CoRe 2021 – Another cohort of teams embark on a new journey

Last month saw the launch of our flagship annual capacity-building programme CoRe (Community Resourcing). CoRe is a six-month programme which matches teams of corporate volunteers from Macquarie and Slaughter and May, with local community organisations that are facing a strategic challenge. Volunteers work together to deliver projects that meet their charity partner’s needs. You can find out how last year’s teams got on here.

Originally run by Macquarie and later joined by Slaughter and May, the programme is now in its 13th year and has been managed by The BIG Alliance since 2018. This year there are 11 Islington-based community organisations taking part – our highest number yet.

Earlier in April, we ran two Deep Dive sessions where our teams of 40+ corporate volunteers met their non-profits and started working on the organisations’ desired project outcomes and outputs.

Over the next six months, the volunteers will offer their expertise on how the organisations they’ve been matched with can improve their strategies on themes such as marketing, communications, finance and business planning.

“CoRe is a great opportunity for our staff to have a social impact through applying their expertise and skills to support non-profit organisations in the local community while gaining new experiences themselves. It’s great to see such a variety of non-profits in this year’s programme, supporting a range of causes ranging from the arts, homelessness and women’s rights, amongst others. The opportunity to engage with such a variety of non-profit organisations is one of the main reasons we run the programme year on year.” -Rachel Engel, Head of the Macquarie Group Foundation in EMEA.

Julia Brown, CEO at Brandon Centre – one of this year’s participating organisations – said: “This is a brilliant programme to be involved in. Brandon Centre feel so privileged to have been selected and to be partnering with such awesome volunteers from Macquarie and Slaughter and May.”

Follow us on our social media to find out how the teams get on. We can’t wait to see what they achieve over the next six months!

If your Islington-based community organisation needs some business skills support, contact Jonathan Tait at Jonathan.tait@thebigalliance.org.uk.