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Welcome to the latest edition of the Get to Know Philanthropy (GTKP) newsletter which covers all aspects of our Pro Bono activities and the work of the Company's Charitable Fund. In this edition you can refresh your understanding about the origins and focus of the Charitable Fund, read about recent grants made by the Fund and feedback from World Heart Beat – a Charity that the Fund has supported in the past. Also featured in this issue: a rare mentoring pro bono case study.
Charitable Fund - Recap and Reminder
Why do we have a Charitable Fund? Fundamentally, it was a requirement placed on the original Guild of Management Consultants on its road to be coming a full Worshipful Livery Company. The original Charitable Fund’s target was £50,000, was reached during 1997 and had risen to over £90,000 by the summer of 1998. The target level set for the Charitable Fund for achieving Livery was £300,000 which was met during 2002 – 2003 through the work of many Members of the Company and the ‘Road to Livery’ Working Group. For a full history of the development of the Fund please see “The Road To Livery” here. The Fund grew over time and now stands at over £600,000 – modest by Livery Company standards but a significant achievement nonetheless.
All Livery Companies maintain Charitable Trusts or Funds of one sort or another.
Several years ago, the then Trustees of the Charitable Fund sharpened up its focus to supporting young people. We established the following as a shorthand for this:
The Fund has used this focus as the basis for assessing grant applications and for establishing some long-term relationships with charities. More recently the Trustees have refined their thinking somewhat. We now believe that the Fund should focus on two broad areas, both of which address in different ways, the growing problem of poor mental health in young people. These areas are:
- Mental Health, Counselling & Emotional Wellbeing. The Fund has made two recent grants in this area and you can read more about both of them below.
- Holistic Youth Engagement, Outdoor, Social Action. Examples of charities that we have supported delivering in this area include the Sea Cadets, XLP and World Heart Beat (also see more on that organisation below).
If you are looking for an elevator pitch about what the Charitable Fund does how about this?
“We support charities that transform young lives especially in the areas of mental health and youth engagement”.
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Charitable Fund – New Grant – Get Set 4 Tennis (GS4T)
The Fund has supported this CIC in the past. The Trustees agreed a grant of £2,664 to support a new programme called "Tennis in Mind", which aims to bring tennis (including paddle, pop up tennis, and other similar activities) sessions directly to four schools with which a relationship already existed. The beneficiaries are students aged 12-16 who will be selected by the four schools as being those who will benefit most.
Each “Tennis in Mind” course will be 8 weeks long, approximately 2 hours a week, and will be run by 2 members of the GS4T team, one a tennis coach, the other a mental health professional. The project will support approximately 40 students, each receiving 16 hours of tennis and mental health support. The sessions will be using Haven mental health resource packs, which contain tools to help the students, as well as the staff to keep track of their wellbeing. The aim of the programme is to provide social engagement, skills development, safe supportive spaces and support to students, by introducing them to tennis as part of a healthier lifestyle. They will develop skills to overcome setbacks and improve their confidence, which will help them with their daily lives. The hope is that some of the students will be inspired to pursue tennis further and engage with their other programme for tennis coaching development.
GS4T have provided high-quality impact reports in the past and we look forward to hearing from them in due course.
Charitable Fund – New Grant – Arts Therapies for Children (ATFC)
ATFC is a charity based in Hendon, North West London which was established in 2016 and provides arts-based therapies to children struggling with their mental health.
In the therapy sessions children are encouraged to use a range of activities to support a creative and trusted dialogue with the therapist. These activities can include making images with a variety of safe, non-toxic art materials, story making and telling, poetry writing, movement and dance, puppetry, a sand tray and other sensory toys.
The charity receives referrals from 35 schools and Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs), and currently provides therapy services to 220 children each week.
The Trustees approved a grant of £3,300 to subsidise the provision of therapy to ten primary school children from “broken homes”. The funding is to provide a subsidy of 40% for the cost of ten therapy sessions to be provided to each child. The remaining 60% cost will be paid by the child’s parents or from other funds held by the charity. The therapeutic approach will not distinguish between the subsidised children and others. The ten children that would benefit from the therapy have not yet been identified, but this is not expected to be an issue. The application for funding is based on an analysis conducted in January 2025 indicating that in 2024, 34 children were referred to the charity based on home challenges and family divorce.
Charitable Fund – Repeat Grant – Sea Cadets
The Trustees have also recently approved another grant of £10,000 for the Sea Cadets as part of our ongoing long-term relationship. The next edition of Get to Know Philanthropy will include a discussion of the impact of our grant, and Past Master Chris Sutton is currently working with Feltham Sea Cadets on this. In the meantime it is worth noting that Feltham Sea Cadets will provide a Carpet Guard at the New Master’s Installation dinner on 14th October.
Pro Bono Case Study – Mentoring
Court Assistant Sue Ells (pictured below) has been in touch to let me know about a pro bono mentoring assignment that she is currently involved in.
Sue has been working with “Don” (Ed: not his real name for obvious reasons of confidentiality) who has worked as CEO for a health-related charity since March 2024. Sue and Don meet roughly monthly, sometimes in person and sometimes virtually. Sue reckons she spends about four hours a month working with Don in conversation or via e-mail: about 50 hours over the past year or so. During their conversations Don has provided some anecdotal feedback about his experience of being mentored. He talks about his mentoring sessions being “valuable time, well spent” and that it “makes me think differently about the situation”.
All this makes Sue feel that she is making a positive contribution and then recently, Don wrote to David Glassman, who leads our Mentoring Service, with the following commendation:
“I’m just writing to say how much I am benefitting from my coaching relationship with Sue. I have had a number of coaches in my time, she is the wisest and most helpful by far and I am extremely grateful to you and the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants for having facilitated us working together. She has made a real difference to my performance in the CEO role at this wonderful charity. Thank you – to you both!”
I think this speaks for itself, but I'll leave the final word to Sue:
“It really is such rewarding work; I recommend it to everyone in the Company. Warm glow guaranteed!”
For further information about mentoring opportunities, and how you too can feel the warm glow, please contact David Glassman.
Charitable Fund – Grant Feedback World Heartbeat (WHB)
A year ago, the Fund made a grant to WHB of £10,000 (over two years) towards the costs of their "Lead Engineer" in their world class recording studio. WHB has provided an update on progress since then – see below – and the Trustees recently approved the second tranche of £5,000. The report contains information on social impact and explains that they are making good progress on the commercials and how the studio supports the training of disadvantaged young people through WHB’s “ EMERGE” programme, offering hands-on experience in recording, production and live sound. Most importantly, the report contains a (link to a) short video which includes personal testimonies from beneficiaries about how WHB generally has transformed their lives. You can’t beat first-hand accounts.
First, read their report:
‘A jewel in the crown for British recording studios. A magnificent live hall giving performing artists and musicians a sensational environment and multifaceted temple of sound and vision’ - Chris Kimsey – producer (Rolling Stones, Peter Tosh, INXS).
World Heart Beat is immensely grateful to the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants for its revenue grant of £10,000 towards the costs of our Lead Engineer salary over two years.
WHB is a registered charity focused on music education for children and young people, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds. We also provide a vibrant professional concert programme for our communities. In January 2023, we opened our second site, in Embassy Gardens, to extend the impact of our work. This created opportunities to significantly increase earned income through our CIC, wholly owned by the charity. Our long-term sustainability depends on diversifying income sources, including professional studio recording, commercial venue hires and café income, so we can continue to provide access to music education for all. Thanks to WCoMC’s support, we were able to de-risk the early development of our studio. Although our 2023–24 income was £91,000 (slightly lower than forecast), we are now on a strong upward trajectory. We expect to achieve £162,000 in the current year, rising to £250,000 in 2025–26 and £300,000 in 2026–27. The studio market has taken longer to break into than anticipated, but momentum is growing. This has been supported by the recruitment of Robbie Nelson as our new Lead Engineer. Robbie is a multi-Grammy Award winning engineer and producer, with over 20 years’ experience at RAK Studios. His credits include Beck, The Rolling Stones, Labrinth, Birdy and Burna Boy. Robbie brings an exceptional level of expertise and vital industry networks that are already generating new business and enhancing our studio’s reputation. Commercial clients and highlights include:
- David Hare Productions,
- Guy Ritchie Films,
- Channel 4 ('The Piano' with Jon Batiste),
- Paramount Studios and Paramount+.Decca Records sessions including mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina and Sir Antonio Pappano.
- EarthPercent (Brian Eno),
- Opera Rara, the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
- BBC Strings and Branford Marsalis
- Grammy-winning artists including Jon Batiste and Sheku Kanneh-Mason (Autumn 2025).
Our commercial activities remain aligned with our mission. The studio supports the training of disadvantaged young people through our EMERGE programme, offering hands-on experience in recording, production and live sound. The Lead Engineer plays a vital role in delivering EMERGE: 10 young people have received tech’ training for free, as part of EMERGE over the past 12 months: learning how to mic live and recorded music, developing mixing skills and gaining competence with studio software. They have also gained valuable ‘real life’ experience in our studios, leading to employment, for example, one young person worked on the WOMAD festival Soundscape stage following specialist training at WHB.
‘I now feel confident talking about my creative ideas — before I didn’t even feel like I could speak in the room. The sessions helped me understand both analogue and digital desks, and now I can walk into a studio and really contribute.’ - Kafia, aspiring sound engineer.
‘I learned so much at WHB: mic placement, patch bays, mixing workflows. One of the biggest things was finding out about the Creative Mentorship Programme at Soho House. I got in. I wouldn’t have even known about it if Anjelo hadn’t shared the opportunity.’ - Mensh, young sound engineer.
We aim to measure the impact on young people: Student results for 2024-25 show: 82% have learnt new music industry skills; 100% believe that if they work hard, they will succeed; 92% feel that WHB offers a supportive, encouraging & motivational environment and 88% feel more confident and have increased self-esteem. We also continue to record emerging artists for free, ensuring they have access to high-quality professional facilities, and giving them a step-up in their careers. 13 sessions took place. The Lead Engineer has played an important part in this too: teaching young people how to get the best from recording sessions and mixing their first tracks.
Watch our short EMERGE video and hear from the young programme participants.
And finally ....some local Philanthropy
Philanthropy takes many forms so, following the example of including PM Chris Sutton's El Camino walk in the last edition of this GTKP Newsletter, I thought I would include one bit of local news. Here's a picture of me handing over my trusty bike to a local charity: Just Ride Southend, which runs regular drop‑in inclusive cycling sessions for people of all ages and abilities.
Based at Southend Leisure Centre, the charity provides a safe traffic-free experience for all from 0-97 years old (so far)! They have 150 bikes including 2 wheels, children's and their specially adapted cycles to cater for all abilities or health conditions. I hope my 20-year-old but good condition bike provides a safe fun experience for Just Ride’s beneficiaries – or that they simply sell it!
Please let me know about simiar local philanthropy stories.
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Thanks for reading this far and to all those who contributed content.
And no, I have not given up on bikes altogether – I still have two more at home !!
Steve Cant
Editor
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