Cripplegate Foundation

Developing cross-sector partnerships and leadership skills at this unique London charity

Cripplegate Foundation is an independently endowed charity that spends over £1.5 million to combat poverty and inequality in Islington, a borough ranked in the bottom 10% of deprived areas in England. We have worked with them since 2009.

Cripplegate came to us looking for new ways of working that would maximise their assets and help them promote real social change.

EW Group offered the kind of collaborative, cross-sector approach to expand Cripplegate’s reach and influence, locally and nationally.

Drawing on our experience and expertise across a range of business sectors and working cultures, and our ability to build successful partnerships between public and private bodies, we were able to help Cripplegate create positive cultural change.

Our board and organisational development work has included executive coaching and facilitated sessions with the senior management team. These interactive sessions developed and encouraged Cripplegate’s leaders to plan confidently and for success. We also facilitated staff away-days to grow leadership capacity within the organisation, based on the concept of distributive leadership.

A number of Cripplegate staff have since completed our ILM Level 7 Certificate in Leadership and Management programme, furthering their knowledge of working across different sectors.

Our development programmes have contributed to extraordinary growth at Cripplegate.

The charity now works with six funding organisations and 16 businesses as part of the trailblazing Islington Giving partnership, which has raised over £5 million and welcomed 4,000 new volunteers as part of its ‘anyone can give’ model.

Inspired by this cross-sector innovation, there are now 13 more Givings across London. London’s Giving, a knowledge-sharing network of these initiatives, was launched in 2015.

“EW Group are experienced, challenging, thoughtful and ‘on our side’ when we search for ways to be more effective. And they’re great fun to work with.”

Kristina Glenn MBE, Director at Cripplegate Foundation