Greater Change is a Community Interest Company that helps individuals to become free of homelessness.
Challenge
When someone who is experiencing homelessness starts trying to take large steps out of homelessness, they will almost inevitably come up against some large financial barriers on their pathway out. This could be Rent Deposit + First month's rent, Identification, work tools etc. And these barriers keep people trapped in homelessness when they are otherwise ready to move on.
Solution
Greater Change supports people to take long-term positive steps out of homelessness by overcoming the financial barriers standing between them and leaving homelessness behind for good. We do this by providing them with a micro-grant to help them break that cycle and financial planning support that is personalised to their aspirations.
Revenue
We are commissioned by local commissioners (Councils/Police/NHS) to work in their locality and provide our support.
We took on £400,000 in social investment in the form of CrowdFunding. This enabled us to achieve growth and innovation for our concept, for which we had proven traction that our organisation’s method of support can work extremely well.
Impact
The social investment will be used to grow our reach and scale the impact we are able to achieve. It will allow us to bring more people into the team and, as a result, help more people in need of our services across a wider geography.
“We have been able to bring more capable hands-on board and this has allowed us to grow our reach and support even more people to take large steps out of homelessness. It has meant we are able to concentrate on important tasks at hand and we are able to stop having to spin 20 plates each.”
Jonathan Tan – CEO at Greater Change
"Ethex was delighted that Greater Change's share offer on our platform was a success. They are a pioneering company with a similar approach to our own - putting investors directly in contact with those who need funding to create a positive social impact. It was a pleasure to support Greater Change to apply a similar principle to tackling homelessness in the UK.”
Lisa Ashford, CEO at Ethex