What your volunteering made possible
Every year, our business partners’ colleagues give their time and skills to Islington’s communities. Here’s what that added up to in 2025/26, and what it meant for the people and organisations involved.
2025/26 at a glance
2,710
volunteers from our business partners
2,254
Islington residents directly supported
130
community partner engagements
Source: BIG Alliance programme data, April 2025 – March 2026.
Part of something bigger
BIG Alliance is part of ELBA. Together, our partners’ volunteering reaches across east London and Islington.
16,006
business volunteers
82,203
hours of volunteering
36,163
people directly reached or supported
277
community organisations supported
Source: ELBA and BIG Alliance Annual Impact Digest 2024–25 (combined figures).
Impact across our four pillars
Challenge
2,365
volunteers · 82 partner engagements · 757 residents supported
Practical team days kept Islington’s adventure playgrounds, parks, gardens and community centres open, safe and welcoming.
96.3% of Team Challenge volunteers in 2024 felt they made a positive impact (ELBA and BIG Alliance).
Empower
81
volunteers · 31 partner engagements · 77 people supported
Trustees, coaches and skills volunteers helped local charities plan, fundraise and lead.
96% of charities with a BoardBuilders trustee reported stronger governance (ELBA and BIG Alliance, 2024–25).
Inspire
211
volunteers · 12 partner engagements · 929 young people supported
Mentors and careers volunteers opened up the world of work for students across Islington.
Engage
53
volunteers · 5 partner engagements · 491 people supported
Social Hubs, Time to Talk and English conversation sessions brought volunteers face to face with residents.
Source: BIG Alliance programme data, April 2025 – March 2026, unless stated.
CoRe (Community Resourcing Programme)
This collaborative initiative is led by the Macquarie Group, Slaughter and May, and Expedia Group, and is delivered by the BIG Alliance. CoRe provides a vital intervention by specifically targeting its support toward small, frontline community organisations. This progressive innovation showcases how powerful collaborative initiatives can be. Together, we are not just sharing skills; we are safeguarding the UK’s social infrastructure by bridging the gap between corporate excellence and community survival.
Our objectives are designed to provide three essential survival tools:
Capability: Transferring specialised corporate skills (legal, strategic, digital).
Capacity: Providing the ‘extra hands’ needed to deliver projects that would otherwise be abandoned due to day-to-day operational fatigue.
Financial sustainability: Strengthening the financial foundations of community partners, so they can secure their own future.
Each year, 100% of community partners report improved capability and capacity, with each cohort delivering an average of 40 tangible products (such as refreshed websites, reviewed IT systems, marketing tools) and 45 strategic and operational projects (business plans, fundraising and communications strategies, asset reviews, financial models, business development plans and new revenue streams such as a new soft play centre!). Often the CEO’s who participate in the programme from the community partners reference the importance of having a ‘critical friend’ on tap to test thinking and ideas with.
“We believe in partnering with organisations who know the borough, the real issues and how we might solve them by working together. In my opinion, it’s not efficient for businesses to work individually in communities and decide what the issues are. Collaboration with the public sector, the voluntary sector and the corporate sector is critical as we focus on a better future for Islington and its residents”
Inspire
Mentoring Works: 30 years of opening doors
In 2025–26, 87 mentors from Macquarie, MUFG, Expedia Group and Euromonitor supported 102 Islington students from six schools and colleges. Students met their mentors every fortnight, building skills from presenting to interviewing and getting a first look at professional careers.
“My mentor was not just a mentor but a friend, super easy to talk to but also played the mentor part with having the knowledge to answer and guide me to the right direction.”
92%
of Year 10 students said mentoring helped them improve their grades
100%
of sixth formers improved their speaking skills
96%
of sixth formers grew in confidence
Percentages across the whole programme, 2025–26 academic year.
Inspire
Young Minds, Brighter Futures
Our flagship education programme, launched in 2023 with MUFG and City of London Academy Highgate Hill, gives students structured career insight, skills workshops and cultural experiences. In 2025/26 it reached 814 young people, through sessions from law careers and GCSE options to leadership training for the school’s new prefects.
“We learned so much about leadership, teamwork, and communication… We now feel much more prepared to carry out our prefect roles and to lead by example in our school.”
The Prefect Team, City of London Academy Highgate Hill
“I enjoyed that we were all able to speak in front of everyone individually because that helped me feel less nervous speaking.”
Student, Leadership workshop
83%
of student skill ratings were positive across six sessions
90%
rated their ambition (Aiming High) positively
92%
of new prefects rated their leadership skills positively after their workshop
Source: YMBF student feedback, 2025–26 (107 responses, rated 1–4); BIG Alliance programme data, 2025/26.
Inspire
A workplace that believes in them
Eleven Year 12 students with special educational needs from Samuel Rhodes School spent ten weeks at Euromonitor’s office. They greeted visitors, served in the coffee bar and learned about workplace safety, while building their communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills with Euromonitor mentors. Every student completed the programme.
“I have watched student after student flourish over the sessions. Your support helps them develop their confidence and belief in themselves that they can do new things in new places and succeed.”
Class teacher, Samuel Rhodes School
Good for your people too
Volunteering builds the skills businesses value. Our mentors told us they developed listening skills, leadership and communication, coaching, and the patience to adapt to a different audience.
In interviews with 14 business partners, employees who volunteer were found to show faster career progression and higher performance ratings.
“Seeing them become more confident.”
Mentoring Works mentor, on their biggest achievement
100%
of business volunteers reported improved wellbeing
90%
deepened their understanding of community challenges
89%
developed substantive skills such as decision making and strategic planning
Source: ELBA and BIG Alliance Annual Impact Digest 2024–25.
How we measure impact
We track every volunteer, partner and participant, and ask the people involved what changed for them. Our evaluation is led by ELBA’s Head of Research and Impact, working independently from delivery teams, and every programme has its own Theory of Change.
Skills Builder Universal Framework
B4SI Framework
UN Sustainable Development Goals
Because we use the same frameworks as many of our partners, your results fit straight into your own CSR reporting. Business partners receive their own impact reports, and we share progress and trends at the BIG Reference Group.
Want your team in next year’s numbers?
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