On 4th July 2024, the annual Social Founders EY Summer Forum was hosted at EY’s London Bridge offices, marking seven years of EY's commitment to supporting Social Founders, community building and uplifting social causes. Over 40 established and emerging social founders gathered together in the spectacular space with a scenic view of the Thames, Tower Bridge and Tower of London.
The Social Founders Forum theme this year was ‘Building a positive Culture’ - how we, as the founders of our impact organisations, can best build, inspire, enable and lead a culture that maximises wellbeing, kindness, respect and equity, for all who interact with our organisation.
We believe that a culture of kindness, led by us as founders, is also the key to delivering impact, sustainable business models, scale (if you want scale), and resilience - resilience for you, your team and organisation, and the communities you support.
We set an open theme for our forum, which led to insights, challenges and debate about many relevant issues, alongside solutions to how, as social impact founders, we can build positive culture in and around our organisations, as we move along our founder journey, from start-up to stepping down, and maybe to starting again.
Creating a positive culture in such tough times is no easy feat. Change and challenges are all around us, at all levels, both inside and outside our organisations. We are constantly being challenged, in our values, in available resources, in our business models, in our visibility as founders, in our impact story, and hugely on behalf of, and often by, our teams, beneficiaries, communities, funders and partners.
During our Forum we shared solutions, support and learnings from each other, and connections with fellow founders to enable ongoing support, peer-mentoring, friendship and networks. It was a joy to be surrounded by so many inspirational and wise founders.

Katyayani Nath, a media volunteer at the Forum, kindly wrote up a blog summarising just some of the points made by our speakers:
The Social Founders Summer Forum on 4th July was about sharing and questioning, talking to each other, listening, reflecting, learning - and of course as always, connecting.
Gavin Jordan, Chief Finance Officer, EY UK, and Caroline Diehl, Founder & CEO, Social Founders, welcomed our founders and the brilliant panel of speakers:
Nigel Clark, Founder of Dadvengers, and Presenter of ‘The Baby Club’ and ‘The Toddler Club’ on CBeebies;
Gabby Jahanshahi-Edlin, Founder and ex-CEO of Bloody Good Period, and
Stephen Greene CBE, Co-founder and CEO of Rockcorps.

When our speakers were asked what epitomised building a positive work culture, they answered: fun, values and kindness.
Founders play a dual role: to be the dreamer that creates the overarching vision setting the tone for the organisation, lobbies board members and opens doors, and the leader who meets the workers on the front line and is building the organisation up from the inside. As founder, you need to learn to be comfortable in the middle and swiftly shift your focus and approach.
Don’t be afraid to set the tune in the organisation, especially when it comes to building a culture aligned with your values. Gabby spoke of establishing boundaries and operating with compassionate professionalism and radical inclusion.
Nigel advised “treat your team and volunteers with the same respect that you would treat the people you’re trying to serve”, whilst Steven highlighted the importance of “building a culture that flows through every interaction that takes place in the organisation and is embodied by all team members, where people are encouraged to take care of each other. Spend a lot of time on values alignment.”
"People who do not understand your vision can still make great employees and additions to the team," Gabby said
"No one will ever care or understand as much as you do, but they show up and give their heart and soul, and you need to appreciate and recognise that."
Nigel agreed:
“Sometimes as founders we have to take ourselves out of the equation. We are looking too far ahead. If you just look for people who see the big picture, you’ll be limiting yourself.
As founders we play the part of the builder and find the way the puzzle piece fits in the overall picture. Our staff team's skills and expertise will be instrumental in moving the organisation ahead”.

Pete Donnelly, Founder, The Wheelchair Skills College, and Natasha Cox, Founder, Actively SeeK.I.N.G. CIC, with Caroline Diehl, Founder & CEO, Social Founders - all three are Churchill Fellows.
Stephen advised that it's important to have regular check-ins with individuals before issues get out of hand. He talked about the damage that a “mood hoover” can do - RockCorps' in-house term for someone who “sucks the energy out of the room or the team”, who isn’t bringing the positivity and enthusiasm that are the foundation of RockCorps’ culture. Stephen admits that whilst “asking someone if we need to put them on ‘mood hoover watch’ can be a way to signal concern at Rockcorps, there needs to be careful consideration of why one ‘mood-hoovers’."
“If we’ve gotten to the point where someone is mood hoovering, we maybe did something wrong at the start, so they weren’t aware of how we work with radical kindness.”
Gabby added,
“I think you can't be afraid to set really firm boundaries as to how your organisation will run.….Having the courage to manage people out of the organisation is really important. And if you're lucky, you can do that in a way where you know you're able to guide them to something else which is better for them.”

Our speakers emphasised the importance of celebration, in and outside your organisation. Stephen advised creating “Lots of champagne moments, and not just the obvious big ones - look for any types of tiny champagne moments.”
And Gaby made the fascinating point that
“As founders we have the opportunity to create a new culture, for a new organisation, different to, and better than, the cultures we have all picked up working in other organisations - I wish someone had said that to me before!”.
“Radical positivity” added Stephen!

Rachel Woolf, Founder & CEO, Street Storage, with Marion Janner OBE, Founder, Helpily and Star Wards
Nigel ended our panel discussion reminding us, as social impact founders, that “We are learning every day; as the founders of our organisations, we are always learning the ways to get over these obstacles, which are there all the time, there are always new obstacles!”
And Nigel urged us to remember that we are able to pick up the phone to other social founders, to each other -
“I’m having one of those times…can I share with you, as a fellow social founder?”

Social Founders EY Summer Forum 4th July 2024 - pick up the phone to a fellow social founder!
We welcome all comments about how we as social impact founders, can best build a positive culture in our organisations, with our partners, clients and communities.
Please add your own advice, learnings, and challenges in the comments below.
And please share this blog widely.
Thanks for writing it Katyayani! You can connect with Katyayani on her LinkedIn page.