CHARITY PARTNERS
Going national
Street Storage has been a beneficiary of funding and pro bono support for a number of years and they are a regular at Habs events throughout the year. They are the only charity in the UK providing free, safe and accessible storage to people experiencing homelessness.
Their Founder and Director, Rachel Woolf, talks about some of the support she has had from the Haberdashers network below.
I love Haberdashers. I feel sometimes like it is my second home – everyone is so supportive and so encouraging of what we do at Street Storage which in turn encourages me to keep going as – as you can imagine – running a small but highly in demand homelessness charity has its challenges!
Over the past five or so years, I have attended multiple Livery dinners, spoken at panels and charity fairs and have benefitted hugely from the Haberdashers’ Funder Plus model – notably through bi-annual group sessions with other Founders in the sector around themes such as measuring impact, organisational growth and targeted fundraising. In addition, I have personally met some true friends and colleagues along the way. Members have donated to the charity directly, some have ran marathons for Street Storage and others have given their time and expertise (speech writing, presentation workshops, advice on development and staffing) ad hoc – all of which has been time incredibly generously given and for which I am (and the organisation is) truly grateful.
Perhaps the best example of Habs support for the organisation is that of the mentor relationship I have had since 2022 with Guy Davis – a Haberdasher member who, in his day job, is an international development/franchise expert. Street Storage, for years, has been asked for their service across the country and internationally and in 2022/3 we began looking at how to franchise our project and make this dream a reality. Guy Davis mentored both myself and Street Storage’s Replication Manager Amanda Weiss around the structure of a commercial replication model and how to make this financially viable. Together, the three of us worked on a ‘how to’ guide, a fee structure, a pitch deck and a legal agreement for partner organisations to enable charities and local authorities across the UK to set up Street Storage sites in their local area. Guy also supported me as the Director with internal organisational structural change to allow this to happen smoothly and in line with the charity’s already stretched staffing capacity.
Since the start of this mentoring relationship and with Guy’s support, Street Storage now has compiled all the practical, financial and legal documentation needed for replication, and we have since opened sites in Cheltenham and Cambridge. We are currently in conversation with Sheffield, Brighton, Peterborough and New York City to develop this further…so watch this space!
Having long term expertise in our own field of bringing safe storage to people experiencing homelessness and knowing there was a national and international need but having no clue where to start was frustrating. Having no previous knowledge of how to turn a charity into a part-business and no commercial knowledge whatsoever was a scary place to be, but Guy became our guide, our advisor, our encourager and our friend. His knowledge and expertise have been invaluable from start to finish. Our unprecedented and continued growth is partly down to his commitment and the fact he was willing to work with us with a huge amount of willingness and enthusiasm. We love you Guy!
Education