UnLtd: The Organisation Supporting Social Change Through Entrepreneurship

UX Connections is glad to have had the opportunity to support our advisor Guy Rigby in rowing across the Atlantic.

The Entrepreneur Ship successfully landed in Antigua in the middle of last week, so we thought that the best way to end a journey is to go back to where it starts, and in this case the start is the moment they decided to opt in to the Atlantic Challenge. So, why did Guy and David decide to take part in it? It is true that Guy and David both love challenges, sport, and staying active, but what prompted them to take such a challenge to row an ocean? Well, Guy and David are crossing the Atlantic to raise funds for social entrepreneurs.

The funds raised by the duo’s Atlantic challenge will be donated to UnLtd. UX Connections is proud to sponsor The Entrepreneur Ship and, at the same time, support UnLtd. UnLtd is a charity who finds and funds people who’ve got business ideas that positively impact and benefit our society. These people can be referred to as social entrepreneurs, who are doing well by doing good. It can be a hard process for social entrepreneurs to achieve their vision outcome; therefore, it is important to have organisations such as UnLtd to help incubate social enterprises. Founded in 2002, UnLtd has endeavoured to help visionary change-makers lay the foundations of their innovative ideas and scale up the impacts.

UnLtd has accomplished a great amount of work so far. For people who are disadvantaged in the labour market, they create jobs and training opportunities, striving to close the employment gap. For people who are living in underserved communities, they cooperate with local social leaders to improve the environment by solving common issues. And for the aging population, they attempt to back up enterprises with sustainable solutions that make the society more age-friendly. To make progress in all of these areas, UnLtd works closely with social entrepreneurs, pushing society forward by pushing social enterprises forward.

UnLtd understands that social entrepreneurs have a vital role in tackling some of the monumental societal challenges we face today. Some examples they discuss themselves are: an ageing UK population, where one in four of us will be aged 65 and over by 2040; the fact that disabled people are more than twice as likely to be out of work than non-disabled people; homelessness rising by 169% in the UK between 2010 and 2018; and that public services are massively stretched are expected to undergo even more pressure in the coming years. UnLtd backs the individuals – the social entrepreneurs themselves – and their own approaches to delivering social impact. They provide funding from a source that wants their social mission to remain true and impactful, in order to see real social change. 

As a foundation, UnLtd is in charge of a £150m endowment called the Millennium Awards Trust. The interest raised from this is then used to fund UnLtd’s work to help support UK-based social entrepreneurs. This doesn’t reach everyone who wants to start up as a social entrepreneur, so UnLtd raises additional funds for social entrepreneurs from a range of trusts, foundations, institutions and corporates. Of course, UX Connections was made aware of UnLtd’s incredible work through one of these fundraising events – Guy and David’s row across the Atlantic, as you’ll already know from our ongoing social posts. By sponsoring Guy and David, we are therefore supporting the incredibly important work being done by UnLtd to build a better tomorrow, which we wholeheartedly agree with. 

Since its inception, UnLtd has had a great impact across numerous communities. Just this past year, they reached 330,000 beneficiaries and helped their social entrepreneurs raise £3 million. They ensure that they support a wide range of people, from all different backgrounds. This year, of all the social entrepreneurs they supported, 59% were female and 28% were from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds. On top of that, they focus on social leaders in deprived areas making sure that their support goes to the people who need it the most. Clearly, they are doing something right, as 83% of their entrepreneurs felt more capable of creating change after working with UnLtd.

It is clear that Guy and David support an organisation they really believe in. UnLtd makes sure that people across all communities and conditions get a chance to create social change, thus making sure more voices are heard, and more people are given the opportunity to improve their lives, as well as those of the community around them. 

UX Connections is proud to sponsor our advisor, Guy Rigby, in his attempt to row the Atlantic in the Entrepreneur Ship, in support of UnLtd and their work with social entrepreneurs.

Click the link to donate to Guy and David’s row in support of UnLtd: https://uxc.io/3IsIka6