Purposeful Ventures

It has been a busy and productive 2024 for Purposeful Ventures. As we close our first year as an independent organisation, we continue to focus on building partnerships with philanthropists and accelerating, incubating and funding organisations that will help create a fairer society where all young people thrive.    We are currently working with ten funders and philanthropy partners, enabling us to accelerate the work of thirteen non-profits, incubate two of our own, and run two funds across our Children and Families and STEM Excellence portfolios. Our highlights include: 🔸 Baby Bank Alliance growth: alongside Save the Children UK, we are co-incubating the Baby Bank Alliance. Almost 80% of UK baby banks are now members and the alliance has been supported by a major campaign on ITV's Lorraine (with Morrisons) and partnerships with IKEA and Amazon.   https://lnkd.in/eHaMT5ab  🔸 Partnerships working in STEM: From Martingale Foundation’s expansion into AI and data science with Google DeepMind, to Maths Horizons’ review of maths curriculum and assessment in England, we are creating opportunities for young people to excel in STEM subjects. https://lnkd.in/eyrG7Dv2  🔸 First Purposeful Ventures reports published: Purposeful Ventures seeks to understand the levers for change. Our first reports tackle systemic challenges in education, including The Role of AI in EdTech and Scoping the Maths Corp. Read the full reports through the link in the comments 👇 🔸 Acceleration of our new Children and Families ventures: We welcomed nine new organisations to our Children and Families portfolio in January, and rolled up our sleeves to help develop them as organisations. https://lnkd.in/eth-ka92  🔸 Team news – welcoming specialists and our move to EdCity: We were joined by brilliant new colleagues including David Monis-Weston, Sophie Humphreys OBE, Helen Drury and Holly Piercy. We also moved to EdCity, a vibrant hub for mission-driven organisations. https://lnkd.in/ef34AQdy  2025 promises even more as we consolidate and launch new projects in music, the arts and beyond. Follow Purposeful Ventures or get in touch with us to hear more! Thanks to all our partners for making this year possible. We look forward to working with you next year and welcoming more to the family. 

A year ago, we announced a new set of nine partnerships in our Children and Families portfolio at Purposeful Ventures. We work with these organisations to help them accelerate their impact – supporting them to develop their strategy and operations and to access funding. As Head of Vulnerable Children and Families, it has been a privilege working with six of these organisations. For several, I have had the opportunity to work with colleagues to accelerate their progress. Three 2024 highlights for me: 1. Developing a ten-year roadmap for Lighthouse Pedagogy Trust's growth, charting a course for financial stability when they have opened three homes and an ambition for them to grow to be one of the largest children home providers in London. 2. Working with Leah Morgan to start thinking about how boarding and day schools can help reduce the number of children in care through the Royal National Children's SpringBoard Foundation bursary scheme. 3. Researching a new model to improve outcomes for children in care in the most complicated circumstances. This project included having over 40 conversations with experts and conducting field trips to Wigan, Chippenham and Southampton to see some models already working today and establish whether there is a gap that Purposeful Ventures can help fill in the future. Looking forward to 2025, I am excited about: 1. Working with Dr Amy Ludlow and the inspiring SHiFT team on their new strategy to help children engaged in destructive cycles of behaviour to change the trajectory of their lives. 2. Supporting three new partners that are working to reduce the number of children in care. They passed our intensive due diligence process and I’m looking forward to helping them build relationships with the rest of our Purposeful Ventures family. 3. Taking forward our research to see if there is appetite to fund a pilot to transform outcomes for the most challenging children in our society. With thanks to my excellent team in Children and Families Rachael Martin, Liora Wulf (She/Her) and Sophie Humphreys OBE, who are both fun to work with and provide a healthy amount of challenge to ensure we’re doing the best work we can.

What an incredible year it has been for the baby bank community and the Baby Bank Alliance. It has been a joy to reflect on 2024 achievements and recognise how true community collaboration can improve the lives of thousands of babies and children experiencing poverty and financial hardship in the UK. What did we achieve together?   1.     Gathered the first national set of data from UK baby banks, to build a picture of their collective impact: we estimate that baby banks  supported almost 400,000 babies and children in 20203. 2.     Grew our community of baby banks; 56% (195) of UK baby banks are now members of the BBA, supported by us to enhance their services to families.   3.     Distributed over £150,000 unrestricted grants to 112 baby banks.   4.     Provided 60% of the baby bank community with gifted products.   5.     Demonstrated the power of a national alliance by attracting donors and other high-profile partners for fundraising, in-kind donations and important awareness raising, such as: ➡️ IKEA:  partnership and CRM campaign generated awareness of baby banks and crucial funding. ➡️ Amazon:  funding and in-kind donations. ➡️ ITV and Morrisons: creation of ‘Lorraine’s Big Baby Bank Appeal’, with coverage on national TV for 2 weeks and donation stations in Morrisons’ 497 stores. Supporters donated over 120,000 products, which were passed on to local baby banks, and the campaign gave a huge boost of awareness of baby banks. ➡️ Deloitte: donation of c.100 laptops to baby banks and families ➡️ The Multibank: donation of 11 brand new electric vans.  ➡️ Ickle Bubba: £15K gift in kind donation, £10K spare parts donation and corporate volunteering commitment.  ➡️ The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood: promotion and support and introduction to IKEA. ➡️ Generous support from our founding seed funders. What we do collectively to make sure every baby and child has the resources they need, has a lasting impact on their early years development. It means so much more than immediate goods – it makes families feel supported, helps to build positive routines in the home, and reduces the stress and anxiety of worrying how to afford essentials when families budgets are squeezed by the cost of energy, food prices and stagnated wages. Thank you to everyone whose made this a dream inaugural year for the Baby Bank Alliance. Thank you for all your support on our mission to support the 342 UK baby banks making a real difference to children and families in their communities. We can’t wait to build on this in 2025.

One week left to apply for the Evaluation Manager position! ⏰ We are looking for an Evaluation Manager to help us and our partner organisations transform the life chances of children and young people. If you have experience designing and delivering impactful evaluations, strong stakeholder management skills and a passion for tackling educational inequality, this is your chance to make a real difference. Join our fast-growing team and be part of a hands-on, results-driven work towards a fairer society where all young people thrive. Applications close on Monday 16th December at 9am – read the full job description and apply through the link below 👇

🔎 New Report on Access to Postgraduate Study: Today, Martingale Foundation and Public First have published a landmark report highlighting a pressing issue in UK academia: the barriers students from non-research-intensive undergraduate institutions face when pursuing postgraduate study at research-intensive institutions. The report details five interlinked challenges, and examines the nature of these challenges and the proposed solutions: 1️⃣ Transparency in Admissions 2️⃣ Knowledge Gaps 3️⃣ Polarisation of Research Degrees 4️⃣ Lack of Belonging 5️⃣ Supervisor Relationships This report follows an in-depth roundtable discussion in August 2024 with researchers and policymakers. It calls for collective action to ensure every student has the opportunity to thrive in postgraduate study and research. Many thanks to everyone who took part in the discussions and contributed to the report. Read the full report and learn how we can work together to improve access to postgraduate study: https://lnkd.in/e_kBpfJj

The Fund has been established to improve student attainment and progression in maths, increasing the number of students who are on track to succeed in A-level maths and beyond. It has a particular focus on students from disadvantaged backgrounds with high Key Stage 2 attainment, for whom studying maths can unlock significant opportunities. The Purposeful Ventures team visited the MEI Maths Progression Programme in Birmingham. This was the first in a series of Programme Implementation Visits designed to:  💡 Facilitate informed discussions with delivery partners; 💡 Provide the Fund team with a deeper understanding of programme delivery; 💡 Offer an additional perspective or triangulation opportunity for the NFER evaluation team. The team joined a Training Day at University of Birmingham School designed for Maths Progression Leads to:  🎯 Build relationships and network 🎯 Plan to recruit and train mentors 🎯 Discuss the Observatory for Mathematical Education Report 🎯 Develop action plans 🎯 Collaborate and share solutions 🎯 Do maths together

We are delighted to see our AI and EdTech Lead, David Monis-Weston, featured in Tes. David’s article provides insight into the potential uses of AI in schools, exploring how the new technology can be implemented for positive impact, without detracting from human relationships that are essential to student success. It is fantastic to see the Purposeful Ventures team sharing their expertise and contributing their ideas to impactful sectors. Read the full article below 👇 

Martingale Foundation have an excellent opportunity to join their fast-growing team as Team Administrator. If you have experience in administration and are passionate about supporting the next generation of postgraduate leaders, read more and find out how to apply in their post 👇 

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Lorraine's Big Baby Bank Appeal, a partnership with ITV's Lorraine, Morrisons supermarkets and the Baby Bank Alliance. The partnership will raise much needed awareness of baby banks and donations of essential items for the UK's baby banks, with dedicated donation points in 497 Morrisons stores.   As a recent new grandmother, Lorraine is passionate to ensure that all babies have the best possible start in life. At the Baby Bank Alliance we support and advocate for the UK's 300+ baby banks, to ensure babies and children have the essentials they need to thrive.   Lorraine’s Baby Bank Appeal will run on air for 2 weeks, shining a spotlight on the incredible work of baby banks, sharing stories from the baby bank community and the families they support, and encouraging viewers to donate essential items at their local Morrisons store.   Morrisons will pass the donations to local baby banks . The appeal is asking for donations of new packs of nappies, wipes, bottles and teats and toiletries for both new mums and babies.   We are so grateful to the team at ITV's Lorraine and Morrisons for helping to make this happen. if you would like to support, please watch Lorraine at 9am every week day and and visit your local Morrisons store to make a donation.

We are excited to introduce 'Scoping the "Maths Corps" in England', the second in our new series of reports exploring how to address systemic challenges and create opportunities to help more students excel in maths.  Authored by Adam Schaffer, and created in partnership with XTX Markets, this report develops the idea of a ‘Maths Corps’ – the diverse network of people who have the potential to deliver or support maths education activities for young people. Key insights from this report include:  1️⃣ There is a Maths Corps of c. 600,000 potential educators in England, which is distributed nationally but with hotspots in London and the South East. 2️⃣Only about 20% of this Maths Corps is currently engaged in maths education, but there is potential to grow this significantly. 3️⃣ The Maths Corps comprises six main groups, with high priorities for engagement including university students, current and former teachers, and private tutors.  This report is intended to spark questions and conversations about deploying the Maths Corps to give young people better access to maths excellence pathways. Read the full report via the link in the comments 👇 Stay tuned for more from our series as we continue to explore solutions for advancing maths education in England.