Charity / Community organisation
Our work at Three Hands aims to have a positive impact on society as well as a positive impact on business. In fact, the two go hand in hand. Our projects benefit charities, social enterprises, schools and other non-profit organisations, and help to break down the barriers between business and the rest of society.
Addressing the needs of non-profit organisations
Three Hands programmes address business objectives and social objectives at the same time. A leadership development programme for a business, for example, might be an opportunity for a social enterprise to address strategic issues with a group of senior people from business. Or a company team development project might provide the people a charity needs to undertake a physical project.
The kinds of non-profit needs that our programmes typically address are strategic or operational issues, skills development amongst staff, engagement of service-users, raising funds and awareness and tackling physical tasks. Without trying to duplicate charities’ efforts to recruit corporate volunteers, we aim to design and set up projects that deliver something to the charity (or other type of community partner) that might not have been possible otherwise.
How we go about it
Whenever we start work on a programme we carry out research amongst charity and other non-profit organisations that might benefit. Our search might be based on a social cause or on a certain region (from a part of the UK to a part of Africa or India). We discuss your needs, come up with potential projects, present them to the company we’re working with and then develop the chosen project in detail.
Examples of impact
We have numerous examples of how projects have benefited charities, many of them documented in our
case studies. Some highlights include:
- Over £18,000 raised in one day for sports charity WheelPower (see the Danone case study)
- A marketing strategy for brain injuries charity Headway (see the Gala Coral case study)
- A grand finale event organised by a business team for Greenhouse Schools to celebrate the end of its summer sports programme for young people in London
- A healthy eating project for the residents of a homeless hostel delivered by a business team, including renovating kitchens, putting on healthy eating workshops and serving a healthy meal to residents that could be easily replicated by the residents
- Funds raised for 500 new wind-up radios to be sent to remote Zambian villages by the Freeplay Foundation
These are just some examples of immediate outcomes. We frequently find that the relationship between company and non-profit partner continues after the main programme and that the ‘chain reaction’ (which is how we describe the ongoing, unanticipated benefits) can be powerful.
What next?
We would love to hear from you if you think you could benefit from a Three Hands programme. Please
contact us to find out more.