Barclays Partners with Unreasonable Group to Support Entrepreneurs

The bank’s joint programme is part of its Shared Growth Ambition strategy to improve lives while providing returns to shareholders. Tom Idle reports… 

As global financial institutions double down on programs to earn public trust, Barclays’ roots in the Quaker movement give it a unique context from which to project its social contributions. The business, which has operations in more than 50 countries, can be traced back some 325 years to two Quakers, John Freame and Thomas Gould, who established themselves as goldsmith bankers in the City of London in 1690. Helped in no small part by their Quaker connections, their business flourished and helped to pave the way for the development of the business we know today. 

Fast forward to 2012, and the company launched its first ever unified citizenship plan – a commitment designed to engage all parts of its global business and explore how the key decisions it makes at a strategic level, as well as on a day-to-day basis, might contribute more positively to society. The result is a strategic plan designed to help customers, clients and community members better prosper, enabling further growth of the business in the process.  

The strategy will play out over the next few years in a number of ways, including a smart new initiative called Unreasonable Impact – a multi-year partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group. It is a programme designed to support entrepreneurs whose ideas and solutions have the potential to be scaled up to both help solve some of today’s most pressing societal challenges, as well as employing people worldwide. 

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