Spring Impact’s flagship Scale Accelerator programme will see its largest cohort to date, with 12 organisations set to receive expert consultancy and leadership training over the next 6 months.

As the social sector faces increased demand and shrinking resources, Scale Accelerator will help non-profit organisations identify the most sustainable ways to reach more people and support more communities across the UK. The programme is made possible thanks to a grant of more than £1,500,000 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.

Due to an increased interest in previous programmes, the 2021 cohort has been adapted to support more UK charities and social enterprises, by offering vital consultancy support alongside a new opportunity for leadership training which will enable social leaders to be in the driving seat of their organisations’ scaling journeys. As a result, participants will take part in two programme routes:

• Intensive Consultancy: a 6-month programme offering bespoke consultancy, strategic support, and peer to peer learning opportunities with a network of forward-thinking social leaders.
• Leaders of Scale: a 4-month intensive training programme supporting leaders of mission-driven organisations to build the skills, knowledge, and tools necessary to lead change within their organisation.

The organisations selected for this year’s programme are a dynamic and diverse cohort from across the UK, including:

Intensive Consultancy:

• Galop – an LGBT+ anti-abuse charity, working with and for LGBT+ victims and survivors of interpersonal abuse and violence in the UK.
• Gingerbread – a leading national charity working for and with the 1.8 million single parents in the UK, over a fifth of families with dependent children.
• Clean Slate – a social enterprise helping people on low incomes become better off by helping them re-organise how they manage their money, find work or better-paid work and to get online.
• The Diana Award – established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, The Diana Award is the most prestigious accolade a young person aged 9-25 years can receive for their social action or humanitarian work. Their mission is to empower and develop young changemakers to create sustainable impact in their communities. 
• The Shine Project/Leicester YMCA – the Y is the leading youth homelessness charity for Leicester and Leicestershire. The Shine Project aims to ensure young people who have complex needs receive equal access and services across a number of YMCA’s within the central region.

Leaders of Scale:

• InCommon – an organisation which builds relationships between young and old, InCommon brings generations together to build connected, inclusive and age-friendly communities.
• Real Ideas – from supporting young people to find work and develop skills to helping start-ups and enterprises thrive, Real Ideas work to solve problems and create positive and lasting social change.
• Bike For Good – started in July 2010, unfunded in a small stall in Glasgow’s famous Barras market, Bike For Good now have two thriving community hub shops in Glasgow, an amazing team of 50 + individuals, and are changing thousands of lives through cycling.
• Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PIPA) – a UK-wide organisation supporting parents and carers in the performing arts by working collaboratively with the industry to develop and implement strategies for change, and to promote best practice employment
• Curiosity Collective – encourage children to be curious, explore new challenges and take part in activities that set their imagination alight. 
• Community Integrated Care – one of the UK’s largest health and social care charities, Community Integrated Care work in the community, delivering life-enhancing support to people with a diverse range of care needs.
• Overcoming MS – the world’s leading multiple sclerosis healthy lifestyle charity, unique in their evidence-based focus on optimising lifestyle factors to improve health, formulated as a holistic, practical program

Whether participants have just started thinking about scaling or are already consolidating their plans, the Scale Accelerator programme will ensure they have the tools, confidence, and capabilities needed to move forward sustainably.

Mohamed Osman, UK Director at Spring Impact said: ‘We are thrilled to work with such fantastic organisations, and provide them with the guidance and training needed to take their scaling plans forward.

Every participant organisation’s social innovation provides crucial support to diverse communities across the UK. As we begin to recover from Covid19, it is paramount that more people can access such life-changing support. We are so inspired by the participants’ ambitions to harness the power of their solutions and change even more lives, and we look forward to helping them turn their ambitions into reality.”

John Knights, Senior Portfolio Manager at The National Lottery Community Fund, said:

“As charities and voluntary sector organisations grapple with the impact of Covid-19, it is important that those with great ideas to address society’s most pressing challenges have access to support to help them expand their work in the right way. Thanks to National Lottery players, more mission-driven organisations will be able to help more people and communities to respond, recover and thrive.”

Scale Accelerator forms an important part of our work to enable mission-driven organisations and funders to scale social impact.

Since 2015, over 35 UK charities and social entrepreneurs have participated in the programme and, as a result, many have increased their reach and impact, and gained funding for their next phase of scale.

Applications for a new Scale Accelerator programme are expected to launch in Autumn 2021. For more information, visit this page and register your interest to receive the latest updates.