Young at heart...

Jack Petchey and students from the Petchey Academy in Hackney

Jack Petchey CBE, 87, was born and brought up in the East End of London. Through car sales and property development he became one of the most successful businessmen in Britain. Through the Jack Petchey Foundation, formed in 1999, he has given over £65m to youth programmes. The foundation exists to raise the aspiration of young people to help them take advantage of opportunities and play a full part in society. Here Jack Petchey shares his giving journey...

 I have gained a lot from life, a lot of experience and a lot of material things and I wanted to give something back to society. I think it is all our responsibility to give something back, whatever our position in life; we can always help others in some way.

I tell this to the young people too – they can make a vast difference by supporting others and I believe they will gain more than they give!

It isn’t just about giving money though. It is about providing leadership for our young people, inspiring and motivating them, showing them they can make a difference and improve their lives. We need our community to invest in these kids – they are our future, we have to guide and nurture them!

I have always tried to support charity in some way – even in the early days of my businesses when I didn’t have much money – I could do other things like give time and encourage others to get involved too.

As the businesses grew I was able to give more and we regularly donated in response to appeals and personal approaches. However, as things started to snowball I realised it is actually a big job giving out money. If it isn’t done wisely then you could be doing more bad than good! That’s when I decided to set up the Jack Petchey Foundation.

Once the foundation was established we could engage more creatively with charities in order to try and ensure good practice in our decision-making and to influence a change in society. There is more to philanthropy than just giving money to good causes. It helps the charities to sharpen their practice if you get them to think about what they are trying to achieve and ask questions to help them achieve that more effectively. In this way we get a relationship with the charities and can help by bringing our expertise from the business world too.

As the foundation developed and the young people wrote to me or spoke to me at events and told me how their lives had changed – that’s when I realised the real impact we can have.

It is not about giving away lots of money – it’s about making a difference and if we can inspire, change the way young people think about themselves and help them achieve more in life – we are changing a generation, shaping future society for the better and that is what is important.

We don’t really see ourselves as a pure grant-maker – but as an investor in young people. We often lead the development of new programmes and seek charities who can work with us to achieve our goals to inspire youth.

Our three largest youth programmes are the:

Jack Petchey Achievement Awards – this gets almost £2.5m into grassroots youth organisations and schools every year, in order to inspire and reward young people’s achievements. The young people are central to the decision making and the £200 award they receive has to be invested in their youth organisation – so they get a sense of philanthropy too.

The Jack Petchey SpeakOut Challenge – trains almost 20,000 15-year-olds in public speaking each year – this raises their confidence, self-esteem and ability to communicate. They then go on to compete in borough and regional events to find an overall ‘public speaker of the year’ – it is magical to see how this helps them develop.

Step into Dance – offers professional weekly dance training after school to almost 5000 young people who otherwise would not have the opportunity. Young men on the verge of exclusion from schools, young people with disabilities have all learnt team work, discipline and found a way to express themselves publicly through dance.

We have lots of smaller programmes too – basically our strategy is to focus on the impact and if it inspires young people, is good value for money and can be replicated – we will test it out!

We are concerned with measurable impact – you have to know the difference you make. There is no point in throwing money at an idea if you can’t see what difference it makes.

I am often overwhelmed by the joy of giving! When you see the difference that the programmes have made in a young person’s life – and you know that they have been able to reach a greater potential through that – it is hard not to get emotional.

Recently a youngster wrote and performed a rap at the end of a dance production that involved 400 young people. He said “I am looking at you, and you are looking at me, saying this is someone that I inspired. Positivity and love is required, to make something this big and this great.” To know that this young man felt inspired and to know he felt someone cared enough to invest in him and in thousands of other young people’s growth is the greatest reward one can ever have!

In giving locally, you have to be a realist – you can’t do everything and solve the problems of the world, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do anything! You have to do what you can and so for me it was best to go local! To work in the places I have connections with – London, Essex and Portugal where some of my businesses are. That way we have an intense impact, our programmes all build on each other rather than being watered down and we have even more opportunity to reach and influence our target group.

The advice I have for others wanting to make a difference is to be clear about what you want to achieve, set out your objectives, be prepared to take the occasional risk… and give, evaluate and enjoy!

 www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk