The Fore is the UK’s first seed funder for the small charity sector, providing unrestricted grants of up to £30,000, business training, and impact management support to UK registered non-profits with a turnover of under £0.5m. They identify and invest in non-profits with the strongest management and have the greatest potential to generate sustainable change. 

Here are 6 things I learned during my 6 weeks at The Fore: 

1. Empathy is the way to go

From the get-go, I could tell that The Fore knew who they were catering for and what their needs were. These were small charities and social enterprises, wearing multiple hats, and facilitating impactful change at the grassroots level. Crucially, they needed funding. The Fore, recognising how busy charities are, wanted to simplify the grant application process as much as they could for the charities. 

 They had this sentiment in mind from the application stage to the end of a grant.

 The application process for The Fore’s grants included no arduous forms. Furthermore, instead of getting the charities to send them an extensive report about how the grant was used, The Fore would schedule calls with charities throughout the grant and do the reporting themselves.

 Empathy is the way to go, which is personally what I think is the most crucial leadership quality. Being able to put yourselves into the shoes of the people and communities you are working with and trying to benefit will allow you to make decisions that will positively impact them the most. 

2. The Funding Landscape of the Charity Sector 

Before starting my internship at The Fore, I was clueless about the funding sector for non-profits. 

Over time, I understood why it was imperative for funders like The Fore to exist so this sector could continue doing its good work. Small charities with a turnover of under £1 million make up 96% of the market. Despite this, large charities monopolise income in the charity sector. 

To make matters worse, income for small charities is on a long-term, downward trend in both real and relative terms- from receiving one-third of the sector’s £36bn annual income 20 years ago to only one-fifth today!

How are innovations from the grassroots able to make it to the mainstream if they are not well supported? 

3. The Power of Having Someone Believe in You 

We never really forget that one person who played a fundamental role in our lives growing up. It could be a teacher, a friend, or a stranger on the street. 

I think the same can be said about young charities receiving a grant. Sitting in on these M&E calls, I got to listen to founders and CEOs of amazing organisations talk about how transformational The Fore’s grant has been for their organisations. 

Sometimes, having someone else affirm what you already know to be true is just the push that is needed to spur you on. These charities and social enterprises have gone on to positively impact so many lives and massively grow as an organisation since receiving The Fore’s grant. 

This whole project has allowed me to reflect on the entire Laidlaw Research and Leadership Programme as a whole. To have been selected and allowed to learn and grow from all these people as a part of my Laidlaw journey is an opportunity I am so grateful to have been able to receive.

4. The Importance of Community

Something I was hearing a lot throughout the M&E calls I got to listen in on was how The Fore’s grantees wanted more in-person events to meet and interact with fellow charities. 

This opinion was solidified once I had the opportunity to go through the projects being done by The Fore’s grantees. 

Been on the Elizabeth Line lately? Did you know? Despite the Elizabeth Line being a brand-new railway line built from scratch and costing a then estimated £15 billion of public money, it initially wasn’t planned to be fully accessible.

Seven stations along the Elizabeth Line were originally intended to have no lifts or step-free access. That would have been a nightmare. It is a good thing that charities like Transport for All, the only disabled-led group striving to increase access to transport and street space across the UK, exist.

TfA launched its ‘Crossrail: Access Denied’ campaign in early 2013. What started as local stories from disabled residents affected by lack of accessibility steadily became a national campaign, uniting voices into a powerful case for equal access. 

It is thanks to Transport for All’s high-profile campaign and lobbying initiative that brought this issue to public attention, resulting in all 41 stations along the line having fully accessible, step-free access today! It is feats like these that show the true importance of community. 

5. Why It's Important to Make Sense of Good Work

My main task during my time at The Fore was to research the ‘Social’ aspect of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) - criteria are used to screen investments based on corporate policies and to encourage companies to act responsibly. I wanted to find out what other companies were doing to fulfil the criteria and how they were measuring it. Crucially, the question I had to answer was how The Fore can put the ‘S’ in ESG. 

 Combing through the materials available, I found it quite difficult to find literature focusing on solely the ‘S’ side of things. I quickly learned that this was because social impact is well… so difficult to measure. My research also allowed me to learn about the lack of standardisation and ‘opt-in’ policy when it came to ESG reporting.

 The problem of impact measurement was also something most charities struggled with and went to The Fore for help. The Fore, aside from providing their grantees with funding, also provides wrap-around support which includes pro bono volunteering (where skilled volunteers, usually corporates, can volunteer their time to help these charities) and workshops. 

 Another workstream I had was to improve The Fore’s pro bono programme. Originally only available as listings on their website and advertised through their bi-weekly newsletter, I launched a LinkedIn group to promote these opportunities for some of The Fore’s corporate partners, which include BlackRock, UBS and Moody’s, who may be interested to devote their time and skills toward helping out a good cause. The system I created allowed more people to find out about the pro bono opportunities The Fore had available.

 My main takeaway from this process is to be more intentional in what I do. While I acknowledge how important measuring impact is, what counts is to continue doing good work.

6. Goal Setting Moving Forward

My time here also caused me to think ahead as to how I wanted to set goals for myself for the rest of my undergraduate degree. 

 My first day at The Fore consisted of my supervisor, Kate, going through my work plan with me. This included four workstreams that I would be working on and my deliverables at the end of my internship. My four workstreams included my ESG Research Project, Improving the Pro Bono Programme, Developing Comms Material and Prospect Research. 

 Although all the new information seemed daunting at first, looking back now I am really glad I had a work plan. From a plan of things I could potentially work on and achieve over the next one and a half months, it was later broken down into suggested ‘weekly chunks’. At the very start of each week, I would choose things from that ‘master plan’ to work on that week. The weekly plan will then be broken down into more manageable daily to-do lists. In the event I felt overwhelmed, I would go back to the ‘master plan’, reevaluate what I was doing with my time and plan from there. 

 I found this system extremely helpful when it came to goal setting and will adopt this going into the new term! 

 All in all, I am so grateful to have been able to work with such a progressive company at the forefront of so much change. The people at The Fore were so accommodating and made me feel welcome from the start. No question I had was considered too silly and I always had something new to learn from them - the charity sector, podcast recommendations and everything else in between. 

Here’s the poster I presented during The 2022 Laidlaw Conference:

EC Laidlaw Conference Poster.pptx