This page briefly describes some volunteer activities that I’m passionate about.
Resurgo. I serve on the Advisory Council of Resurgo, which has two main initiatives. Resurgo Spear helps young unemployed people into work or education, and Resurgo Ventures supports emerging social entrepreneurs to make a positive impact on society. Through Resurgo Ventures I support the following start-ups:
- Luminary Bakery, which provides employment and training to women disadvantaged through poverty, homelessness, violence, or crime. In addition to baked goods, it sells New Ground coffee and Holos kombucha.
- New Ground Coffee, a coffee roasting enterprise that provides employment and training to ex-offenders.
- Holos, which makes kombucha (a tea containing probiotics and antioxidants) and provides employment and training to survivors of human trafficking.
- Recognised, which makes bracelets featuring popons that represent a social cause. 100% of profits from the popon are donated to that cause
Leadership College London. I serve as a mentor to Leadership College London, which trains and equips Christian leaders in their 20s and 30s who work in non-church environments (e.g. business, law, medicine, media). I’ve previously fundraised for Onelife, a similar organisation which focuses on 14-21 year olds.
Holy Trinity Brompton. I serve on the worship team (keys/synth) of the second largest church in London, and am privileged to play alongside some extremely talented musicians. Here’s a song from one of our services.
Dolphin School. I serve as Advisor and Trustee to Dolphin School in Berkshire, England, an independent school which I attended when I was young. Its mission is to instill independent, creative thinking and a love of learning through a free, unconstrained learning environment.
American Cancer Society DetermiNation. I previously served as Head Coach of DetermiNation Philadelphia, the endurance athletics program of the American Cancer Society. It raises money for the prevention, treatment, and cure of cancer: 46 Nobel prizewinners have had their research funded by ACS. For a brief insight into the spirit of being part of a fundraising team – and probably the proudest I’ve been about my MBA students in a decade of teaching – please see my article Wharton Races Against Cancer.
Macmillan Cancer Support. Now that I am back in England, I fundraise for Macmillan, which provides specialist health care, information, and financial and emotional support to people affected by cancer. After each race, I write a report that I share privately with my sponsors as a thank-you, but thought to post one from the Lanzarote Ironman 70.3 here in case it encourages just one person to take on such a challenge. Such events seem daunting, but in fact are tons of fun and an amazing adventure, which I try to capture in the report.