Enterprise

Creating opportunities for people to launch and grow businesses, increase profits and employ others is at the heart of our work. Sustainable businesses build resilient communities.

Our Enterprise programme, BizATE, was born in 2012, when women at an HIV workshop told us they had skills and the motivation to work hard, but no money to run to buy the equipment they needed. The wider community told us the same – talented, hardworking people without the resources to get started. A handful of budding entrepreneurs were given grants, training and mentoring – and that was the start!

Since then, we have enabled 174 businesses to thrive. Profits of our latest cohort have increased by 167% in just one year. Business owners report they have more customers, their business is more sustainable, they have been able to diversify.

Every entrepreneur is carefully selected, and our expert Enterprise team works with them to create a business plan. We award grants in three categories:

Entrepreneur Acceleration Grants –  for business with the opportunity to scale;

Bizate Grants – for smaller enterprises and recently graduated apprentices;

Micro Grants – for parents of disabled children, to give them a chance to generate some income and inprove their children’s wellbeing,

Grants range from around £170 up to £3000, with most around the £450 mark. Entrepreneurs receive 12 months of mentoring and 2 years access to entrepreneurial and financial skills training. The impact of that investment ripples through families and communities, and into the future.

Find out more about our support for women to create a sustainable living.