While it’s been a pretty phenomenal year for The Business Narrative – delivering dozens of digital and hybrid events, learning a ton of new skills, expanding the team, creating events for global audiences, getting really really good at video production and delighting clients and participants (for one recent series of client events, most events got 10/10 feedback, with one at 9/10) – we know that this exceptional year has been a tough time for many.

And so this, combined with our purpose-led ideals of both creating events with purpose that convene communities, and also being a purposeful organisation means that we’re delighted to announce that we’ve joined the Pledge 1% Movement, and Pledge to donate 1% of our profit to the community.

Pledge 1%, a global movement to create a new normal for companies of all sizes and stages to have a positive social impact through their business. The Business Narrative is joining over 12,000 companies around the world who have committed to Pledge 1% of either their product, profit, equity, and/or staff time to a charity of their choosing. We’re proud to announce our commitment to donate 1% of our profit to the Community.

This year, we’ve split our donation, and selected two important charities – Fareshare, very much inspired by the wonderful work of Marcus Rashford, which fights hunger and tackles foodwaste, and Mind, the mental health charity doing so much to support communities during the mental health crisis brought on by the pandemic.

While our work delivering events with purpose for non-profits, Think Tanks and associations means that we’re supporting organisations convene their communities who are delivering genuine impact in the world, I wanted to go a step further and ensure that we as a business are thinking more broadly about community, resilence and supporting people.

I’ve been conscious, as a business owner, in the last year of how delicately balanced the ecosystem of the events industry and business in general is. Will that venue answer the phone / still be in business? Has that local shop disappeared? Whose life, family, wellness is affected by the enormous changes in our world? I want to balance our relative sucess with a sense of the wider community we all live in, and to give something back.