Isobel Gauld
Marketing & Communications Manager at Neighbourly
In the second of our ‘Meet the Neighbours’ series, where we meet and greet with some of the fantastic team members at Neighbourly, we’re running a B Corp Month special edition with Client Success Director and B Leader, Sally.
As a sustainability professional with over 15 years of experience in building stakeholder partnerships, Sally’s focus now lies in the relationship between businesses and grassroots organisations and charities as a tool to build and embed change and social impact. Working at Neighbourly for over five years, Sally has been instrumental in establishing and maintaining our certification as one of B Corp’s founding members.
If you had to sum up what your role at Neighbourly involves in one sentence, what would you say?
Sally: In my role I work directly with businesses that want to make a measurable community impact through the Neighbourly network of good causes.
“From shaping and launching national campaigns through to data analysis - no two days are the same”
Understanding the resources businesses have to give but also the kind of impact they want to have is a key part of this role, as I help to facilitate and maintain giving initiatives and programmes from employee volunteering, to the distribution of grant funding or surplus products that support all facets of local communities and areas of need.
Can you share some of your personal highlights from your time working for Neighbourly?
Sally: The Neighbourly team is a diverse bunch, yet we all have a common thread of Neighbourly values joining us together. Supporting each other through the rollercoaster of the pandemic alongside delivering for a burgeoning client base - particularly where we are working with sectors feeling some of the deepest impacts - is an experience not easily replicated and one I'll remember forever.
“I love connecting people, creating reciprocally beneficial partnerships and strengthening the fabric of our fantastic local ethical business network.”
Being part of a small and fast-growing scale-up (from twenty or so colleagues when I joined to over 100 today), the range of activities I’ve been involved in is wide.
From shaping and launching national campaigns through to data analysis - no two days are the same. I’ve been privileged to work alongside the most wonderful and passionate colleagues with a desire to make an impact in our communities.
Can you tell us a bit more about your role as a B Corp Ambassador - and what motivated you to get involved in the world of B Corps?
Sally: Really, it comes down to five words: the right thing to do. I was taking a career break when I first heard about the B Corp movement, and knew I had to be involved. I decided to train to be a B Leader - a consultant who guides businesses through the B Corp certification process - with B Lab UK. The training was in two parts and by the time I came back to do the second half of the training, I had begun working at Neighbourly, one of the UK's founding B Corps.
Whilst I no longer work actively in a ‘B Leader’ role, I am currently co-chair for the B Local Bristol and Bath cohort, helping to organise events for people to connect, learn and network.
Previous events have included SafarB (a 'safari' around BCorps in Bristol), a tour and baking session hosted at Hobbs House Bakery where we baked bread rolls in the shape of a 'B' and the inaugural PurposeFest held this month.
I'm a natural 'convener' so being co-chair is a great fit as I love connecting people, creating reciprocally beneficial partnerships as well as strengthening the fabric of our fantastic local ethical business network.
If you could positively change one thing about the world of business, and spread it across the globe, what would it be and why?
Sally: Incorporate consideration for people and planet, alongside profit in all business models (sound familiar?).
Dogged profit-chasing and shareholder primacy at the expense of all else has led us to the global predicament we have today, but a consideration for all stakeholders, including the planet, would have far-reaching positive impacts and lead to a kinder, more sustainable world - in business and beyond.
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