Even before the pandemic, an estimated one in four of us experienced a mental health problem of some kind every year, making poor mental health one of the UK’s biggest social problems.
This period of prolonged uncertainty has meant the services offered by mental health charities, such as Mind, are facing unprecedented demand.
At the same time, with the charity largely reliant on donations and their retail shops to support their services, the pandemic has had a severe impact on Mind’s ability to raise funds.
To help, as one of Mind’s long-term corporate partners, we sent a call out across our firm posing one big question: how can Mind generate revenue - using their charity shop stock or through new revenue streams?
Over 100 creative ideas
This was broken down into three crowdsourced challenges:
Shifting traditional stock: How might Mind sell donated goods in a way that does not rely on physical shops, and delivers ease and convenience for customers and donors?
Additional commerce revenues: How might Mind use its positive reputation to generate revenue in new ways?
Wildcard revenue: Anything goes! Think outside of retail and commerce. What can Mind do to generate alternative revenue streams?
Collaborating to develop ideas
We had a brilliant response with over 100 creative ideas submitted.
Creative sessions were organised to enable people to develop these ideas and coaches from Deloitte Ventures used their business development skills to help. The sessions gave people from across the firm an opportunity to work with colleagues from different teams who had similar ideas, and develop them together.
We’re in
Following the sessions, the top 12 ideas went through to three virtual ‘Dragon’s Den’ style judging rounds with 12 different judges from the Mind and Deloitte leadership teams.
The judges were impressed by the way the teams came together to present exciting, innovative ideas, and chose three winners.
Our research found that, as a result of the pandemic, 26 per cent of millennials and 22 per cent of Gen Zs in the UK have taken time off work due to stress and anxiety.
Winning ideas
- As a way of shifting Mind’s traditional stock, the proposal for an online Mind Marketplace is designed to encourage local shopping and donating.
- Gold in Mind suggests a way to secure additional revenue in Mind’s shops using a ‘pricing playbook’ for high-end donated goods. This would help to ensure these items are not under-priced by volunteers who may not always be aware of recommended retail prices.
- Gift(ed) Cards is an idea based around creating a range of costed mental health services provided by Mind, sold as giftable cards. For example, purchasing a card that paid for counselling for three people for a week.
The pandemic will continue to increase the need for our services and it is fantastic that the Deloitte team has helped Mind to address future income generation opportunities.
Director of Retail, Mind
Sharing our ideas
The different teams and ideas all helped to shape Mind's planning and inspired a review of their overall Retail strategy.
"It was great to hear so many well-thought-out and creative ideas come from Deloitte colleagues,” said Mind’s Director of Retail, Andrew Vale.
“There’s so much positivity and understanding of the work that Mind does and the issues affecting people with poor mental health. The pandemic will continue to increase the need for our services and it is fantastic that the Deloitte team has helped Mind to address future income generation opportunities."
Making wellbeing part of our daily routine
The last eighteen months have tested us all. Our wellbeing affects how we work, whether independently, with our clients or with our colleagues. Balancing life and work is a big priority for the firm - and we want all of our people to prioritise wellbeing and build it into their daily routine.
The Deloitte Coffee Club helps people to connect socially with colleagues. 1,500 people got involved last year and we made around 11,000 matches.
To check in on how our people are doing, we’ve run regular wellbeing pulse surveys throughout the pandemic, using the results to inform our actions.
We’ve also expanded our mental health champions network, now made up of almost 100 people from across the business, who are trained to listen and signpost help.
Our ‘my wellbeing’ app brings all of our wellbeing resources and initiatives together in one place - and we’ve given everyone a subscription to mindfulness app Headspace.
5 Million Futures
For more than eight years, Mind has been one of Deloitte’s 5 Million Futures charity partners. 5 Million Futures is Deloitte’s North and South Europe (NSE) social impact strategy, aiming to help five million people get to where they want to be through access to education and employment.
The current focus of the partnership is on opportunities for young people to lead on mental wellbeing work. In January 2020, with support from companies like Deloitte, Mind launched a youth voice network - a community of young people passionate about mental health and committed to helping to effect change.
Contact:
Laura Parsons, PR senior manager
+44 20 7303 0885 | Email Laura
Sue Gibson, PR manager
+44 20 7303 3156 | Email Sue