In this blog, we catch up with Adam Stacey, Managing Director of Charisma Charity Recruitment, to understand how his business benefits from sponsoring activities at Scotland’s Centre for Social Innovation.

How it started…

Adam met our CEO, Helen Denny, at events she facilitated in London. He enjoyed the interactivity, productivity and accessibility of those events – a style which Helen has embedded and nurtured at The Melting Pot. So, when Helen approached him to sponsor Bridging Communities, he was keen to be involved.

Adam Stacey, Managing Director of Charisma Charity Recruitment

How does sponsorship benefit Charisma Charity Recruitment?

Charisma specialises in charity recruitment across the UK. It therefore makes good business sense to Adam, to partner with a “reputable, well-known organisation like The Melting Pot”, which has a strong third sector network in Edinburgh and beyond.

Based in Winchester, Charisma uses sponsorship strategically to raise its profile, especially in the north. “Geography doesn’t matter anymore. So many of our roles are open to remote or hybrid working patterns now. So, it makes sense for us to build links with great candidates from across the country.”

Adam himself attended the Bridging Communities conference in April 2024. He was given a platform to speak about Charisma to his target audience, and by participating in the day, he was able to grow his network of both potential candidates and decision-makers within Scottish organisations.

Charisma has kindly sponsored a range of events and activities at The Melting Pot. As well as Bridging Communities, it has supported our Social Impact Speaker event series last autumn, and ‘sponsored a desk’ for one social innovator to work on their journey at The Melting Pot for three months.

How do the different types of activity align to Charisma’s own strategy and values?

As well as being tactical about the location of Charisma’s sponsorships, Adam is also clear about the kind of activity he wants his company to support. He’s not really into sponsoring awards ceremonies or gala dinners. He wants Charisma’s sponsorship to have “meaningful social impact”. It is one of the marketing tools Charisma deploys to demonstrate who they are and what they do. So, it’s profile building, but with added social value.

Adam sees sponsoring events at The Melting Pot as “making learning and development opportunities more affordable and accessible to the third sector.” And when asked about desk sponsorship (which only supports one person at a time but is potentially game-changing for that individual), Adam says “it’s our way of giving back. It’s the feel-good factor for us.”

From The Melting Pot’s perspective, Charisma’s sponsorship is invaluable. Helen Denny explains:

“Working with Charisma over the past year has been great. Their sponsorship has helped us to grow our impact in Scotland by offering more fully funded places at our events. This means social innovators, who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access a place, benefit from relevant learning and networking opportunities.

Working with organisations like Charisma has also enabled us to scale our events programme, reaching audiences further afield and expanding our reach to different sectors. This all helps build a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Scotland. We are looking forward to continuing our relationship with Adam and the team over the next year”.

If, like Adam, you see exciting opportunities to grow your network, build your business, or give back to communities, take a look at our range of partnership opportunities and get in touch!

About Charisma Charity Recruitment

Charisma Charity Recruitment specialises in helping charities and not-for-profit organisations to improve their impact through purposeful placements.

The team has matched all kinds of candidate to all kinds of role at all kinds of organisations. Over the decades, they’ve gained a deep understanding of the third sector by helping small social enterprises with a handful of staff, through to supporting large charities with hundreds of employees.

Charisma offers recruitment solutions for finding third sector executives, trustees, employees at every level, and interim cover.

They promise to match world-class talent to world-changing organisations.

Find out more on their website.

And you can follow Adam on LinkedIn.