Groundwork Pennine Lancashire was struggling to keep its head above water. Now it's a successful social business providing services to the private sector and ploughing its profits back into the community.
The transformation came about when the organisation appointed a leading industry figure as its executive director.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire had always been strong on environmental and social sustainability but like most charities its greatest challenge was economic sustainability. The new company head changed that by getting rid of the charity culture with its reliance on public funding and grants, and creating one of the country's first social enterprises.
The new, more commercially viable structure enabled the company to develop services aimed at the private sector, such as business support, landscape design and construction services. With most of its income now generated through private funding, the company's dependence on public funding has been drastically reduced.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire applies a holistic approach to each project, making sure that there are environmental, social and financial objectives to everything it undertakes. This enables the company to help its clients achieve their own sustainability objectives, a unique offering in this market.
But the real proof of Groundwork Pennine Lancashire's financial sustainability is in its success. As a social enterprise it has no shareholders – instead it offers social dividends to support the local community. For instance, it recently invested £100,000 in a project that encourages young people to get involved with their local communities in an area with high levels of antisocial behaviour.
The company currently has reserves of £1.3m to redistribute to community projects – all profit that has been generated through providing services to local businesses.
Groundwork Pennine Lancashire believes this demonstrates that local business providing the investment capital for local improvements is the perfect solution for turning deprived communities into sustainable ones.
One of the challenges the company faced in shifting from a charity to a commercial business was changing market perception. It achieved this with a comprehensive marketing strategy to raise its profile alongside a rebranding exercise to create a professional identity that would appeal more to the private sector. At the same time, it achieved accreditation to several recognised industry standards.
The business has certainly drawn the attention of some high-profile people, including Prince Charles, Alys Fowler from Gardener's World and the BBC Politics Show.
It is also attracting several top Lancashire businesses interested in working in partnership as part of their own CSR agendas.
Lorna Thorpe is part of the wordworks network
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