Charitable millennials

453. Adam Pike
454. Michael Harris

Adam Pike from Hertfordshire and Michael Harris from Barnet were inspired to set up their charity “BeyondMe” in 2011 because of the limited opportunities they, as millennials working in London, encountered to give in a meaningful manner. They wanted to build a connection with, and deeper understanding of, causes important to them.

Their aim was simple but ambitious: to develop a platform which would change the behaviour of young professionals and businesses towards giving and pool their resources to have a greater impact. The platform they developed, BeyondMe, mobilises professionals – specifically millennials – to form teams in their businesses and give their time, skills and money together to charity projects on BeyondMe’s portfolio.

BeyondMe empowers professionals to create teams to tackle causes they’re passionate about and builds a portfolio of charities that need the skills of professionals. A BeyondMe team is made up of seven young professionals who donate their time, skills and money together to a charity project for one year, very often with funding and mentoring support from a senior leader in their business and their employer. Over the year, teams provide an average of £3,000 – £6,000 funding and 150+ skilled volunteer hours to projects such as fundraising, marketing and PR, employability skills workshops and product development to their charity partner.

In four years, BeyondMe has launched over 100 teams, engaging 1,000 professionals across the UK in over a dozen businesses. Teams have donated 12,000 hours of business skills and over £200,000 to the social sector, and helped their charities attract more funds.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

“BeyondMe is a great initiative to bring together teams of professionals with time and skills to give, with charities who can benefit from a partnership. Adam and Michael have empowered hundreds of professionals to give a fantastic amount of time and money that is making a real difference to charities around the country. I am delighted to recognise them both as Points of Light. BeyondMe teams are delivering impact for the charities they support. Examples include a professional services team who delivered recommendations to scale-up and an impact framework to a charity, a financial services teams who developed an expansion strategy for a charity, and a team from a consumer goods company who supported mentoring programmes at schools.”

Adam Pike and Michael Harris, Co-chairs and Co-founders of BeyondMe, said:

“It’s a great honour to receive the Points of Light award from the Prime Minister. As millennials we believe that with the right engagement and encouragement, our generation can become tomorrow’s generous business leaders, playing an active role in tackling causes we care about. When we launched in 2011 we brought together friends and colleagues who were willing to give their time, skills and money to charity. Today we are a movement of over 1,000 generous professionals across the country and our mission is to enable more charities to benefit from our growth. We’re proud to be recognised by the Prime Minister for our determination to reshape the way in which professionals all over the UK decide to make a greater difference and impact in the world. We chose the name BeyondMe to encourage others to ask themselves: How can I go beyond what I am today to improve the world beyond me? With this award we hope to inspire more professionals, businesses and charities to join forces and go beyond themselves to create a better society.”