Sage Foundation Grow launches in UK with North East charities
Howard Lake | 16 September 2026 | News
Sage has brought its global Sage Foundation Grow mentoring programme to the UK for the first time, pairing its own senior staff with four charities in the North East of England.
The five-month programme has provided free support on governance, recruitment, marketing and artificial intelligence to 4Louis, FareShare North East, The Meadows and Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project (CVYP). Sage chose Newcastle, where the company was founded and where its global headquarters remain, for the first UK delivery.
Skills rather than cash
Grow is a skills-based mentoring programme rather than a grant scheme. Charity leaders work alongside Sage colleagues over a series of sessions, tackling business planning, governance, communications and the practical use of AI. Sage says the programme has supported 25 nonprofits in Spain, the United States, Canada and Australia since it began.
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Corporate skills-sharing is not new, of course. Sage Foundation itself has been offering entrepreneurial support and grants to UK charities since at least 2017. At five months of structured mentoring, however, this is a deeper level of corporate partnership than many of those on offer elsewhere.
What the charities say they have gained
Bob McGurrell, Chief Executive of 4Louis, the Sunderland charity supporting families affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and child loss, said:
“We’re using what we’ve learned about governance and strategy to make important changes within the charity and put clearer plans in place for the future.”
Faye Willis, SEND Coordinator at CVYP, said the programme had prompted the charity to update its business plan and mission statement, expand its social media activity, and gain “the confidence to explore how AI could help streamline day-to-day tasks”.
Helen Devanny, VP of Sage Foundation, said:
“Charities face many of the same challenges as any growing organisation. What they don’t always have is the time, money or support to step back and work through those challenges and that’s where Sage Foundation Grow helps.”
Further details are available on the Sage Foundation website.
- Sage Foundation takes on CARE International UK as sole partner for global disaster relief (8 June 2023)
- Sage Foundation looks for more entrepreneurial ideas from UK charities (11 November 2017)
- Sage Foundation offers $1 million to UK nonprofits for enterprising ideas (27 February 2017)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.