UK's best social enterprise pioneers revealed at SE100 Awards 2024

The UK’s most impressive social enterprises were celebrated this week as Pioneers Post held its 14th annual NatWest SE100 Awards.

The event, hosted on Tuesday evening at NatWest's central London headquarters, showcased the diversity of business models and missions embraced by the social enterprise and social investment community in the UK – with winners this year ranging from a startup tackling social diversity in the tech sector to a community enterprise in a small Welsh town playing a transformational role for the local community. 

The SE100 Awards were created by Pioneers Post in partnership with NatWest Social & Community Capital, the social investment charity founded by NatWest bank. Their aim is to support the development and growth of social enterprise and mission-driven business across the UK through celebrating and sharing stories of success – and the challenges and solutions behind them.

Opening the event, Andrew Harrison (pictured below), managing director, NatWest Commercial & Institutional and also chair of NatWest Social & Community Capital, told the audience: “Tonight is another great celebration of all the successes that you've collectively made as an industry... I think it's fabulous that there is so much excitement across the industry – people who bring forward their businesses, their ideas for us to really see what great things social enterprise is doing across across the UK.”

 

Harrison noted that the combined revenue of this year's top 100 social enterprises, in our SE100 list revealed last week, was approximatedly £150m and that this had increased by more than 7% on the previous year, demonstrating “the important contribution that social enterprise contributes to the broader UK economy, as well as the amazing social impact that you provide”.

He said he was “really proud” that Social & Community Capital, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, had funded many social enterprises across the UK, and that the partnership with Pioneers Post, SE100 and WISE100 – the annual Women in Social Enterprise awards – was “helping social entrepreneurs get their ideas off the ground, to scale, and deliver incredible social impact”.

In her closing remarks reflecting on the awards, Victoria Papworth (pictured below), CEO of NatWest Social & Community Capital, said: “It's just amazing to look out and see all of these different social enterprises represented here in this room. And we at NatWest Social & Community Capital are incredibly honoured to be judges and supporters of these awards.

“It's not just the awards tonight... but it's the opportunity to really shine a light on the great work that charities and social enterprises do every single day. Not just the winners, not just the nominees for the awards, but everyone here in this room, and everyone that we connect with.”

She added: “At Social & Community Capital, we really celebrate and champion the power of social enterprises to build resilient communities, to offer valuable, meaningful work, and to speak truth to power. And despite some national disappointment over the weekend, I am still feeling optimistic about what we can achieve as a country.

“We are so delighted to be here, huge congratulations to our winners, and we look forward to many, many more years of sponsoring these awards.”

 

And the winners are...

 

Pioneering Newcomer​

For a social business start-up (up to five years trading) with a clear mission and entrepreneurial flair, who can demonstrate positive growth and impact, as well as great promise for the future. Supported by Buzzacott.

Winners:

Pocket Power

Zero Gravity

Highly Commended:

WYK Digital

The judges for this category were: Eddie Finch, Hugh Swainson, Becky Webb-Peploe, Ben Currie and Laura Johnston from Buzzacott.

Pocket Power tackles the “poverty premium” by operating a phone service to speak to people on low incomes to help them save money on their household bills and connect them to the £23bn of unclaimed benefits and discounts each year.

Since its inception in 2020, the social enterprise has helped more than 4,000 people save over £1m (£250 per person).

Judges were impressed with “the passion and commitment shown by the founders and the new managing director for the potential of the organisation to be a thriving, self-sustaining business that has huge opportunities to scale whilst also benefiting almost unlimited numbers of people who could benefit from their services.”

They added: “What Pocket Power is doing is so incredibly important right now during the cost of living crisis.”

Zero Gravity to supports students from low-opportunity backgrounds across all four corners of the UK into top universities and careers by leveraging the power of technology, a membership community,and mentoring. It uses technology to provide online mentoring and partners with big employers to "level the playing field" and make top jobs accessible for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Judges commented: “The business model involved significant investment up front to set up a tech platform to drive activity and grow their impact. They have successfully achieved this and have now started to properly monetise the products they offer employers, signing some significant contracts.”

 

Impact Management Pioneer

For enterprises that take considerable measures to manage, demonstrate and communicate the social and environmental impact and value of their business, using this to improve their performance and win new business. Supported by Impact Reporting.

Winner:

Leaders Plus

Highly Commended:

Social Change Nest

The judges for this category were Ben White and Catherine Manning from Impact Reporting.

Leaders Plus provides support to help parents progress their careers – its mission is that “no one has to choose between becoming a CEO and their young children".

The judges were impressed with the “good practice in direct stakeholder engagement and tracking of outcomes, including tracking against a theory of change” and consulting a 'Council of Alumni'.

Receiving the award on stage alongside programme and impact manager Helen Fraser, CEO and founder Verena Hefti said: “We're always asking for the feedback which helps us identify not only the impact we're making, but the impact that people are looking for. So we can change direction and tweak things all the time.”

 

Diversity Pioneer

For social enterprises leading by example and inspiring others to embed equity, equality, diversity and inclusion into their organisations and their work in local communities. Supported by Social Investment Business.

Winner:

WYK Digital

Highly Commended:

Public Practice

You Be You

The judges for this category were Lisa Raftery and Marina David from Social Investment Business.

WYK Digital's mission is to make digital careers available to all. WYK stands for “What You Know” rather than “Who You Know”. It supports people from diverse backgrounds to build sustainable digital careers through free-to-access skills training programmes, including live campaigns and projects with a range of exciting businesses.

Judges said the social enterprise was their top pick for the category because “not only do they have very strong internal EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion), with clear policies and a champion to promote EDI internally, but they are also clearly promoting EDI effectively in their work to increase the number of young people from diverse and/or disadvantaged communities who are accessing work in the digital economy.”

The judges added that they “also felt that WYK are addressing a real challenge of our time – the lack of diversity in tech and the digital space.”

 

Climate Pioneer 

For pioneering organisations leading by example and inspiring others to work against climate change and towards a greener, more resilient future. Supported by Hogan Lovells.

Winner:

The Carbon Literacy Project

Highly Commended:

Brightwayz

The judges for this category were Jonathan Baird and Iris Sauvagnac Hogan Lovells.

The Carbon Literacy Project provides training for private, public and third sector organisations, local authorities, communities, schools and universities with carbon literacy courses to equip them with the knowledge and skills to increase their awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions.

Co-founder and director of advocacy Phil Korbel and the organisation’s whole team joined the ceremony digitally from a pub in Manchester where they were celebrating accrediting the organisation's 100,000th learner.  

The judges said: “The Carbon Literacy Project has a clear environmental challenge to address – reducing CO2 emissions – and a very smart solution to address it – empowering people to address this issue through education and training. Their measurement of impact was very clear and impressive and as an enterprise they also understood the equality issues underlying the fight against climate change.”

 

Social Investment Pioneer

For groundbreaking or innovative deals, programmes or funds in social / impact investment. Supported by Good Finance.

Winner:

We are Juno CIC with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Wirral Council and the Postcode Innovation Trust 

Impact Hub London with British Land

Highly Commended:

Social Investment Scotland - Community Investment Enterprise Fund (CIEF) with Lloyds Bank, Better Society Capital, BCRS Business Loans, Business Enterprise Fund, Finance for Enterprise

Big Issue Invest and Unltd with Lightning Reach (plus Fredericks Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust and Treebeard Trust)

The judges for this category included Melanie Mills, Annie Constable and Ishita Ranjan-Churchill from Good Finance and Victoria Papworth, Megan Virrels, Tracy Thomson, Brendan Hegarty, Aishwarya Bajpai and Shatta Bhowmick NatWest Social & Community Capital.

We are Juno provides high-quality, safe homes for vulnerable children in the Liverpool City Region. The investment involved a combination of grants and loans totalling over £1m, from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Wirral Council and the Postcode Innovation Trust, which enabled We are Juno to open its first two homes. Its ambition is to open 10 homes in the region in the next five years.

Managing director Sophie Clarke said: “The relationships with our investors and our partners have been absolutely spectacular. They've been really flexible with us and they're sharing the risk and responsibility around what is a really difficult issue.”

She added that when things were not going to plan, “Keeping that really open dialogue about what's working, what we are changing, has been really, really key.”

The judges highlighted the unusual nature of the deal, with the local authorities involved using social investment to back and develop a social enterprise solution to address the challenges of providing housing and care for vulnerable children.  “It’s really great to see social investment taking a role in fixing a broken sector – in this case, children and social care. Not many examples of this kind exist and this is almost a proof of concept. It’s particularly powerful seeing the role of the local authority in providing affordable, repayable investment, as well as acting as a multiplier and leveraging other funding,” the judges said.

Impact Hub London is part of a 117-strong international network of hubs providing co-working spaces for social entrepreneurs – with the broader aim of developing collaborative communities and cross-sector partnerships to create social and environmental change. Impact Hub London also seeks to foster inclusion within the social enterprise realm by facilitating access to training, mentoring, networks and financial backing for under-represented entrepreneurs. The organisation received real and in-kind backing worth more than £3m from landowner and commercial entity British Land, in an innovative deal that enabled Impact Hub London – which already had one established space in King's Cross – to open a brand new space just down the road in Euston.

Devi Clark, CEO of Impact Hub London, outlined the many layers of the deal that she said involved much more than a lender-investee relationship – and that was challenging the usual balance of power between the two parties by working and designing the deal together with British Land from start to finish in a long journey together.

The judges commented: “This was an innovative cooperation between tenant and landlord. They really worked together to deliver something that works. This is all about educating corporates as investors.”

 

Social Business Pioneer

For established social ventures (trading for at least five years) that have experienced positive financial growth and delivered strong social impact over the past year, thanks to an entrepreneurial and sustainable business model. Supported by Buzzacott.

Winner:

Glyn Wylfa

Highly Commended:

Social Ark

Upturn Enterprise

The judges for this category were: Eddie Finch, Hugh Swainson, Becky Webb-Peploe, Ben Currie and Laura Johnston from Buzzacott.

Glyn Wylfa started trading as a social enterprise 11 years ago.  Based in the town of Chirk, near Wrexham in Wales, it was established with a mission to transform disused council premises into a café and an office space – “for the benefit of society”. 

Established with grants of nearly £600,000 from the National Lottery and Wrexham County Borough Council, the community enterprise now makes all of its income from trading and reinvests profits to support local charities and improve its environmental sustainability. The café has also become a community hub and tourist information centre, and the office spaces are rented out to local businesses that provide essential services for the local community.

Judge Eddie Finch, partner at Buzzacott Accountants, said: “What we recognised here is a real place-based set of impacts... building some real community difference, really enhancing the place, making use of an asset that otherwise might have gone to waste, taking that initial grant money and using that to get the thing rolling, but then making it a really embedded part of the local community… We were just blown away.”

Asked about his advice to social enterprise leaders in the room, Brian Colley, founder and director of Glyn Wilfa, said: “You need to a have a good quality business plan for sustainability – and sustainability in the sense that that business is going to remain and can then meet its objectives for the benefit of the local community.”

 

Pioneering Leader 

For social enterprise bosses demonstrating excellent leadership, effectiveness and inspiration in taking the team on a mission-driven journey to success. In association with the Good Leaders Podcast and supported by Servane Mouazan, Conscious Innovation.

Winners:

Sebastian Rocca, Micro Rainbow

Lisa Stepanovic, Social Ark

Highly Commended:

Matt Parfitt, Grace Enterprises

James Dunbar, New Start Highland

The judge for this category was Tim West, Pioneers Post

Sebastian Rocca is the founder and CEO of Micro Rainbow, a social enterprise based in London that supports LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees with safe housing, access to employment, training and education. Its sister organisation, Micro Rainbow International Foundation, supports LBTQI people living in poverty in countries like Brazil and Cambodia.

Joining the ceremony through a video call, Rocca said “It's really emotional to be here... We had a dream. And our dream was to create a safe housing scheme for LGBTQI asylum seekers and refugees. And 12 years on, we now have a capacity of 30,000 beds a year. 

“When we started, this dream felt impossible. But as Nelson Mandela said, it always feels impossible until it's done... We don't think that our job is done yet. But we are very grateful to be on this journey.”

Lisa Stepanovic is the founder and CEO of Social Ark, a social enterprise that helps young people from under-resourced communities in East London to develop social businesses of their own, drawing from their own lived experiences and then using what they have developed to support other young entrepreneurs along the same journey.

On receiving the award, an emotional Stepanivic said: “I'm a bit overwhelmed actually. This award is a credit to all our team. I'm really proud.”

Asked about the value of being an entrepreneur with 'lived experience' – in this case, being from the community that her social enterprise was set up to support – Stepanovic said that people with lived experience could bring insight to the issues, develop relationships and build trust. This was true not just for her own experience but for all the young community entrepreneurs who had helped to build the Social Ark team. “When people come in, they've got innovative solutions to our toughest problems,” she said. “We can fix our own problems, we just need the tools and resources to do it ourselves.”

Judge Tim West, founding CEO of Pioneers Post and host of the Good Leaders podcast – who also acted as host for the evening's awards – said: “What particularly moved us about the winners in the leadership category this year was that in both Sebastian and Lisa, you have two people with great drive and focus on fighting on behalf of communities who have somehow been marginalised or treated unjustly – whether that’s young people from communities in East London in Lisa’s case, or for Sebastian, people from all over the world who are persecuted for being part of the LGBTQI+ community. These two pioneers are not only doing battle with these issues and winning, but they are building innovative, resilient social businesses that can make the positive change endure for the long term.”

 

You can read more about the NatWest SE100 in our SE100 Collection.

More questions? Read the NatWest SE100 Criteria and FAQ – or get in touch via SE100@pioneerspost.com

 

Top image: the SE100 Award winners at after the ceremony at the NatWest headquarters in London.

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The NatWest SE100 Index and Social Business Awards is an annual programme created and delivered by Pioneers Post in partnership with NatWest Social & Community Capital - and supported by Buzzacott, Social Investment Business, Hogan Lovells and Impact Reporting. The programme aims to list, celebrate and learn from the UK’s 100 most impressive social enterprises every year.