The power of Strive by Essie North and Freddie Hooper-Grant

Strive. A small but powerful word that conjures adventure, mountains, magic, meaning, and incredible people on a mission. Over twelve years, we've come to understand something deeper: Strive and Big Change are cut from the same cloth. Two communities, same values, applying themselves to different challenges, but reinforcing each other's belief that change is possible and that bold collective action can change the world. Together, Strivers have raised more than £15 million, and that's just the beginning of what's been built between us.

The £15 million is real. But the deeper impact, the one that has shaped how Big Change thinks, convenes, and backs change, is harder to quantify and more important to tell.

Strivers come from different places and backgrounds, but they all experience a similar shift. In nature, away from screens and schedules, status and hierarchy dissolve. Everyone is focused on pulling together, not performing, not positioning. And something about moving through difficulty side by side, rather than facing each other across a table, changes the quality of conversation. You say things you haven't said. You think thoughts you haven't had space for. This is the Strive truth. It is also, we've come to realise, the Big Change truth, that the deepest connections and the boldest ideas emerge when you step back from your daily role and show up honestly with the challenges ahead, ideally alongside friends and allies.

Over the years we've seen Strivers make major life decisions, start families, change careers, find collaborators, and launch ventures. On Strive Corsica, Ed Fidoe, a Big Change leader shared an emerging idea of setting up a new model of University (LIS). The connections and conversations forged on the mountain led to a new business partner, seed funding, and the social capital to bring it to life. That's not coincidence, that's what happens when you design the right conditions. The same conditions Big Change tries to create in everything we do: create a space for hope and possibility, remove hierarchy, build trust, walk alongside rather than direct from above.

Strive has shaped what we at Big Change do and how we think about change, not as a donor community separate from the work, but as a living example of it. In a sector often dominated by problems, scarcity and competition, Strive has reinforced our belief: that a hopeful, generous, collaborative approach isn't naive. It works. When we designed our Reimagining Education gatherings, we drew on what  experiences on Strive taught us: that trust and real connection have to come before anything else. That you can't convene people into courage; you have to create the conditions for it.

The Strive community and Big Change's leader community are more alike than different. Both back themselves to tackle problems that look too big, too entrenched, or too complex for conventional approaches. Both understand that we're stronger together, that it isn't a race but a collective journey. The numbers reflect what that shared instinct has made possible: 82 leaders backed, £200 million unlocked in follow-on funding, over 12 million young people reached. Every £1 invested has leveraged a further £40. 

That's what happens when a community of people who believe in possibility puts its weight behind people who are doing the same

This is the approach Strive helped us trust. We don't arrive with fixed agendas or prescriptive models, we ask what's needed and then work to remove the barriers. 

As Andrew Speight, founder of Emoco and Big Change finalist, put it:

'Big Change didn't arrive with a fixed agenda or a prescriptive model. Instead, they asked the most important question: What do you need to make this possible, and how can we help remove the barriers? They didn't just fund a project; they validated a vision. With their support, I was able to grow Emoco beyond one school. What stands out even more is the community Big Change creates.'"

The Strive motto that growth happens when you step out of your comfort zone, and magic happens when you do it with others isn't just a rallying cry for a challenge. It's a theory of change. One that Big Change has lived and tested for twelve years alongside this community. It emboldened us to back leaders taking on the hardest problems, to convene people across differences, and to believe that collective action built on trust can reshape the systems that shape young people's lives.

We are grateful to every Striver who has shown up, given generously, and brought their whole self to these journeys. You haven't just funded this work, you've been part of it. And we hope that in some small way, Big Change's leaders have given something back: proof that the instinct you carry up every mountain, that bold, collective, hopeful action changes things, is exactly right. Thank you.

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