A multimillion-pound charity that supports social entrepreneurs is making about 15 per cent of its staff redundant.
Internal documents, seen by Third Sector, say the proposed cuts by UnLtd are necessary to tackle “unsustainable” rising costs.
UnLtd confirmed that 10 employees have been made compulsorily redundant as part of a restructure that was first discussed with staff at the end of January. It is understood some staff left the charity last week.
Job losses are set to fall hardest on UnLtd’s external affairs team, leading one senior member of staff to accuse bosses of “gutting” the charity’s expertise at a crucial time for the social investment market. The charity rejects this claim.
UnLtd was founded in 2002 to give funding and advice to social entrepreneurs across the UK as they establish and scale up their businesses. It invested £20m in more than 1,000 social entrepreneurs between 2020 and 2022, according to its website.
David Bartram, director of delivery and investment at UnLtd, said that by trying to reduce annual spending to £7.8m the charity would return to its previous size with a “usual and sustainable [cost] base”.
The charity is seeking annual savings worth £1.3m after spending topped £9m last year – the third year in a row that costs have increased, according to documents shared with staff as part of the jobs consultation.
Funding “is just not there to sustain this,” the documents say, adding: “In the current economic and funding environment it has become clear that our current cost base is unsustainable.”
The charity gets most of its income each year by drawing down cash from an endowment fund, The Millennium Awards Trust.
The documents reveal there is limited scope for increasing funding from the endowment because UnLtd already plans “to draw down the maximum allowable under the trust deed and investment policies”.
Staff were told during the consultation that the charity proposed ending its policy and public affairs work “at this time”.
Bartram confirmed that the charity “will require a shift” after the cuts. He said: “Rather than us explicitly leading on campaigns or policy work, we will be getting behind sector leadership” and argued that UnLtd would still be “heavily involved” in existing campaigns.
One senior member of UnLtd staff, who has detailed knowledge of the consultation decisions and outcomes, told Third Sector the changes risked undermining UnLtd’s progress on policy and campaigning in recent years.
They said: “UnLtd’s strategy, launched last year, focused on campaigning for a just world and working alongside social entrepreneurs.
“These redundancies will undermine the ability to speak out, championing equity and [tackling] the barriers that stand in the way, especially of marginalised and minoritised social entrepreneurs.”
UnLtd hailed its campaigning influence as recently as last week when it welcomed the release of more than £75m in the latest tranche of dormant assets funding.
The charity is part of a coalition of social enterprise bodies making recommendations on dormant assets spending through the Community Enterprise Growth Plan.
Mark Norbury, chief executive of UnLtd, said on Tuesday that the latest funding was evidence of the “powerful voices and impact” of the coalition.
The member of staff said: “The energetic and innovative policy and campaigning work on dormant assets, and supporting the Community Enterprise Growth Plan, has just achieved success.
“The gutting of expertise and capacity in influencing and impact will create a new barrier for social entrepreneurs having the platform they need to campaign and shape policy, when those voices are needed most during the cost of living crisis and before the next general election.”
UnLtd said the change “does not reduce our capacity or focus on breaking down barriers for social entrepreneurs”.
Bartram told Third Sector: “The best way we can influence and make change is actually through delivery”, referring to ongoing direct support for social entrepreneurs.
The member of staff criticised the way the jobs consultancy was conducted, saying that “colleagues have been kept in the dark about changes across the organisation”, in some cases “finding out about redundancies of long-serving staff after it has already happened”.
Bartram said that claim was “unfair”, adding that UnLtd had been through three rounds of consultations with staff, “carried out in the most transparent way that we possibly could”.