A win-win relationship between the corporate world and charity sectors across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has been strengthened by the creation of a new social enterprise. Through this, LOROS Hospice offers local business professionals and companies the chance to take part in bespoke leadership courses.
LOROS CEO John Knight, who has an MBA with a specialism in leadership and also an ILM level seven qualification in Executive Leadership Coaching and Mentoring, will be presenting the enterprise to business leaders on Thursday. (March 10th)
“This is a huge opportunity for LOROS to engage with leading organisations from across the city and county, in a positive way, anchored around leadership development and the building of long-term relationships,” said John.
Berkeley Insurance Group will be sponsoring Thursday’s event, after Chairman and CEO of the organisation Tim Maxted met with John last year.
John added: “Tim invited me to meet him shortly after I began working as CEO for LOROS last year instantly found common ground.
“We spoke about the challenges that charities like LOROS are likely to face in the future and Tim explained to me his views on how the world of corporate support in Leicestershire is changing.
“We agreed that the competition for corporate support is increasing and we couldn’t always reply on corporates choosing LOROS as their charity to support any more and we needed to come up with an innovative way of connecting with local businesses.
“I’m really grateful to Tim for making Thursday’s seminar possible.”
Together with John’s experience in setting up a social enterprise at the former charity he was CEO for in the Isle of Man and support from Tim, it ‘just seemed logical’ to launch a similar enterprise, which would be a benefit to LOROS.
Tim said: “What LOROS is offering is a unique concept: first class leadership and development training, delivered by a credible and experienced team is interesting – but the fact that 100% of the fee is a direct donation to LOROS is brilliant.
“This is a clear example of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking to meet the funding challenge LOROS face, to develop stronger links to the business community and importantly support the economic growth of the region. All good leaders recognise the value in developing their people and now they can do this whilst supporting a great local charity.”
Attending the event, kindly hosted by Dominic Gomersall of Lumbers Ltd, in Leicester’s High Street, will be representatives from RSM UK, Lindum Group and Leicester Race Course to name but a few.
John and colleague, Mandy Motley, will spend the morning talking about their approach to leadership development and how they could benefit those attending, before the group enjoy a business lunch.
“This is an evolving income stream for LOROS and is a response to the ever-growing pressures surrounding charities,” said John.
“We have to raise £4.5million every year and we, at LOROS, have decided to use our skills and knowledge to develop a new way of generating the income necessary to ensure we can continue caring and supporting terminally ill adults from across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.
“What we, as a charity have come to recognise, is it’s not all about taking but we need to provide something for our supporters too. For most businesses, by them investing this in our leadership courses, it is a win-win situation; they are gaining high quality leadership and coaching, while supporting their local Hospice.”
They will be led predominantly by John, as well as the Hospice’s Director of Education and Training Mandy, with all income made from the courses going directly to LOROS.
A number of other charities, including a fellow Hospice, have already taken advantage of the courses on offer and have found them instrumental in the development of their leadership. John added: “We are extremely keen for this to grow, so we can work with and create long term, well-established relationships with other businesses across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.”
