Our stories

Having read Agustina’s insightful blog shortly after I completed mine, I wondered whether I should still go ahead and publish my take on the experience with Crisis over Christmas. After some deliberation, I concluded that perhaps it…

Many social enterprises struggle to balance social and commercial objectives. For some, ‘business as usual’ is even more difficult, as On Purpose Associate Katherine Hewetson explains.

One of the great things about On Purpose the exposure we get to different organisations. My first placement is with O2, a very, very big company with a surprisingly flexible approach to how we work. O2 has raised and changed my understanding and...

The ambition of On Purpose is necessarily grand: to train leaders who can forge a different sort of economy, an economy that integrates social and environmental concerns with financial sustainability. This is all well and good conceptually, but...

The learning and education sector is changing dramatically which means its future and development is up for grabs. Chris Blues (Associate October’14) shares some of his insights working at FutureLearn, a tech start-up aiming to shape the future...

Today’s challenges mean we’re always looking out for the ‘next big thing’, the newest solution. Associate Rachael Ibbott (October 2014), however, argues for a more historical perspective of our work.

As the world looks for new approaches to business and innovative solutions to some critical problems, do we also need a new approach to leadership? As the other On Purpose Associates and I left Embercombe on Sunday after a long…

It has been just over two weeks since the Mo Purpose team said goodbye to the much coddled appendages below their olfactory extremities. Moustaches may have to be left to Tom Selleck after all it seems, never mind our delusions of grandeur. Despite the…

In November, On Purpose was one of 60 social enterprises recognised as growing social enterprises by Santander at its inaugural Social Enterprise Development Awards (SEDA).

David Tinnion (Associate, Oct ’14) and Antonia Orr (Fellow, Oct ’13) had 6 month placements at ECT Charity (“ECT”) and here they explain why Community Transport is something really worth shouting about.