CEO of The Circle and ACK, Kirsty Thomson, is to merge the two community interest companies this month as she marks seven years since founding her first organisation.
Kirsty founded Along Came Kirsty in 2012 following a successful career working for charities and universities in Dundee and Newcastle. Along Came Kirsty offered support to small, medium and national charities, social enterprises and small businesses. Along Came Kirsty became ACK in 2017.
In 7 years ACK raised over £3million and worked with over 250 organisations providing advice, consultancy, fundraising and networking opportunities. They supported organisations both in the UK and internationally, including clients in Sweden and Canada. ACK has directly employed a total of nine people as well as supporting funding applications that have created jobs for over 70 people throughout the UK.
ACK created volunteering opportunities for people interested in social enterprise and placements for over 30 young people from the Universities of Dundee and Abertay Dundee. The organisation also worked with corporate partners across Scotland on training for the third sector.
Kirsty had witnessed many of her client organisations working in unsuitable accommodation and when viewing a former skills training centre off the Kingsway in Dundee with a client, realised it had potential as a community hub. The Circle was founded in 2015, launched in 2016 and the lease was signed in 2017. The Circle was set up to provide affordable offices, meeting rooms and community space in its Staffa Place location. By late 2018 The Circle was fully occupied for the first time with 17 tenant organisations and over 300 weekly visitors. They won Social Impact Business of the Year at The Courier Business Awards in October 2018. Kirsty was in the 2018 WISE100 list, which recognises the most inspiring and influential women in social enterprise, impact investment and mission-driven businesses in the UK.
The Circle has received several funding awards including the Grow it award from UnLtd, First Port and Resilient Scotland for starting up. We have also had funding for staff from Mathew Trust, Community Jobs Scotland and more recently, The National Lottery Community Fund Young Start.
In 2017 Kirsty participated in Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Fellowship programme which took Kirsty to Boston and Silicon Valley for 9 weeks. This fellowship was part funded by the Scottish Government and the Northwood Trust. The new perspectives that Kirsty gained from this time of personal development lead her to consider the merits of merging her two enterprises.
Kirsty ran ACK and The Circle in parallel for three years. Together with the Board of Directors of each organisation, she has decided the time is right to merge ACK and The Circle as both social enterprises evolve together to meet the community’s requirements.
The Circle will continue to offer offices and event space as its core activity while increasing the support it offers social enterprises. National funders, UnLtd, have selected The Circle as their Dundee base for the Resilient Communities programme and will continue to invest in local social entrepreneurs over the next three years. The Circle will continue the consultancy work offered by ACK with a redesigned training programme for social entrepreneurs. The Circle Academy will offer skills for organisations interested in a ‘More Than Profit’ approach and a newly appointed manager will utilise appropriate ACK Track programme resources. ACK’s Charity Chit Chat networking event will also continue to be run by The Circle team as well as the popular community micro funding event run in partnership with Creative Dundee, Dundee Soup.
ACK’s expertise in developing opportunities for youth enterprise training, volunteers and student placements will be harnessed in new projects. Once appointments are made to currently advertised posts for The Circle Café, The Circle will employ a total of twelve people across the functions of consultancy, finance, entrepreneurship, business development, room bookings, facilities management, communications and marketing.
Kirsty said, “Over the last seven years it has been a privilege to lead a talented team of staff, committed volunteers and keen students at ACK into supporting our clients to raise over £3 million to deliver jobs, opportunities and services dedicated to addressing health and social issues. The support ACK has had from the community and businesses in Dundee and further afield for our clients has been inspiring and humbling.
It is the right time now for ACK’s services to continue evolving alongside The Circle as one organisation. I am thrilled that we will soon be joined by five more members of staff so we can embed The Circle Academy, consultancy and The Circle Café project, which will provide training for looked after young people and care leavers, into what we are already delivering and realise our ambition as a truly inclusive, enterprising and sustainable community hub.”
Chair of The Circle, Donald McPherson said, “Bringing ACK and the Circle together was the obvious next step in their evolution so the boards of the two companies had no difficulty in reaching this decision. We are now better placed than ever to offer comprehensive support to charities, social enterprises and others working within our community, with some exciting new initiatives in the pipeline for 2019.”
The Circle
The Circle is an award winning 'More Than Profit' organisation that supports businesses to make a difference to communities by providing affordable consultancy, training and workspaces, within an inclusive and friendly community.
