Good Lab, a three year collaboration to create new social impact ventures for the benefit of the charity sector.

The challenge

Many charities had big growth ambitions that required a significant step change in funding. BAU innovation wasn’t going to close this gap enough, yet the risk appetite and investment required of a more radical approach to innovation was beyond the reach of most.

The solution

Good Lab was a three year collaboration of leading charities, industry experts and experienced innovators who worked together to design, test and launch new ways for charities to fund their life changing work. By sharing the risk and the investment, the Good Lab collaboration was able to explore spaces and create opportunities that the charities would have been able to do individually.

To find out more about how Good Lab worked, the lessons learnt and the impact click here.

The impact

  • 3 new ventures created and spun out, with the charities retaining a shareholding. Commercial investment raised, ongoing support through Good Innovation acting as NED.

  • 1 venture created and spin out with five charities fully owning and funding the business, a first for all the participants

  • A collective forecast to bring in over £200m to the sector through a combination of equity value and revenue

  • New knowledge, behaviours, legal frameworks, experience, confidence and pathways created within the charities to enable them to do more of this themselves

  • Frameworks and operating models created for how collaborations can tackle some of society’s biggest problems.