Pilotlight charity celebrates 10 years of good work

A MAJOR player in boosting the work of charity work in Scotland is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Philip Martin. Picture: Supplied

Pilotlight Scotland is a charity that facilitates and supports collaboration between businesses and charities to help deliver strategic corporate social responsibility and do social good.

Pilotlight is currently celebrating 10 years in Scotland – an achievement that has seen the charity engage with 100 local charities over the course of this period, as well as approximately 300 business people in Scotland.

Philip Martin, who sits on Pilotlight’s trustee board and is the marketing director for Openwork, one of the UK’s largest financial advice firms, said the work in Scotland has been phenonemal.

He said: “Pilotlight had operated successfully down in London and we realised we should operate in other places around the country.

“Scotland was one of the first places we wanted to try it.

“Charities need to be helped and the Pilotlighters, as we are known, are there to provide that assistance.

“The people involved are at either board level or just below that. They bring a huge amount of experience on board.

“It is really about transferring knowledge, how to run a business and make it efficient.”

Pilotlight is a unique, capacity building charity offering free tailored strategic planning support to charities and social enterprises that are tackling disadvantage in the UK.

Through the Pilotlight Programme the charity matches directors from charities and social enterprises with teams of senior business people and facilitate an engagement to plan for sustainability, development and growth.

The initiative sees four exceptionally talented business leaders work closely with trustees for 10 to 12 months to enhance the strategic vision of a charity - and this benefit is mutual.

Pilotlighters have the opportunity to test their talents in a new and challenging context, network with peers from other industries, and learn new skills that they can bring back to their organisations.

Major firms operating in Scotland that have employed Pilotlight’s services include ScottishPower, Bank of Scotland, Aegon, OpenReach, the Student Loans Company and PriceWaterhouseCooper.