Impetus Portfolio Mid-Year Snapshot 2009/10_ 1

Dear Impetus supporter,

Recently, I heard the COO of a well-known multi-national company being asked about his approach in the economic downturn. He replied with the words of economist Paul Romer: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.”

While the COO clearly meant this as a memorable soundbite, the message behind it is pertinent for charities, as well as businesses. It is in a difficult economy that an organisation will be truly tested, which provides an opportunity to make that organisation even more efficient and effective.

In our work with charities, we support them not only to grow, but to become more robust. We work together to bolster their ability to withstand a crisis, such as a difficult economy. Our investment executives act as ‘critical friends’ to the charity CEOs, working alongside them for the duration of the investment. The CEOs have said that our support is not always comfortable, as we challenge them when needed, but this supportive challenging helps them move forward.

The results of our approach can be seen in the graphs below. These show that, even in this challenging economy, there has been continued growth in the income of, and people helped by, the Impetus portfolio.

While the year-on-year growth is not as much as initially planned in every case, we are pleased that most of our charities have continued to increase significantly the number of people they are helping. In the first nine months of 2009/10 they have helped 230,000 people, many of whom now are getting the education, skills and jobs they need to lead independent lives. This is more people helped than in the whole of the previous year.

We will continue to support our charities to grow sustainably, so they can not only help many more people, but also cope with any crises they may face in the future. I very much hope you will continue to support us generously in this work.

Daniela Barone SoaresChief Executive, Impetus Trust

Impetus Portfolio Mid-Year Snapshot 09/10 Impetus charities continue to grow in a challenging economy

Interim Portfolio results

Interim results show that Impetus portfolio charities have, on average, continued to grow considerably in 2009. The portfolio has achieved income growth of 21% and people helped growth of 28%, compared to the same period the year before. These year-on-year growth rates are not as high as in previous years, but given the difficult economy in which the charities have been operating, they are a positive result.

Compared to the charity sector as a whole, the Impetus portfolio income growth compares very favourably. It is real testament to our venture philanthropy approach, and the dedication of our charity CEOs, that the majority of Impetus portfolio charities have continued on a growth trajectory, increasing both their income and the number of people helped during the past year.

Notes: ‘Income’ and ‘People helped’ percentages obtained by comparing results to December 2009 against an equivalent period in 2008. The period measured is the charities’ Q1 – Q3 for all charities except Camfed, Fairtrade and Leap, which are Q1 – Q4 due to these charities having a different year end. Individual charity income results: Speaking Up 119%; St Giles Trust 141%; beat 137%; Leap 106%; Naz Project London 101%; Keyfund 67%; Camfed 131%; Fairtrade 127%; IntoUniversity 152%; Street League 104%; Blue Sky 149% Individual charity people helped results: Speaking Up 111%; St Giles Trust 123%; beat 137%; Leap 137%; Keyfund 74%; Camfed: 119%; Fairtrade 110%; IntoUniversity 168%; Street League 145%; Blue Sky 153%

Impetus Trust © 2010 | Registered charity 1094681

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Impetus charities grew people helped by an average of 28%

Impetus charities grew income by an average of 21%

Impetus Portfolio Mid-Year Snapshot 2009/10_ 2

Street League uses sport to re-engage and progress disadvantaged people into education and/or employment. We invested in Street League in 2008, and have been working with the team to help them achieve their ambitious growth plans of operating in three new locations across the country and doubling the number of people they help.

As Street League expands, it is critical that it has sustainable income streams. In particular, Street League’s senior management team and Elly De Decker, the Impetus Investment Executive working closely with them, recognised that Street League needed to increase the proportion of its income generated from local authorities.

To help address this need, Elly brought in Impetus corporate partner OC&C Strategy Consultants to undertake a review of Street League’s proposition to local authorities, and ways in which this could be improved.

Over the course of four weeks, a team from OC&C worked intensively with Street League and Elly on a review of the effectiveness of Street League’s current proposition.

The result

The OC&C team concluded that Street League could achieve much greater success with local authorities by creating an offering more targeted to this audience. OC&C helped Street League to develop a proposal that more closely mirrored the specific outcomes local authorities look for, and they built a software tool to help Street League structure and cost its proposals. They also helped Street League prioritise which local authorities they should target, to further increase the likelihood of success.

Examples of other projects recently undertaken by Impetus pro bono experts for our charities: • Review of the agency labour market for Blue Sky • IT audit and recommendations on implementation

for Street League• Implementation of new system to track impact for

IntoUniversity• Business model review for COUI – Teens & Toddlers.

Spotlight on expertise deployed to Impetus charities: How we worked with Street League to make it more financially sustainable

Charity spotlight: Blue Sky – laying the foundations for expansion

Blue Sky works to reduce reoffending by offering a six-month employment contract to people recently released from prison. The aim is for the ex-offenders to move on to permanent employment afterwards, as a stable job is the single most important factor in reducing reoffending.

We recently completed the first phase of our work with Blue Sky, in which we supported it to develop a detailed plan for significant growth, so that it can employ seven times more ex-offenders. During our first year we provided support to Blue Sky across six capacity-building areas including: building a software tool to help it better track and evaluate social impact; identifying opportunities to expand in adjacent markets; and reviewing its governance and organisational structure.

In March, we entered the second phase of our investment, helping Blue Sky to implement these growth plans. Over the next four years, we will invest £400,000 in Blue Sky, and it will also receive hands-on management support and pro bono expertise.

Blue Sky is now in a strong position to scale-up. It has successfully established its first franchise in Manchester and it has increased the proportion of its earned income.

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Impetus Portfolio Mid-Year Snapshot 2009/10_

Impetus and the environment:

While the focus of our work with portfolio charities is supporting them to significantly increase the impact they are having on people’s lives, we are also delighted when their activities benefit the environment.

New Impetus investee FRC Group generates substantial environmental benefits by reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. Last year Bulky Bob’s (one of the three social businesses in FRC Group) collected 5,113 tonnes of bulky household waste and diverted 58,373 items of furniture and appliances from landfill by reusing and recycling them.

Employees of Impetus investee Blue Sky help Hillingdon Borough Council to recycle waste. These recently released prisoners divert over 300 tonnes per month from landfill.

Image courtesy of D'Arcy Norman - Creative Commons

Newest Impetus investment: FRC Group

In the past six months, our donors' continued support has enabled us to invest in leading social enterprise FRC Group.

Liverpool-based FRC Group consists of three social businesses serving the waste recycling and shared living markets. These businesses provide training opportunities and work placements for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups. The aim is for these people to gain relevant skills, qualifications and work experience so they can move on to longer-term employment. We have initially entered into a one-year investment in FRC Group, to support the development of its scale-up plan. After this, we hope to make a longer-term investment to help it implement these growth plans, which would see it tripling the number of training opportunities offered.

Charity spotlight: IntoUniversity – strengthened capacity to enable further growth

IntoUniversity works with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to help them achieve a university place or another chosen aspiration.

IntoUniversity has been in our portfolio for three years. During this time it has opened five new learning centres across London. This has enabled IntoUniversity to work with many more young people.

An important part of our work with IntoUniversity has been to build its internal capacity, in order to support its growth. In the past six months, IntoUniversity has moved forward in a number of key areas, including the appointment of two staff members to build senior team capacity and the implementation of a new system to track the young people it supports.

As we approach the last year of our partnership with IntoUniversity, we will focus on its income generation and business plan post-investment, so it is well placed to continue growing after exiting the portfolio.

Getting into university can happen for me now... because of this scheme, I’m really going to make it! Ayisha, an IntoUniversity participant who is going on to study law at university

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