Hogwarts for do-gooders
Dear all,
In the Kilburn area of West London, opposite a garage and a Yoga studio, is a modest-looking building with a sign on the wall that says ‘Charity Entrepreneurship’, which offers an incubation programme for start-up entrepreneurs. It’s been there since it was founded in 2018. Incubation programmes are quite common – they offer financial and logistical support for people with ideas for new businesses, most of which fail but a small proportion of which go on to become the next big thing in whatever sector they’re operating. The difference with this organisation is that its incubator is designed to support the development of new charities that can have the biggest impact.
Every year, those who work there focus on three questions:
- How can you help as many people and animals as possible?
- What are the best investments with the highest return?
- What organizations should exist but have not been established yet?
Their methodology includes a concept used in the sport of baseball, where coaches talk about ‘VORP’, which means ‘value over replacement player’. This means that even if you’re an outstanding player in your position, if there are 10 others who are almost as good as you, your value – or VORP – is quite limited. What Charity Entrepreneurship are looking for are ideas that are important, neglected and can have the biggest positive impact on the most number of people or animals.
Every year, thousands of candidates from all over the world apply. After an extensive process, only a small selection is invited to come to London, where they are given a two-month intensive training course before being matched with a cause, a co-founder, and a modest amount of money. Their job is to make an impact far greater than the money they have been given would suggest.
Examples of charities that have prospered as a result of their work include the Lead Exposure Elimination Project – Lead poisoning is a huge problem, as more than 800 million children have too much lead in their blood. It’s also neglected as very few charities work on it, but ripe for impact because 57 percent of all countries have no legislation against the use of lead in paint. This charity is now active in Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Angola, Sierra Leone, Bolivia, Pakistan and Malawi, and is on course to prevent many children from being exposed to lead poisoning at an estimated cost of just $1.66 per child.
Perhaps the best thing about Charity Entrepreneurship is the fact that it uses methods that are mostly deployed to make money for companies or private individuals and applies it to the pursuit of altruism and a single-minded focus on doing as much good for as many people or animals as possible. That’s definitely worth thinking about as we consider how best to help the wide range of charities we support here at Brentwood.
The Charity Entrepreneurship website gives more details about its purpose and methodology, as well as other examples of ideas that have emerged from their incubation programme. In a week when we’ve been promoting the charitable work done via our House system, it’s an excellent example of how ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference through creative ideas, commitment to a set of values, and sustained hard work, all things we promote here at Brentwood.
Have a great weekend
Best wishes
Michael Bond
