke he established inspire* with his wife, Sarah, as the CEO. Sarah was a former lawyer and management consultant in the professional services space and most recently the CEO of a treatment centre for children with autism.

Sarah Cooke said: “When I arrived as CEO of an autism charity, the playroom had been painted six times in the previous three years by employees from local businesses. It was done with the very best intentions, but neither our school nor the businesses got the most effective benefit of the efforts. It’s a very nice wall though.

inspire*‘s programmes will advise CEOs on using philanthropy as a competitive advantage, through work that is directly linked to the business’ strategy. The business has already engaged a number of businesses who believe that great philanthropy will deliver greater business. Together with the IOD and the Alliance Business School, inspire* is in the process of setting up a group to encourage discussion between senior business people in the North West to champion the cause of conscious capitalism.

Statistics published by The Charities Commission last year showed that whilst there are 165,000 registered charities in the UK, just 2,000 of them receive over 70% of all charitable donations made. As Sarah says, “What about the rest? There are thousands of charities, full of passionate people doing great work but the figures show you how hard it is just to survive. Our role is to help them not only to survive but to encourage their ambition to grow and do even greater good.”

Cooke highlights the competitive advantage that strategic philanthropists have in today’s business economy, using companies such as Timpsons by way of example. ‘Timpsons recruit over 10% of their workforce from prisons. They use their business to give ex-offenders the chance at rehabilitation, and the result? An engaged workforce who love what they do and are likely to work harder to grow their business.’

To book your place at the Inspire Ball, please contact: laura.jordan@gunnercooke.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Charlie Francis .