Croydon Mencap CEO Alan Avis is one of 10 small charity leaders awarded places on a unique initiative designed to both develop their own strategic and leadership capabilities, and transform a further 10 charities.

Alan Avis: one of 10 leaders of small charities on the scheme

The successful applicants to Pilotlight’s 2020 Bursary Initiative will each be matched with three other senior leaders from the public and private sectors, forming teams which will support charities who have come to Pilotlight in need of strategic input. The engagement between these teams and their charities will be managed by Pilotlight, requiring just three hours of their time each month.

“I am both thrilled and honoured to receive this bursary,” Avis said. “I look forward to developing my skills as I work with a team of Pilotlighters to support a charity.”

Pilotlight’s Bruce McCombie said: “The social change we ignite doesn’t just impact charities, it impacts the Pilotlighters who coach and mentor those charities too. That’s one of the many reasons why major businesses including Morgan Stanley, Lendlease and Sodexo sponsor their staff to become Pilotlighters.

“Pilotlight has now supported nearly 1,000 charity leaders and through the Bursary Initiative we’re enabling some of them to continue their leadership development by sharing their experience with another charity.”

The charities which will receive the support from the Bursary Pilotlighters’ teams will be matched over the next month, with engagements beginning this summer.

In the last 17 years, Pilotlight has matched more than 2,000 business leaders with nearly 1,000 charities since its inception. Pilotlight’s 2020 Impact Report shows that charities, on average, increase their reach by 36 per cent and their income by 40 per cent in the two years after working with the organisation.

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