Business Support
Allia Business Support
We support entrepreneurs at every stage – from early ideas to scaling established organisations. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to grow your business, we offer free programmes, mentoring, and access to expert advice to help you gain customers, build momentum, and create meaningful social and environmental impact. Everything we do is designed to help your business thrive and grow.
Programmes delivered by Allia Impact
Partner with us
Partner with us to help social ventures thrive. By sharing your expertise, networks and people, you can play a pivotal role in strengthening the impact economy. Your support empowers mission driven entrepreneurs to grow, innovate and serve their communities, creating wider opportunities and a more inclusive future for all.
Find the programme for you
We currently have programmes running in:
- LONDON
- PETERBOROUGH
- CAMBRIDGE
- NOTTINGHAM
Up to £5,000 in funding and expert support for businesses ready to grow
If your business has been trading for a year or two, you’ll know this phase well.
- You’re busy
- Sales aren’t consistent yet
- Cash feels tight
- And you’re not sure what to focus on next
You know your business has potential, you just need the right support to grow it.
Tower Hamlets Support for Startups is a free programme designed to help you move forward with clarity, build a plan, and access funding opportunities. This programme is funded by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets through the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by the Greater London Authority, and delivered by Allia Impact.
Re-ignite the spark of creativity and passion for your start-up
The Founder Pitstop is a free four-week, in-person programme helping experienced start-up founders navigate the pressure of running a venture. This programme addresses a fundamental truth hurting many businesses: sustaining a venture requires not just operational grit, but the space to reconnect with the curiosity and creativity that fuel long-term resilience.
Combining reflective business support with hands-on creative practice, weekly workshops ran by Allia Impact & Madam Makery offer a different way to tackle the isolation and cognitive load eroding curiosity for so many. These workshops will allow founders to take a step back, think strategically to problem-solve the challenges they face, break routine thinking, and return to the spark that gave them a reason to start their business.
Turn your idea into an impactful venture
Start Strong Lewisham is a free 6-week business support programme for Lewisham residents who want to turn an idea into a business or social venture.
Whether you are just getting started or still exploring an early idea, the programme will help you build your confidence, develop your business idea, and take practical steps towards launching. It is designed to support aspiring founders from all backgrounds, especially those who may not have seen themselves reflected in traditional start-up spaces.
Scale your impact venture with expert mentorship and up to £50,000 in funding.
Now in its 4th year, the CVC DIF–Allia Accelerator Challenge is a six-month programme designed to help impact-driven UK start-ups and social enterprises turn strong ideas into scalable solutions.
Run by Allia Impact in partnership with CVC DIF, the Challenge provides bespoke support to help ventures build traction, strengthen strategy, and accelerate measurable social or environmental impact.
Over six months, you’ll refine your go-to-market strategy and product-market fit, strengthen your impact story, test assumptions with real users, sharpen your commercial strategy, and prepare to scale through a combination of mentoring, coaching, and curated connections. The journey culminates in a high-energy Pitch Day celebration.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Transform your social enterprise or community business into a high-impact, resilient organisation with this free, six-month mentoring and business support programme.
Delivered in partnership with Taylor Rose – a top 60 independent law firm – this programme is tailored for purpose-driven businesses in Peterborough that are ready to grow and scale.
You’ll gain hands-on support from experienced professionals across legal, finance, HR, marketing, operations, and more – all designed to help you strengthen your foundations, clarify your strategy, and expand your impact.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Turn your idea into an impactful venture with Start Strong Islington, a fully funded 6-week support programme designed for aspiring changemakers living in Islington and open to Camden residents, too.
This hybrid course combines expert-led workshops, one-to-one mentoring, a supportive peer community, and a chance to receive funding of £1,000 to help you take confident steps towards launching your business.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Hackney’s flagship business support initiative, Hackney Impact, has officially relaunched, bringing together leading local partners to help small businesses, social enterprises and entrepreneurs across the borough start, grow and thrive.
The initiative is delivered by a network of five organisations. Each of our partners brings unique expertise, working to provide the right business support, connections, and opportunities to entrepreneurs and organisations in Hackney.
Looking to scale your Tech for Good company with a small group of founders at your level?
We know that being a founder or CEO can be exciting, fast-paced and deeply rewarding, but it can also be isolating. As companies grow, the decisions become bigger, the stakes higher, and the number of people you can speak to openly often gets smaller.
Many founders have access to mentors, advisors and support programmes. What they often lack is a trusted network of peers who are facing the same pressures, asking similar questions and navigating the same stage of growth.
To address this, we are creating a new and focused experience: the Allia Tech for Good Founder Mastermind – Nottingham.
This is a highly curated, in-person mastermind for a small group of Tech for Good founders who are already building, growing and making serious decisions about scale.
This is not an accelerator or a course, it is not early-stage support, and it is not open networking.
It is a trusted, founder-only space designed for people who want to think clearly, share honestly and learn from peers at the same level.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Looking to grow your business while staying true to your values?
Allia Impact are running a free 7-week intensive programme designed for founders ready to take their social enterprises and impact businesses to the next level.
Through expert-led workshops, dedicated mentorship, and a supportive peer community, you’ll gain the tools, confidence, and networks needed to grow your business whilst maximising your social or environmental impact.
Allia has been supporting entrepreneurs and founders for over 25 years – and we want to share that expertise.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Turn your Tech 4 Good idea into a thriving social venture with our Start Strong Programme
This 5-week intensive programme funded by the UK Government and the UK Tech Cluster Group, aims to turn ambitious Tech 4 Good ideas and concepts into successful businesses. You will benefit from expert-led workshops, dedicated mentorship, and a vibrant peer community to help take your first confident steps towards launching a business. Plus, we’ll cover your Companies House registration fee once you have completed the programme
This project is part of the Regional Tech Booster programme, funded by the UK Government and supported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, in partnership with the UK Tech Cluster Group.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Level Up Your Business for Impact
Are you a social enterprise or mission-driven business in Hackney looking to scale?
Join a free 6-week programme designed to help you do just that. Allia has supported social impact businesses for over 25 years – and we want to share that expertise.
Whether you’re delivering small-scale commissions, running a micro-enterprise, community project or trading and grant-funded, this programme equips you with the tools, confidence, and networks to grow sustainably and strengthen your impact.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Start Your Business for Impact
Turn your idea into a real, registered business with our free six-week programme for Hackney’s new founders. We’ll even cover the cost of registering your business after the programme.
Start Strong is a free, intensive programme for early-stage founders in Hackney. Across six weeks, you’ll gain the tools, confidence, and support to launch your business.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Turn your idea into a thriving social venture with Start Strong Camden
A free 6-week intensive programme funded by Balderton Capital. Designed for aspiring changemakers in Camden, this hybrid course offers expert-led workshops, dedicated mentorship, and a vibrant peer community to help you take your first confident steps towards launching a business. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to pitch for up to £1000 in grant funding to get started!
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Turn your solo venture into a future-ready social enterprise
Our free, transformative bootcamp helps freelancers, first-time founders and solopreneurs in Cambridge convert solo ventures into thriving social enterprises. Over a focused programme, participants gain the knowledge, skills and networks to develop sustainable, future-ready organisations that create real social value.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Helping impact-led businesses grow through digital innovation
The Allia Digital Growth Accelerator is a free six-month programme helping purpose-driven businesses harness digital tools for greater impact. Through tailored mentoring, expert guidance and peer support, participants gain the confidence and skills to innovate, launch platforms, digitise services and expand reach, unlocking new opportunities for growth and positive change.
Helping charities and social enterprises secure funding success
Build to Win is a free six-week programme for charities, social enterprises and community organisations aiming to strengthen their funding bids. With practical tools, templates and expert guidance, you’ll learn to write more competitive applications, whether you’re new to fundraising or want to improve your success rate in securing vital grants.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Turn your solo business into a future-ready social enterprise
This is a three-day programme partially funded by the UK Government and the UK Tech Cluster Group. It aims to help existing business owners to understand how to grow their workforce, customer base and income; as well as outsource key functions of their operations, allowing them to work on the business, not in it.
You will benefit from expert-led workshops, dedicated mentorship, and a vibrant peer community to help take your first confident steps towards launching a business.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Register and launch your purpose-driven business with confidence
Start Strong is a free, intensive programme for ambitious solopreneurs, freelancers, independent creators, side-hustlers and first-time founders in Cambridge, Peterborough and Fenland. Designed to help you take your idea from concept to a legally registered, impactful business, it offers the tools, connections and expert guidance you need to build a sustainable, future-ready social enterprise from day one.
Applications for this programme are now closed.
Solo to Scale
Transform your solo venture into a sustainable, impactful business with Solo to Scale, a free programme backed by Allia’s 25 years of supporting social ventures.
The programme gave me confidence that there is an authentic place in the world for businesses making positive impact. It keeps participants striving for high quality standards, so we’re doing good and doing it well
Dive into our impact stories
We’ve worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, start-ups and organisations over the years. We recognise that they need support in order to create greater impact as well as employment opportunities.
Read a selection of our case studies below to learn about the different ways Allia supports the UK’s impact community.
