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87. How to start and scale a charity: Supporting 7000 kids a week through football | Charlie Hyman
Description
Most charities are told to secure funding before they spend. Bloomsbury Football did the opposite — investing in fundraising before the money existed, and growing from four children to 7,000 a week as a result.
In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Charlie Hyman, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury Football. His fast-growing social enterprise harnesses the universal power of grassroots football to tackle major societal challenges for young people, providing thousands of disadvantaged youth with vital role models, mental health support, and a true sense of belonging.
Charlie shares the 7 steps in starting, building and scaling a charity. He explains the business mechanics behind this scale: how diversifying income with brands like Mastercard and Adobe, and treating a charity like a high-growth private company unlocks true scale.
James and Charlie explore the strategy behind taking Bloomsbury national and how Charlie built a proprietary AI tool to scrape Charity Commission data for fundraising intelligence. They examine how to close high-value deals, attract top-tier corporate talent with pure purpose, and what commercial businesses can learn from high-ambition social enterprise models.
This leaves us with a compelling question: when building a company designed for impact, do your growth strategies reflect the actual size of the problem you are trying to solve?
Timestamps
03:05 Origin story volunteering
11:47 Income streams and bids
15:53 Charities vs businesses
21:23 Scaling leadership and coaches
32:12 Opportunistic Expansion Plans
38:12 AI Boosting Charity Impact
44:59 Fundraising Skills for Youth
Links
Follow Charlie Hyman on LinkedIn
Find out more Bloomsbury Football here
Submit your application to Reed’s Entrepreneurs Fund for a chance to a £20,000 grant HERE
All About Business is brought to you by Reed Global. Learn more HERE
This podcast was co-produced by Reed Global and Flamingo Media. If you’d like to create a chart-topping podcast to elevate your brand, visit Flamingo-media.co.uk