Barratt Developments PLC and Outward Bound: a long-term commitment to change

“I had receded into a world of social media, binge-watching YouTube while my teenage years slipped away,” says Iqra Mahmood. “I felt like I was wasting my life.”

That was before Iqra became one of the 3,000 children a year to benefit from charitable funding paid for by the partnership between The Barratt Developments PLC Charitable Foundation (the Barratt Foundation) and the Outward Bound Trust (OB), the charity that offers life-changing residentials in some of the UK’s wildest places to young people, who might otherwise never get the opportunity to attend.

The approach

Since 2019, Barratt has donated over £3.1m to OB, through Barratt Developments plc and the Barratt Foundation, which was established in January 2021 to grow charitable giving across Barratt. Barratt is comfortably the largest corporate donor to OB in that time – providing 10% of all bursary support and 5% of income overall – with the long-term partnership continuing to go from strength to strength and further developments on the horizon.

Both parties agree that the key to a successful partnership between company and charity is authenticity and alignment. Andy Button-Stephens, head of the Barratt Foundation, who manages the relationship with OB says: “There is a really good fit between the foundation and OB at headline level. We look for open and honest relationships at every level. Things don’t last or go wrong quickly when you try to fit square pegs into round holes.”

Dylan Carroll, head of partnerships at OB says: “Be authentic about what you do and where you are going. All our interactions with Barratt have been positive; everything aligns and is done in a real spirit of cooperation. The relationship is heart-warming and purposeful, and allows us to deliver our courses, hit the right demographic – and look to the future.”

The cost-of-living crisis and sluggish economy of the past few years have only increased the challenge for charities like OB seeking to maintain their levels of provision as potential corporate donors review their giving strategies.

Evidence in this year’s Corporate Giving by the FTSE 100 report confirms what charities already know: money is tight and corporate giving is at a low point. All of which makes the recent decision to extend the relationship with the Barratt Foundation all the more critical to OB’s future plans.

Georgina Throw, Corporate Partnerships Lead at OB, says: “Every year the pressure on charities rises, with increased costs, competition and a surge in demand from the people we want to help.

“Corporate philanthropy plays a vital part in fundraising strategies across the UK. Corporates can influence an organisation's survival, growth, and ability to achieve transformational social impact.

“At Outward Bound, corporate philanthropy isn't just a source of funding, it's a catalyst for unlocking our full potential. It's about forging genuine partnerships that combine financial support, advocacy and expertise, that ultimately has our mission at heart - helping inspire young people to realise their potential.”

To that end, both parties are exploring how Barratt and other supporters can help Outward Bound grow and reach more young people – which could include building a new Outward Bound centre to add to the six existing ones in England, Scotland, and Wales. If there’s one thing Barratt know a bit about, it’s building.

“Their centres are full of young people and many more schools want an Outward Bound experience but can’t have it,” says Button-Stephens. “So, we are exploring if Barratt can help Outward Bound grow in the future, how can we help make it happen, and what would it look like. This is a good example of a partnership working beyond just the financials.”

The impact

There is impetus from the top of the business to achieve this. Although the day-to-day running of the relationship with OB is devolved to the Foundation, David Thomas, chief executive of Barratt Developments plc is OB’s “biggest champion”, according to Button-Stephens, having experienced an OB residential in recent times. He wants members of the company’s senior leadership team to act as mentors and ambassadors for OB.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and in some companies decisions on philanthropy are devolved to lower levels while still achieving high levels of corporate commitment. Our survey shows that corporate giving strategies are determined in different ways in different companies with 28% of companies telling us that decisions on philanthropy are taken at a corporate level and 47% saying decisions are corporate-led with employee input on which causes to support.

Barratt’s commitment was key to OB’s survival during the pandemic, when many of their wider sources of funding dried up. The company’s donations in that period helped keep the lights on.
“The pandemic was a tough time for everyone,” says Throw. “And Barratt helped us survive that period. It’s not just about charitable funding, but how can Barratt support us as an organisation with their specialities and help us to move forward.”

A good example of this wider collaboration could be seen last year when OB used £300,000 of restricted funding from Barratt for a digital transformation project which moved all systems online and allowed OB to better track all income and the purposes it is used for – a key project for the modernisation of the charity and for future growth. While the money was key, so, too, was the strategic input, expertise and experience of Barratt’s Head of Technical, Adrian Power.

“The expertise of a FTSE 100 IT director does not come cheap,” says Button-Stephens, “but I know our IT director loved that project and clearly added a lot of value in making sure OB were asking the right questions, getting the right advice, and finding short cuts.”

Two-way relationships such as that between Barratt and OB give some cause for optimism even in the present hard times for corporate fundraisers. “There is a general shrinkage in the corporate philanthropy market,” says Carroll. “It’s a stagnant and tougher market for charities to operate in, but there are still huge opportunities out there for charities that are proactive, clear about what they want to do, are authentic in their approach, and willing to invest a lot of time and effort in how they function around corporate partnerships.

“The success of a charity within this environment is how it adapts and conduct itself around corporate partners. Creating brand aligned and value aligned partnerships for charities will be the difference between success and failure,” says Carroll.  

There is no doubt about those twin alignments in this relationship, but ultimately everything that Barratt and OB do comes back to the young people they work with – and the ongoing community impact both organisations can have through their work.

“Away from the distractions of city life and being very focused on tasks like rock climbing helped us to bond together as a group in ways that I’d never experienced before,” says Iqra Mahmood, speaking of her transformational Outward Bound experience.

The community project that followed her Lake District residential embedded her new-found confidence. “Outward Bound helped me to understand my place in the world and gave me compassion for myself and others. I went from doing the best I could with the coping mechanisms I had to [having] a much broader toolkit.

“From binge-watching and doom-scrolling to taking walks, going to the gym, seeing my friends, and going indoor and outdoor rock climbing. From being told the world is our oyster, to believing it really is.”