Adventures in Compassionate Commerce (AiCC)

Co-producing Community-led Interventions for Impactful Change

Join Us!

INNOVATION + COURAGE + COLLABORATION + ENTERPRISE

About Us

Build to improve!
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller

Established in 2017, and operating across London and Essex, Adventures in Compassionate Commerce (AiCC) is a social enterprise that uses innovation, collaboration, enterprise and the expertise of those with real world experience to improve lives and save the planet.

We forge collaborations with diverse stakeholders to co-produce and deliver community-led interventions tackling local and national issues.

Supporting individuals and voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations from underrepresented, marginalised and disadvantaged populations, we empower them to conceive, develop and take ownership of new products, services and business models.

Strategic partnerships with Local Authorities, Integrated Care Systems, charities, funders, researchers and local businesses ensure interventions are integrated into the systems they will operate in.

By applying rigorous business principles, we ensure solutions are effective, sustainable and transformative. This usually involves using design principles to develop ideas, delivering pilots and generating the evidence base to prove product / market fit. If and when appropriate, we seek appropriate funding for the intervention’s sustainable delivery, rollout or scale up.

We are not afraid to seek new approaches or create pathways that don’t yet exist and actively reach out to partner with others on our journey – particularly those affected by the issues we are tackling.

Our work amplifies voices, drives equity, and creates lasting social impact through shared accountability and community ownership.

Abiola Okubanjo

CEO

What we do

Our Approach

AiCC is a social enterprise that has a double bottom line – creating and sustaining positive social impact AND generating financial profit.

Social entrepreneurship is how entrepreneurs develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. Where for-profit entrepreneurs typically measure success purely by profit, revenues and increases in stock prices, social entrepreneurs have business metrics that ALSO INCLUDE generating a positive “return to society”. These could be social, cultural or environmental goals.

Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, an organisation that supports local social entrepreneurs. looks for four qualities in those they choose to support: creativity, entrepreneurial quality, social impact of the idea, and ethical fibre.

In their book, “The Power of Unreasonable People”, John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan identify why social entrepreneurs are, as they put it, unreasonable. They argue that these men and women seek profit in social output where others would not expect profit. They also ignore evidence suggesting that their enterprises will fail and attempt to measure results which no one is equipped to measure.

If this is what social entrepreneurship takes, then this is at the heart of what we do.

In fact, it is how we came up with our name – Adventures in Compassionate Commerce!

Adventures – daring or risky exploits
Compassionate – having concern for others or something and wanting to help them or solve the problem
Commerce – the activity of making money by buying and selling things

Truly committed to the values of social entrepreneurship, we are committed to building social enterprises that flourish and empowering social entrepreneurs to thrive. We nurture social enterprises from idea inception to implementation and then to scale and support would-be social entrepreneurs through encouragements education, advice and tailored support.

And just like other social entrepreneurs, we measure our success by how profitable our businesses are as well as how well we achieve our social goals.

We are so passionate about society’s urgent need for social entrepreneurs, that one of our work streams is raising up the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

We do this by:

1) Being sustainable.

By developing and delivering social impact interventions, services and products that add real value, we are able to generate sales, fees and other income that underpin commercial success and ensure our long-term viability.

2) Driving enterprise.

We help create income generation opportunities for social change makers and VCFSE organisations and empower them to think and behave more entrepreneurially.

3) Creating for scale.

Through rigorous-testing and the application of system design principles, we develop and deliver evidence-based interventions, services and models that can be applied to other communities, expanded to larger populations or replicated in other areas and markets, enabling greater impact.

Our Current Areas of Interest

Health Equity & Equality

Health disparities are UNFAIR and PREVENTABLE differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health, health quality, or health outcomes that are experienced by underserved populations. While race and ethnicity are drivers of healthcare inequalities, other factors such as poverty, age, gender, sexuality and disability are also predicators.

Sex, Reproduction & Relationships

Sexual health is not just the absence of DISEASE, dysfunction or infirmity but is also a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, where individuals have safe sexual experiences, free of COERCION, discrimination and VIOLENCE. Reproductive health builds on this by focusing on the ability to decide freely on reproduction, access safe PREGNANCIES, and manage fertility without health risks.

Culture & Identity

Hate towards those who “are not like us” or who “act or think differently” isn’t always visible and obvious – but its impact is profound and deadly. The current TOXIC political and social climate tells us that now, more than ever, we must challenge RACISM, dismantle discriminatory structures and eradicate DIVISION and HATE that negatively impacts lives and breaks apart communities.

Climate Action & Environment

Climate change, pollution, and related environmental issues pose severe threats to ecosystems, human health, and global stability. These interconnected problems drive extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and resource scarcity and exacerbate diseases, food insecurity, and mental strain while straining healthcare systems.

Community partnerships

“Hyve” is our network of VCFSE organisations operating across London and Essex, that work directly with underrepresented, marginalised and disadvantaged populations. Strongly believing that there is strength in numbers, we bring these groups together to collaborate on community-led research projects, pilots, tenders and grants. Working together enables each organisation to contribute their respective expertise, experience and access to networks. In turn, they get more and higher quality opportunities, access to funding and training opportunities and increased profile.

AiCC ChangeMakers

We develop and empower individuals from underserved, underrepresented and marginalised communities to conceive and deliver initiatives that tackle issues that matter to them and their communities. Often motivated by their own lived experiences, our changemakers are developing solutions for people experiencing sickle cell disease, cancer, mental health issues, long term disabilities, neurodevelopmental challenges, eating disorders, poverty, loneliness and isolation and skin problems. They are also working on projects tackling community tensions, criminal justice, and climate change and pollution.

Articles

Did you know?

Young people aged 15 to 24 years are more likely to be diagnosed with a sexually-transmitted infection (STI)

March

/ 2026

Black people in the UK are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems and are disproportionately sectioned under the Mental Health Act

Dec

/2025

Facts

We are changing lives in:

Havering, Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Southwark and beyond.

3,500+

Individuals Reached

5

New Interventions, Products, Services or Business Models

20+

Active ChangeMakers

Join Us!

How to get involved

Changing the world requires LOTS of people bringing their UNIQUE skills, experiences, knowledge and networks to the table – and working TOGETHER!

We are always looking for individuals and groups that are as passionate as we are about solving social problems. Perhaps you have personally experienced the negative impact of poverty, or racism or low expectations. Perhaps a loved one has suffered or died from a disease, condition or situation. Perhaps you’re an academic, faith leader, Councillor or charity worker and your work has brought you insight or influence over a particular problem. Or maybe you just want to DO MORE with your life and have something to give.

If you have answered YES to any of these, please consider how YOU might invest your skills, time, expertise, connections or funding in any of our projects and collaborate with us and our live-experience expert partners to make a real difference in the world.

Empowering Youth

Celebrating our Heritage

Discovering the World

Happy Customer

Learning about our Planet

Here are the many ways YOU can get involved.

Become a ChangeMaker?

It doesn’t matter how old you are, what you have gone through in life, the experience (or lack of!) that you have or the abilities / disabilities that you contend with, how good you are at speaking your english, you can be an AiCC ChangeMaker. We will work with you where you are at and see how you can fit into any of the interventions we are currently running or planning. And if we aren’t doing anything in your area of interest, we would love to explore and develop new opportunities with you.

Younger volunteers, aged 11 to 18, can join AiCC’s Youth ChangeMakers, our special group of social entrepreneurs that are making a difference in their generation.

How can I become a ChangeMaker?

1) Think about WHY you want to help. Which of our Current Areas of Interest resonate with you? Have you been impacted or have lived experience of any of them? Perhaps you work in that field and wish to contribute your knowledge and skills in a different way? Or maybe you live in or a part of a community that particularly suffers from that issue?

2) Think about WHAT you want to do. Would you like to raise awareness about a specific cause or get involved in community organising? Can you see yourself advocating for those that don’t have a voice or helping marginalised communities to be seen and heard? Perhaps you’re a practical, hands-on person that bring your talents to any cause? Do you just love people and wish to alleviate suffering or hardship where you can?

3) Think about HOW (realistically!) you can make a difference. How often can you help (weekly, monthly, one‑off events)? What tasks would you enjoy doing (admin, events, mentoring, practical work, etc.)? What skills, experience, insights or networks can you bring to the table?

4) Complete our Sign Up form so we know: who you are, why our work matters to you, what you want to do, the days/times you’re free, and what you bring to the table.

5) If we think you are a great fit for what we do and who we are, we will then invite you for an INFORMAL CHAT and then take you through the relevant onboarding process from there. Note that some roles (especially those involving working with children or vulnerable adults) may need references or a basic background check. 

Fund an activity, programme, or core operations.

Funders (usually organisations) and donors (usually individuals) are vital to social impact projects because they provide the money, networks, and legitimacy that allow good ideas to turn into sustained, scalable change.

Grants and charitable donations for one-off projects don’t provide the potential and resources for high impact and sustainability. They also fail to help build local capacities within communities at risk of social and economic exclusion over the long term. So, whilst we welcome and seek philanthropic funding for specific interventions and pilots, our aspirations go beyond these.

How can I finance an activity, programme, or core operations?

We are looking for financial partners that can:

1) Provide core financial resources (grants) so that AiCC can operate long-term projects, pay staff, cover overheads, and deliver services, not just run short-term activities.

2) Provide financing (investment, loans) to help scale proven solutions by funding replication and growth, taking a project from pilot stage to wider regional, national, or even global impact. 

3) Donate money (one-off amount or regularly) to support a particular project, community, activity or core resources.

Beyond financial support, we are looking for partners that can:

1) Bring convening power, able to connect AiCC and our work to other VCFSE organisations, governments, companies, and communities to collaborate and have greater impact.

2) Strengthen AiCC by providing capacity-building support such as leadership development, technical assistance, and strategic guidance.

3) Use their reputations and endorsements to confer AiCC and our work with credibility, helping social impact projects attract further partners, beneficiaries, and additional funding.

If you would like to support us financially, or have a funded project that you would like to involve us in, please send us an EMAIL with all the details and we can begin discussions.

Partner with AiCC and/or join The Hyve network

Why HYVE?
As hives have long been held up as models of social organisation that foster collaboration and cooperation, we adopted the word “hive” as our metaphor for organising diverse organisations with their different skills, insights, experiences, models, and networks into cohesive communities with joint aspirations to tackle specific social issues. And then we gave the word a little twist by changing the spelling to “hyve”.

Why join us?
Collaborating when developing and delivering impactful social solutions gives the VCFSE sector a stronger voice with stakeholders, ensures they are better equipped in the development of ongoing projects and enables them to cope in times of crisis. This maximises the impact that individual organisations can make in their respective fields.

How can my organisation partner with AiCC and/or join The Hyve network?

How does it work?
AiCC creates opportunities for collaborative working by building networks and partnerships between VCFSE organisations and strategic partners.

We are always seeking and sourcing relevant social impact opportunities for organisations to collaborate on. We like to lead bid/tender processes (where appropriate) and oversee contract mobilisation, implementation and partnership working.
For each project/contract, we bring into the partnership other service providers (e.g. legal and financial, project management, communication, software development etc.) that share our vision and have demonstrable track record of delivering quality services.

We sometimes, but not always, also get involved in the frontline service provision for these projects/contracts.

We join partnerships and consortiums created by other organisations too.

Get involved
If you are part of a VCFSE organisation that works directly with underrepresented, marginalised and disadvantaged populations, please consider joining our Hyve platform.

Simply send us an EMAIL telling us who you are, what you do, why our work matters to you, which of our Current Areas of Interest align with your purpose, what you bring to the table and how you would like to get involved.

If we think you are a great fit for the network and what we we are doing, we will then invite you for a more formal discussion about how we can work together.

Hear from some of our partners, volunteers, supporters and funders.

Voices of impact.

AiCC stands out as a leader in social innovation and inclusion within our community. Through multiple joint forums and partnership initiatives, we have observed AiCC’s ability to coordinate complex projects, manage multi-agency relationships, and deliver tangible outcomes under challenging circumstances.

Felicia B

Havering BME Forum – strengthening cohesive communities by addressing social inequities.

Pending

Sarah F

GrowTH – local churches serving the homeless of Tower Hamlets.