An exciting new partnership with Impetus

Impetus find, fund and build high potential charities. They provide long-term, unrestricted funding, and manage co-investment partnerships with individual donors. 

In 2022 alone they worked with 25 charities, delivered £6m and served 328,383 young people. 

Impetus state : “We work shoulder to shoulder with our charities to help them become stronger, better and bigger - to reduce the gap between young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their better-off peers in school attainment, access to university and finding and keeping a job.

And we support our partner charities to become stronger and more resilient organisations.”

Empire Fighting Chance will be receiving £100k each year for a minimum of 2 years, and receive regular guidance to support and expand our work.

We are one of three charities that have been selected in 2024 to partner with them – the other two being Streets of Growth based in London, and national rugby organisation The School of Hard knocks.

Research demonstrates that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are four times as likely to be excluded than their better off peers, while only 5% of young people who sit their GCSEs in alternative provision get their English and maths GCSEs compared to 65% in state schools.

So the Engage Fund we receive, together with the Henry Smith Charity, aims to reduce the number of school exclusions and improve outcomes for young people in alternative provision.

Impetus said :  " We are pleased to announce investments in three new charity partners, each pioneering unique interventions to support young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed in education and employment.”

CEO of Empire Fighting Chance Martin Bisp, is looking forward to what can come from the new partnership. He said: “ We are really pleased and excited to be teaming up with Impetus to increase our impact and reach with young people. The funding will enable us to build on our existing work and add real value as we continue to grow and expand as a charity.

What attracted us to impetus was also the additional and ongoing support around governance, and the mechanics of our day-to-day work. We are always looking to get better, so we are confident that this partnership can improve every aspect of what we do.

We can’t wait to get going.”  

Sebastien Ergas, Impetus Portfolio Director added :  “ We are really excited to begin new partnerships with Streets of Growth, Empire Fighting Chance and School of Hard Knocks.

Over the course of three months of due diligence, we were struck by their focus on supporting talented young people facing some of the most adverse circumstances across the country, the strength of their respective programmes and their commitment to delivering meaningful and enduring outcomes for the young people they serve.

It will be a privilege for us to work with their CEOs and teams.”

At present at Empire we have reached 5,000 young people each year across the UK, by using a powerful combination of non-contact boxing and intensive personal support to give young people aged 8 to 25 the skills, knowledge and inspiration to make positive changes to how they think and behave - and to realise their unique potential.

One of these young people is Grace, who has been through one of our programmes, and acknowledges the impact it has had for her. She explained : “I feel this is my safe space where I can reveal the true me. It's helped me return to school and have a pathway figured out for my future.

I feel a lot more confident about my career choices for when I leave school and what I have to do to get to the next step.”

We are confident that working with Impetus can help us reach and have impact on many more Graces.

To read more about about Impetus and what they do click here.

For more information of the funding and our partnership here.