In February 2013, Adam Pike began a sabbatical from Deloitte to run Young Philanthropy, a social enterprise he co-founded to educate and empower a new generation of philanthropists.

Adam had joined Deloitte’s graduate programme from a charity and wanted to find a meaningful way to continue to contribute. He wanted to participate in a platform that was led from the bottom up and leveraged the collective wealth, energy and experience of young professionals.

Adam and his co-founder, therefore, devised the Young Philanthropy Syndicate. Each Syndicate brings together 12-15 young professionals (21-35 yrs) to invest their time, money and skills in a niche charity project, with the matched funding and support of a senior leader and their employer.

During FY13, Young Philanthrophy were running eight syndicates, each engaging an average of fifteen professionals and raising an estimated average of £7,000. Syndicates included an employability programme for homeless people in London, a photography skills programme for female prisoners due for release and a project helping Anthony Nolan to increase their donor base. In each case we have matched passionate young professionals with passionate senior leaders.

Two Consultants from our London offices, Stuart West and Joel Moktar, established a syndicate of consulting analysts to support the organisation Catch 22. A ‘social business’, Catch 22 runs programmes aiming to help those with whom they work to steer clear of crime or substance misuse, do the best they can in school or college and develop skills for work or living independently after a period of time in social care or custody. With matched funding from Deloitte Tax Partner Christopher Warren and government tax breaks on their monthly donations, the 16 young professionals are raising £7,200 this year.

This money will fund two young people through ‘Project New Horizons’ (PNH) – a programme run collaboratively by Catch 22 and the British Exploring Society that seeks to prepare young people for employment, education or vocational training and culminates with a one-month expedition to Iceland. Complimenting this, the syndicate have worked closely with Catch 22 to design a bespoke mentoring scheme for PNH participants. On return from their expedition, sixteen young people will take part in a full-day ‘employability’ workshop on Deloitte’s London campus, followed by six one-on-one mentoring sessions with a dedicated syndicate member. The aim of this syndicate is to help all participants into employment, education or training within six months.

For more information go to www.youngphilanthropy.org.uk