Finance Score: 2
Governance Score: 2
Support Score: 11
  • Strong growth: +2
  • Dynamic board: +3
  • Mainly female board: -1
  • Overall weighted support: +11
Overall GiG Score: 15 ?

BREAKING BARRIERS

Overview

Breaking Barriers supports refugees to rebuild their lives and integrate into UK society by providing personalised employment support and mentorship, language classes, and other workshops to develop professional skills. Through collaborations with businesses, they create job opportunities and aim to alter the narrative around refugees in the UK.

They have been successful in growing corporate partnerships through their Business Behind Refugees movement, and their leadership team hopes to continue this success in a new strategy introduced after Founding CEO Matthew Powell stepped back in 2023. Their detailed impact framework has shown increases in positive outcomes for refugees as they have grown, and their rapid increase in delivery numbers is owed to their expansions outside London in the last few years.

Source: Giving is Great

Mission:

Helping refugees into meaningful employment with advice, experience, and education
Analysis by Giving is Great

Positives:

  • There has been strong growth in spending over the last 5 years
  • There have been no material income shortfalls in recent years
  • A significant proportion of recent income was derived from major grant makers including the Government
  • The Board appears to be dynamic in terms of composition

Regulatory & Governance issues to consider:

  • The Board is predominantly female
  • Over half the Board have joined recently

Financial Data ?

Income & Spending ?
Sources of Income ?
Y/E Income
£k
Spending
£k
Surplus/
Deficit £k
Fundraising
Cost £k
Total
Funds £k
Unrestricted
Funds £k
Mths
Rsrvs
Staff Volun-
teers
31/05/23£3,799£3,263£536£569£1,891£1,3284.966314
31/05/22£2,851£2,298£554£321£1,353£9935.250288
28/05/21£1,834£1,561£273£252£703£655540254
28/05/20£1,426£1,278£149£165£431£4073.830293
28/05/19£1,006£1,030£-24£115£282£2102.520424
28/05/18£741£448£293£30£306£2376.480
28/05/17*£165£161£5n/an/an/an/an/an/a
28/05/16£42£32£10n/an/an/an/an/an/a

Financial Ratios
Fundraising Costs/Relevant Income: 15%
Fundraising Costs/Total Spending: 17.4%
Senior Staff Costs/Total Spending: 6%
Highest pay band: £80,000-£90,000
Liabilities/Assets: 11%
Liabilities/Income: 6%
Unrestricted Funds/Total Funds: 70%
Reserves/Spending: 4.9 months
Net Current Assets/Spending: 7 months
Quick Ratio: 6.9
Asset Split ?
Balance Sheet History
Established: 10 years

www.breaking-barriers.co.uk

enquiries@breaking-barriers.co.uk

02045410155

Charity Commission for England and WalesFacebookInstagramX
UN SDGs
?
How you can help
What it does
Helping refugees living in the UK rebuild their lives through education, training and employment.
Listed activities
  • Economic/Community Development/Employment
  • Education/Training
  • Human Rights/Religious Or Racial Harmony/Equality Or Diversity
  • The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty
GiG Classification
  • LGBTQ+ support
  • Support for refugees & asylum seekers
How it operates
  • Provides advocacy/advice/information
  • Provides human resources
  • Provides services
Where it operates
  • Scotland, Throughout England And Wales,
Who it helps
  • Children/Young People
  • Elderly/Old People
  • People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin
  • People With Disabilities

Who supports them? ?

Donations from Grant Makers ?

We have details on the following donations. Multi-year donations are allocated to the years for which they are earmarked.

Major supporters in last 5 years
National Lottery Community Fund£250,000
City Bridge Trust£173,000
Henry Smith Charity£120,000
The Clothworkers Foundation£100,000
Garfield Weston Foundation£80,000
Barrow Cadbury Trust£50,000
DCMS£40,000
Specific Donations
Amount When
Months
To be used for
Foundation Scotland - Unlocking employment for marginalised refugees in Glasgow
£5,000 26/07/2024
11
To contribute towards the salary of an Employment Adviser supporting refugees to access work, training, education, and apprenticeship opportunities.
The EQ Foundation - Grant to BREAKING BARRIERS
£7,500 23/02/2024
Big Give Christmas Challenge 2023
National Lottery Community Fund - Supporting refugees in Birmingham into employment
£240,000 28/09/2023
This funding will be used to deliver employment sessions and holistic 1-2-1 support ensuring that the client develops their employment strategy with the help of on-site experts and English and IT courses focussing on boosting skill levels. The ....more
Quartet Community Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£10,000 09/08/2023
As directed by the donor towards helping refugees living in the UK rebuild their lives through education, training and employment.
The Shears Foundation - Breaking Barriers
£5,500 06/04/2023
Supporting refugees into meaningful employment in Manchester
The EQ Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£10,000 06/03/2023
Big Give Champion Pledge
Wates Foundation - NWF Oct 22_Futures Programme
£7,000 12/10/2022
Funding towards the salaries two of front-line Integration and Employment Advisers in London to help build capacity and provide holistic support so that young refugees can find stable, fulfilling employment.
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£123,000 21/07/2022
36
£123,000 over three years (£40,000, £41,000, £42,000) to meet growing demands for information, advice, and guidance support and of increase engagement in educational courses for refugees in London.
National Lottery Community Fund - Refugees at Work: Talent Beyond Barriers
£10,000 17/06/2022
The funding will be used to reintroduce in-person employment support for refugees. The project aims to create an accessible supportive space to help refugees the knowledge and confidence they need to gain sustainable and fulfilling employment.
The EQ Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£7,500 15/02/2022
Big Give Champion Pledge
London Catalyst - Breaking Barriers - 3
£3,000 08/02/2022
BB Employment ? empowering refugees through tailored, 1:1 employment advice and guidance, workshops and paid work placements.
Quartet Community Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£10,000 24/01/2022
As directed by the donor towards helping refugees living in the UK rebuild their lives through education, training and employment.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Multi-Year Grant (2 Years) award
£40,000 17/12/2021
24
Employment Support for Refugees in London
Henry Smith Charity - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£120,000 07/12/2021
36
towards three years' running costs of a project providing 1 to 1 employment support and education courses for refugees throughout London.
The Clothworkers Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£100,000 24/06/2021
to support Breaking Barriers to pilot its expansion beyond London.
The EQ Foundation - Grant to BREAKING BARRIERS
£5,000 05/02/2021
Big Give Christmas Challenge 2020
Barrow Cadbury Trust - COVID-19 - Breaking Barriers
£50,000 07/10/2020
6
To provide staff and other costs to enable Breaking Barriers to continue to provide support for client group in finding suitable employment.
City Bridge Trust - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£50,000 28/09/2020
towards the delivery of bespoke employment support and advice to unemployed and underemployed refugees across London, as outlined in your application
London Catalyst - Breaking Barriers - 2
£3,000 08/09/2020
Dedicated Employment and Integration Adviser supporting refugees in East London to integrate through stable, meaningful employment.
DCMS - Coronavirus Community Support Fund
£40,000 29/07/2020
"The fund aims to:1) To reduce closures of essential charities that provide essential services to vulnerable groups during the COVID-19 crisis by ensuring they have the financial resources to operate, thereby reducing the burden on public ....more
Rank Foundation - Resilience Fund Breaking Barriers 2020
£15,000 29/05/2020
To support core costs
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£40,000 14/02/2020
Breaking Barriers: Core Costs
AB Charitable Trust - A grant to Breaking Barriers
£10,000 09/01/2020
An unrestricted grant of £10,000. Breaking Barriers provides an advice and guidance service for refugees seeking employment in London. It provides 1-1 support, education and training, and works in partnership with businesses to offer paid work ....more
The EQ Foundation - Grant to BREAKING BARRIERS
£2,500 15/12/2019
Big Give Christmas Challenge 2019
Trust for London - Breaking Barriers
£108,000 13/06/2019
36
The funding is for Breaking Barrier’s new Aspire programme which supports refugees in London who are underemployed, experiencing in-work poverty and/or who want to develop to progress into roles which are better paid, offer longer-term career ....more
The Rayne Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£60,000 03/06/2019
36
Towards the salary of a caseworker supporting refugees living in London into meaningful employment, commensurate with their skills and experience.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Main Grants award
£20,000 25/07/2018
Core cost project towards Breaking Barriers
London Catalyst - Breaking Barriers - 1
£3,000 09/05/2018
A contribution towards a caseworker?s salary who supports refugees to find employment, education or training.
Lloyds Bank Foundation - Grant to Breaking Barriers
£75,000 30/11/2017
36
Charity providing paid work placements and mentoring support to refugees and migrants helping them find meaningful long term employment.
Show more rows

Data sourced from Donors via 360 Giving

How do they operate?

Businesses Behind Refugees

Objectives: To create a movement of businesses united and committed to improving the lives of refugees in the UK through meaningful employment

Beneficiaries: Refugees

Description: Breaking Barriers Businesses Behind Refugees programme gives businesses the chance to access a range of specialist workshops, networking events, guidance, and opportunities to share best practices and insights on how to unlock refugee talent.

The programme creates much needed meaningful job opportunities for talented refugees in the UK who need their first foot on the ladder, generates insightful learnings and best practise to encourage more businesses to hire refugees and ultimately help change the public narrative, and enables Breaking Barriers to help refugees to get job-ready through its employment and education programmes

Employment Services

Beneficiaries: Refugees

Description: Breaking Barriers provides services to help refugees gain employment including CV and cover letter writing, job searching, interview skills, knowledge of the job market and networking events. Employees who work for Breaking Barriers corporate partners volunteer their time to design workshops so refugees can build their employability skills and some partners provide on-the-job experience with short work experience opportunities or the chance to shadow someone for a day. When available, refugees might also be

....more
Education Services

Description: Breaking Barriers provides services to help refugees into education including explanation of how to get into university or college, support searching for courses and completing university applications, support searching and applying for funding to cover the cost of courses

Skills Building Services

Description: Breaking Barriers provides services to help refugees build life skills including mentoring or life coaching opportunities, English language courses, IT and digital skills courses and mentoring

How effective are they?
Outputs
Outcomes
Y/EPeople accessing servicesPeople moved into employment, education, training or volunteering
31/05/20231,104581
31/05/2022623182
28/05/2021462128
Commentary: Breaking Barriers has gone to considerable lengths to establish the Attribution Rate (i.e. the true incremental impact of their services) by using logistical regression modelling. This indicates that without their intervention a person would have a 7% probability of becoming employed; this rises to 22% after 8 hours of intervention and 36% after 22 hours.
See what you could achieve with a donation of: £
How do we calculate this?

Who works here?

  • CIARA DEVLIN
    CEO
Ciara brings a wealth of experience from almost 20 years working for third sector organisations, including significant posts at Crisis. She was central to developing their long-term plan to end homelessness and the growth of their delivery as they evolved from being a £5m London-based organisation to a £60m+ nationwide organisation
  • ANDREW FORDHAM
    Director of Development
  • ANNA SIMONS
    Chief of Staff
  • MEGAN WILLIAMS
    Director of Finance
  • DAN MCLEAN
    Director of Communications and Engagement
  • ANNA KINGSLEY-NYINAH
    Director of People

How is it governed?

Trustees (6)
Current Trustees appointed
Gender Split
Based on 5/6 persons

  • ALBA LAMBERTI (Chair) Appointed: 2024
  • ANDREW WAIDHOFER Appointed: 2020
  • BARBARA SERRA Appointed: 2022
  • HELEN DOWNIE Appointed: 2022
  • KATIE RICKARD Appointed: 2021
  • KELLY MAKLOWICZ Appointed: 2022
Legal constitution
  • Charity registered in England & Wales on 29/05/2015, number: 1161901
Gift Aid
  • Registered with HMRC for Gift Aid
Fundraising Regulator
First registered: 09/01/2021, current status: Large charity (levy paid)
Policies in force
  • Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
  • Complaints handling
  • Complaints policy and procedures
  • Conflicting interests
  • Financial reserves policy and procedures
  • Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
  • Internal risk management policy and procedures
  • Paying staff
  • Risk management
  • Safeguarding policy and procedures
  • Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
  • Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
  • Social media policy and procedures
  • Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
  • Trustee expenses policy and procedures
  • Volunteer management
Filing Record
8 returns made; AR17: 20 days late,
Recent reorganisation events:
  • Asset transfer in from WIMBLEDON SYNAGOGUE ARK PROJECT on 03/02/2023
Main office

71-91 Aldwych
Aldwych House
London
WC2B 4HN

Objectives

FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT:A)TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF THOSE GRANTED REFUGEE STATUS, THEIR DEPENDANTS AND THOSE SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM SO AS TO ADVANCE THEM IN LIFE AND ASSIST THEM TO ADAPT WITHIN A NEW COMMUNITY;B)THE RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND FINANCIAL HARDSHIP OF THOSE GRANTED REFUGEE STATUS, THEIR DEPENDENTS AND THOSE SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, BY THE PROVISION OF VOCATIONAL SKILLS TRAINING, ADVICE AND SUPPORT;C)TO ADVANCE THE EDUCATION OF THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL ABOUT THE ISSUES RELATING TO REFUGEES AND THOSE SEEKING ASYLUM; ANDD)THE PROMOTION OF SOCIAL INCLUSION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT AMONG PEOPLE WHO ARE REFUGEES, THEIR DEPENDENTS OR SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, WHO ARE SOCIALLY EXCLUDED ON THE GROUNDS OF THEIR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC POSITION.

Data Sources

Charity Commission for England and Wales
360 Giving
Charizone

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