Subilo and The Access Project
Subilo shares how the support she received from The Access Project helped her to apply for and attend one of the UK's top universities.
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The Access Project
Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are significantly under-represented at top universities, making up only 6% of the intake.
The Access Project works with high-potential students from under-resourced backgrounds to help them get into top universities. They place dedicated mentors into schools to help students navigate and overcome barriers to education, as well as support including university trips, tuition and skills coaching.
The Access Project & Impetus
Since 2014, our collaboration with The Access Project (TAP) has resulted in them expanding their reach from 700 to 2,000 young people per year, who are 50% more likely to achieve a place at a top 3rd UK university after completing TAP’s programme.
Their programme is recognised as one of the best-evidenced interventions in the university access sector, so we can be confident that these outcomes wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Our work together in numbers
Since 2014 we have invested £2.1 million in direct grants, £1 million in co-investment, and £1.3 million in pro bono support.
Over 10 years, our Investment Team worked closely with The Access Project to help build a highly effective programme and embed a true impact culture within the organisation, alongside helping develop their senior leaders and grow income by six times.
| Upon entry in 2014 | 2022/23 (Compound annual growth rate) | |
|---|---|---|
| Income | £546k | £3.5m (22%) |
| Reach | 700 | 2,022 (13%) |
Donor and pro bono partnerships
None of this work would have been possible without the support of our wonderful donors and their commitment to deep, lasting partnerships with Impetus and our charities – providing not just funding but practical and strategic guidance through their pro bono networks.
During our our 10-year partnership we worked with a number of organisations to support The Access Project, including: Bain, OC&C, PwC and various individual philanthropists.
Examples of pro bono projects:
- CEO and senior management team coaching
- Strategy reviews
- Commissioning of a CRM system
- Organisation structure review
In their words
We have benefitted from our deep relationship with Impetus over many years on our journey from a fledgling charity with a big mission to one with proven impact on students' outcomes. Impetus has supported the growth of The Access Project through their expert advice and networks and supported us in building a gold standard of impact measurement and a data-driven organisation. We’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve completed together to create a benchmark-leading intervention.
Our focus now shifts towards further scaling this benchmark-leading intervention across more young people to amplify our impact and drive systemic change, with a new programme model to enable growth, and a wide network of supporters and advisors to guide our organisation forward.
We’d like to thank Impetus for all of the support over the years and are excited to be an active member of the alumni network. We send our best wishes to all the charities across the Impetus portfolio in continuing to transform the lives of young people.
Anna Searle, CEO, The Access Project
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Waleed's storyThe help I got was beyond anything I expected. It was hard work, it was tiring, but I stuck with it and it was so worth it - from my personal statement to retaking my mocks so I could take the exams I needed to get into course I wanted. Amy, bless her, was there to support me and encourage me to get things done. I would say The Access Project was the number one reason why I got into university. Read Waleed's story |
