Tomorrow marks the beginning of my charity insights placement with WildHearts. For the next four weeks I will be based in their Glasgow office working on many different and exciting projects. You can follow my progress exclusively and free of charge on this blog!
WildHearts is a charity built on the ethos of promoting and enabling the practice of ethical and sustainable business. The organisation runs a wide selection of enterprises, all centred around these common values.
One of these enterprises is the Micro Tyco challenge, which I took part in last year with my team Quintessential. This is an entrepreneurial competition targeted at schools, universities and businesses in which the objective is to put your business ideas into practice and raise as much money as possible over a month. The money collected by all of the competing teams is used to provide financial support (in the form of micro loans) to people around the world in order to enable them to develop their own businesses and escape the crippling poverty in which they are trapped. The message of the challenge is the to embrace the potential and importance of channelling business as a force for good.
Another important scheme that WildHearts run is the series of Global Entrepreneurial Leaders (GEL) summits – three events scheduled each year in Edinburgh, London and Boston. These summits deliver the message of sustainable businesses through the experience of a range of prominent speakers from highly recognisable businesses such as RBS and Deloitte, as well from social enterprises such as The Big Issue and the Homeless World Cup. The events are targeted at future business leaders and provide a chance to discuss and network with people from a wide range of industries.
These are just two examples of WildHearts’ many initiatives that I will be getting involved with over the course of my internship, so make sure to keep up with these posts!
If you would like to find out more about WildHearts and their activities, their website can be reached at:
http://wildheartsinaction.org.