Key Fund’s Social Impact Report 2023

Cause UK is thrilled to have supported our long-standing client, Key Fund, with their annual Social Impact report once more. Each year, our copywriter Ann interviews Key Fund investees and…

Cause UK is thrilled to have supported our long-standing client, Key Fund, with their annual Social Impact report once more.

Each year, our copywriter Ann interviews Key Fund investees and their beneficiaries and writes the case studies for the report.

There were some incredibly emotive, inspiring, and dedicated stories to tell.

Here’s a taster below…

Toranj Tuition

Set up 20 years ago by a group of Iranian nationals studying at the University of Hull, Toranj Tuition offers in-school tuition, homework clubs and science workshops to disadvantaged children across the city.

They also offer English language and employability training to forced migrants who have fled war-torn or unstable countries.

Key Fund gave them a £97,500 loan with a £27,310 grant to help purchase a building to operate from in the centre of Hull.

Vera, a doctor and refugee from Ukraine, turned to Trojan Tuition to help her get a licence to work as a doctor in the UK. She said: “I want to be a doctor and help people…it will mean I can get money for my family and we can rent somewhere and support my son to learn English.”

Africawad

Africawad was set up by Afi Dometi, who came to the UK as an asylum seeker from Togo, West Africa.

An accountant, she worked as a kitchen porter and in hotels while studying and learning English in the UK. She met many other refugee women who didn’t speak English, so struggled to get work. Africawad is a ‘cash for clothes’ enterprise, which supports women to learn English and develop skills. It gives them their first job reference and a step on the career ladder.

What’s more, its charity arm pays for the tuition of 80 school girls a year in Togo.

Afi said: “In Africa, women are like second-class citizens. Most of the time, men make the decisions. If we are educated, we can help make decisions and we will change things. If women have education, their children will have education too; it will help the continent, it will stop war, it will stop immigration, it will stop dictatorship.”

Key Fund gave them a £15,400 loan and £4,600 grant to help them expand their operations.

Autism Dogs

Autism Dogs was set up by Caroline Preston in 2016 after she was diagnosed with autism. She left her high-pressured job in the corporate world, and started the social enterprise with her husband, a dog trainer and behaviourist, and her daughter, a vet. The team trains and matches assistance dogs to support those with autism.

Key Fund gave a £53k loan and £16k grant to help expand their resources to meet huge demand for their dogs. It was she said, a ‘step change’ helping them train an extra ten dogs per year.

Kiera Boyce, 16, was matched with her autism dog, Noodle, in 2020. She credits Noodle with saving her life.

Kiera said: “I was in such a state, that if we didn’t get Noodle when we did, we wouldn’t be talking today, because I wouldn’t be here.”

Kiera is due to start a two-year college course to train as a canine behaviourist.

“Before Noodle, I didn’t think there was a future. He’s opened up so many different doors for me.”

If you have an enterprising approach, and are motivated to help address societal or environmental challenges, Key Fund could help you unlock the finance you need.

Whether you’re an existing community or social enterprise, or a start-up, they have the skills and compassion, as well as the finance, to take you to that next level.

Be inspired by some of the social entrepreneurs Key Fund supported in the 2023 report.