Our story
The Social Change Nest (SCN) was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
The Social Change Nest (SCN) was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
The Social Change Nest (SCN) was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
The Social Change Nest (SCN) was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
The Social Change Nest (SCN) was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
A vibrant, thriving civil society where social change happens from the ground up, and the power to create it is open to all.
We tear down the barriers that prevent communities from creating change. We take care of the finance and administration, freeing groups to focus on their core mission, and work closely with funders to enable them to support social impact with confidence and transparency.
A vibrant, thriving civil society where social change happens from the ground up, and the power to create it is open to all.
We tear down the barriers that prevent communities from creating change. We take care of the finance and administration, freeing groups to focus on their core mission, and work closely with funders to enable them to support social impact with confidence and transparency.
A vibrant, thriving civil society where social change happens from the ground up, and the power to create it is open to all.
We tear down the barriers that prevent communities from creating change. We take care of the finance and administration, freeing groups to focus on their core mission, and work closely with funders to enable them to support social impact with confidence and transparency.
See our Impact Report for the full theory of change.
See our Impact Report for the full theory of change.
of groups said they have already received a grant that they could not have otherwise received thanks to SCN
of groups said SCN helped them build more trust and transparency with the communities they serve
of groups said SCN has given them more peace of mind about their group’s finances
of groups said SCN has influenced their work in a positive way
Responding to our 2023-2024 annual survey. Read our full Impact Report.
of groups said they have already received a grant that they could not have otherwise received thanks to SCN
of groups said SCN helped them build more trust and transparency with the communities they serve
of groups said SCN has given them more peace of mind about their group’s finances
of groups said SCN has influenced their work in a positive way
Responding to our 2023-2024 annual survey. Read our full Impact Report.
of groups said they have already received a grant that they could not have otherwise received thanks to SCN
of groups said SCN helped them build more trust and transparency with the communities they serve
of groups said SCN has given them more peace of mind about their group’s finances
of groups said SCN has influenced their work in a positive way
Responding to our 2023-2024 annual survey. Read our full Impact Report.
The Social Change Nest was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
As the sister of The Social Change Agency, we already had years of experience with social movements, campaigning and social impact. Our work had given us a deep understanding of civil society, the barriers to getting started, and the fiscal, administrative and leadership needs of hundreds of groups of people. All of them doing their best to make a difference in their communities.
In 2017, Paul Hamlyn Foundation commissioned SCA to write ‘Choose Love’, a report on the rapid growth of Help Refugees. Help Refugees started as a self-initiated volunteer response to the ‘refugee crisis’, but ended up raising over £50,000 in a week and was managing over 15,000 volunteers just a few years later.
A key finding of our report was the need to reduce risk around funding early-stage volunteer-led movements. Informal grassroots groups and networks need support with structures like compliance and governance. But they need it in a way that does not inhibit the speed and agility that often defines their work.
All of the support available at the time focused on the ‘heropreneur’, one person taking responsibility and accountability for everything. But movements and networks simply do not work like that. So we were determined to create an approach that recognised collaborative leadership.
After a couple of years of experimenting with prototypes, we discovered Open Collective, an open-source technology firm born out of Extinction Rebellion. Their platform allows unincorporated, grassroots groups to transparently and safely receive and manage their funds.
When Covid-19 hit, we knew we had to accelerate our timeline. So for six weeks, the SCA team paused their work and focused all their efforts on getting The Social Change Nest up and running, supported by grants from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Lankelly Chase, Changing Ideas and Innovate UK.
Since then we have supported over 600 groups and helped distribute over £37 million into the hands of those who need it most.
We are set up as a CIC because we want to make sure that whatever we build stays in the hands of the communities and people who need it. We have a Non-Executive Director board who keep us accountable, and we work closely with our partners, groups and supporters to help us achieve our aims.
The Social Change Nest was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
As the sister of The Social Change Agency, we already had years of experience with social movements, campaigning and social impact. Our work had given us a deep understanding of civil society, the barriers to getting started, and the fiscal, administrative and leadership needs of hundreds of groups of people. All of them doing their best to make a difference in their communities.
In 2017, Paul Hamlyn Foundation commissioned SCA to write ‘Choose Love’, a report on the rapid growth of Help Refugees. Help Refugees started as a self-initiated volunteer response to the ‘refugee crisis’, but ended up raising over £50,000 in a week and was managing over 15,000 volunteers just a few years later.
A key finding of our report was the need to reduce risk around funding early-stage volunteer-led movements. Informal grassroots groups and networks need support with structures like compliance and governance. But they need it in a way that does not inhibit the speed and agility that often defines their work.
All of the support available at the time focused on the ‘heropreneur’, one person taking responsibility and accountability for everything. But movements and networks simply do not work like that. So we were determined to create an approach that recognised collaborative leadership.
After a couple of years of experimenting with prototypes, we discovered Open Collective, an open-source technology firm born out of Extinction Rebellion. Their platform allows unincorporated, grassroots groups to transparently and safely receive and manage their funds.
When Covid-19 hit, we knew we had to accelerate our timeline. So for six weeks, the SCA team paused their work and focused all their efforts on getting The Social Change Nest up and running, supported by grants from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Lankelly Chase, Changing Ideas and Innovate UK.
Since then we have supported over 600 groups and helped distribute over £37 million into the hands of those who need it most.
We are set up as a CIC because we want to make sure that whatever we build stays in the hands of the communities and people who need it. We have a Non-Executive Director board who keep us accountable, and we work closely with our partners, groups and supporters to help us achieve our aims.
The Social Change Nest was incorporated as a community interest company in 2020. But the need for it was clear long before then.
As the sister of The Social Change Agency, we already had years of experience with social movements, campaigning and social impact. Our work had given us a deep understanding of civil society, the barriers to getting started, and the fiscal, administrative and leadership needs of hundreds of groups of people. All of them doing their best to make a difference in their communities.
In 2017, Paul Hamlyn Foundation commissioned SCA to write ‘Choose Love’, a report on the rapid growth of Help Refugees. Help Refugees started as a self-initiated volunteer response to the ‘refugee crisis’, but ended up raising over £50,000 in a week and was managing over 15,000 volunteers just a few years later.
A key finding of our report was the need to reduce risk around funding early-stage volunteer-led movements. Informal grassroots groups and networks need support with structures like compliance and governance. But they need it in a way that does not inhibit the speed and agility that often defines their work.
All of the support available at the time focused on the ‘heropreneur’, one person taking responsibility and accountability for everything. But movements and networks simply do not work like that. So we were determined to create an approach that recognised collaborative leadership.
After a couple of years of experimenting with prototypes, we discovered Open Collective, an open-source technology firm born out of Extinction Rebellion. Their platform allows unincorporated, grassroots groups to transparently and safely receive and manage their funds.
When Covid-19 hit, we knew we had to accelerate our timeline. So for six weeks, the SCA team paused their work and focused all their efforts on getting The Social Change Nest up and running, supported by grants from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Lankelly Chase, Changing Ideas and Innovate UK.
Since then we have supported over 600 groups and helped distribute over £37 million into the hands of those who need it most.
We are set up as a CIC because we want to make sure that whatever we build stays in the hands of the communities and people who need it. We have a Non-Executive Director board who keep us accountable, and we work closely with our partners, groups and supporters to help us achieve our aims.
The Social Change Agency started in 2013, when CEO Esther Foreman wanted to combine organising, technology, communications and social enterprise to improve movement building across the world. The idea was to support change from its roots, with the people it affects at its heart.
After research commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Choose Love report, we started building our fiscal hosting service in partnership with Open Collective. That gave unincorporated groups a secure and transparent way to manage money, and set the ball rolling for The Social Change Nest.
The Social Change Nest CIC was registered in May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming fiscal host to community groups running frontline responses. We partnered with BUD Leaders to launch the Community Leaders in Motion programme in Lambeth and Southwark. In our first month we received £1m for groups hosted on Open Collective, and by June we were hosting 100 groups.
Within a year we were supporting over 200 grassroots groups. We developed our grant management and grant distribution offerings so foundations could grant directly to community groups, and by June we had moved over £1m. We also formed our partnership with the Urban Movement Innovation Fund on its youth climate funding project.
We were recognised as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK and hosted our first Risky Business event. With Changing Ideas we started the UK’s first fund for mutual aid groups, giving 22 groups grants worth over £90,000. By August we had received £5m in grants and donations on Open Collective.
We launched the Access to Justice fund with Disrupt, granting to four groups for training, legal reviews, court travel and resources. We celebrated ten years of The Social Change group, ran our first workshop at London Funders, and passed £10m in signed grant agreements.
We launched the collaborative leadership canvas, took over facilitation of Losing Control in Funding with Collaborate CIC, and worked with Our Agency on a wealth redistribution project granting almost £1m from LankellyChase directly to people with lived experience. We published our first Payment for Involvement playbook, secured a multi-year grant from City Bridge Trust for The Community Nest, and welcomed our 500th group.
We are a team of 25 supporting over 600 groups, including Uplift, Fossil Free London, Decolonising Economics and Climate Centre. This year we launched our How to talk to your board about risk guide and our Payment for Involvement Job Centre toolkit.
The Social Change Agency started in 2013, when CEO Esther Foreman wanted to combine organising, technology, communications and social enterprise to improve movement building across the world. The idea was to support change from its roots, with the people it affects at its heart.
After research commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Choose Love report, we started building our fiscal hosting service in partnership with Open Collective. That gave unincorporated groups a secure and transparent way to manage money, and set the ball rolling for The Social Change Nest.
The Social Change Nest CIC was registered in May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming fiscal host to community groups running frontline responses. We partnered with BUD Leaders to launch the Community Leaders in Motion programme in Lambeth and Southwark. In our first month we received £1m for groups hosted on Open Collective, and by June we were hosting 100 groups.
Within a year we were supporting over 200 grassroots groups. We developed our grant management and grant distribution offerings so foundations could grant directly to community groups, and by June we had moved over £1m. We also formed our partnership with the Urban Movement Innovation Fund on its youth climate funding project.
We were recognised as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK and hosted our first Risky Business event. With Changing Ideas we started the UK’s first fund for mutual aid groups, giving 22 groups grants worth over £90,000. By August we had received £5m in grants and donations on Open Collective.
We launched the Access to Justice fund with Disrupt, granting to four groups for training, legal reviews, court travel and resources. We celebrated ten years of The Social Change group, ran our first workshop at London Funders, and passed £10m in signed grant agreements.
We launched the collaborative leadership canvas, took over facilitation of Losing Control in Funding with Collaborate CIC, and worked with Our Agency on a wealth redistribution project granting almost £1m from LankellyChase directly to people with lived experience. We published our first Payment for Involvement playbook, secured a multi-year grant from City Bridge Trust for The Community Nest, and welcomed our 500th group.
We are a team of 25 supporting over 600 groups, including Uplift, Fossil Free London, Decolonising Economics and Climate Centre. This year we launched our How to talk to your board about risk guide and our Payment for Involvement Job Centre toolkit.
The Social Change Agency started in 2013, when CEO Esther Foreman wanted to combine organising, technology, communications and social enterprise to improve movement building across the world. The idea was to support change from its roots, with the people it affects at its heart.
After research commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Choose Love report, we started building our fiscal hosting service in partnership with Open Collective. That gave unincorporated groups a secure and transparent way to manage money, and set the ball rolling for The Social Change Nest.
The Social Change Nest CIC was registered in May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming fiscal host to community groups running frontline responses. We partnered with BUD Leaders to launch the Community Leaders in Motion programme in Lambeth and Southwark. In our first month we received £1m for groups hosted on Open Collective, and by June we were hosting 100 groups.
Within a year we were supporting over 200 grassroots groups. We developed our grant management and grant distribution offerings so foundations could grant directly to community groups, and by June we had moved over £1m. We also formed our partnership with the Urban Movement Innovation Fund on its youth climate funding project.
We were recognised as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK and hosted our first Risky Business event. With Changing Ideas we started the UK’s first fund for mutual aid groups, giving 22 groups grants worth over £90,000. By August we had received £5m in grants and donations on Open Collective.
We launched the Access to Justice fund with Disrupt, granting to four groups for training, legal reviews, court travel and resources. We celebrated ten years of The Social Change group, ran our first workshop at London Funders, and passed £10m in signed grant agreements.
We launched the collaborative leadership canvas, took over facilitation of Losing Control in Funding with Collaborate CIC, and worked with Our Agency on a wealth redistribution project granting almost £1m from LankellyChase directly to people with lived experience. We published our first Payment for Involvement playbook, secured a multi-year grant from City Bridge Trust for The Community Nest, and welcomed our 500th group.
We are a team of 25 supporting over 600 groups, including Uplift, Fossil Free London, Decolonising Economics and Climate Centre. This year we launched our How to talk to your board about risk guide and our Payment for Involvement Job Centre toolkit.
The Social Change Agency started in 2013, when CEO Esther Foreman wanted to combine organising, technology, communications and social enterprise to improve movement building across the world. The idea was to support change from its roots, with the people it affects at its heart.
After research commissioned by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Choose Love report, we started building our fiscal hosting service in partnership with Open Collective. That gave unincorporated groups a secure and transparent way to manage money, and set the ball rolling for The Social Change Nest.
The Social Change Nest CIC was registered in May in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming fiscal host to community groups running frontline responses. We partnered with BUD Leaders to launch the Community Leaders in Motion programme in Lambeth and Southwark. In our first month we received £1m for groups hosted on Open Collective, and by June we were hosting 100 groups.
Within a year we were supporting over 200 grassroots groups. We developed our grant management and grant distribution offerings so foundations could grant directly to community groups, and by June we had moved over £1m. We also formed our partnership with the Urban Movement Innovation Fund on its youth climate funding project.
We were recognised as one of the Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK and hosted our first Risky Business event. With Changing Ideas we started the UK’s first fund for mutual aid groups, giving 22 groups grants worth over £90,000. By August we had received £5m in grants and donations on Open Collective.
We launched the Access to Justice fund with Disrupt, granting to four groups for training, legal reviews, court travel and resources. We celebrated ten years of The Social Change group, ran our first workshop at London Funders, and passed £10m in signed grant agreements.
We launched the collaborative leadership canvas, took over facilitation of Losing Control in Funding with Collaborate CIC, and worked with Our Agency on a wealth redistribution project granting almost £1m from LankellyChase directly to people with lived experience. We published our first Payment for Involvement playbook, secured a multi-year grant from City Bridge Trust for The Community Nest, and welcomed our 500th group.
We are a team of 25 supporting over 600 groups, including Uplift, Fossil Free London, Decolonising Economics and Climate Centre. This year we launched our How to talk to your board about risk guide and our Payment for Involvement Job Centre toolkit.