Future Strategy Club, the Peckham-based members club for freethinking individuals, has launched a new fund to provide support to local entrepreneurs and startups. The Impact Fund aims to connect some of Future Strategy Club’s brightest talent – from the former CMO of ITV to Senior UX Designers – with business founders who otherwise would not have access to this expertise.

The fund launches at a time when entrepreneurship in London is at a record high, with over 185,000 new businesses started in 2020, an increase of 42% on the previous year. Many of these founders are tackling issues with marketing, design or creative for the first time with no resources available to help their ideas reach their potential.

The scheme, which will include the Impact Incubator, Impact Credits and Impact Community, will be funded by FSC’s profits to subsidise work by members with startups to provide both support for the community of business leaders in the area as well as a way for the highly skilled members of FSC to fulfil a desire to support local businesses and communities.

The FSC Credits scheme will offer £2000 of FSC member resource to social impact entrepreneurs for free, to help them get their start-up ideas off the ground. Applications are now open at the FSC website here: www.futuregrow.club/impact.

The talent available ranges from User Experience experts to help businesses improve their apps, Graphic Designers to make a brand stand out from the crowd or even an Online Events Specialist to launch a new product in a post-pandemic world still reluctant for in-person events.

Local businesses to have already benefited from the work of FSC and the Impact Fund include: Peckham local restaurant, Vegan Rasta and his OTT sauce, and Sustainability Consultancy, 10 Green Bottles.

Justin Small CEO of Future Strategy Club comments:

“Starting a business is stepping into the unknown. As a founder of a business with social impact, you’re writing your strategy, delving into your operation, creating your product or service, designing your brand and more. That’s why we believe in supporting our founders by matching them with our creative members and awarding them resource – to create a community of creative talent dedicated to driving businesses with purpose.”

“A common pitfall for new founders is spending in the wrong areas. At FSC, our c level consultants and top creative talent work together with our business owners to identify the priorities in building their business to make the biggest difference to their growth.”

‘The fund will not only serve as a boost to the local community of entrepreneurs, but also to our members, who are talented free thinking creatives. By offering an outlet for their creativity and altruism we hope to reintroduce the sense of purpose which has long been missing from the traditional agency or corporate model.”