87. How to start and scale a charity: Supporting 7000 kids a week through football | Charlie Hyman

87. How to start and scale a charity: Supporting 7000 kids a week through football | Charlie Hyman

July 13, 2026 · 52 min

About this episode

James Reed interviews Charlie Hyman about scaling a charity through innovative fundraising and business strategies.

Most charities are told to secure funding before they spend. Bloomsbury Football did the opposite — investing in fundraising before the money existed, and growing from four children to 7,000 a week as a result. In this episode of All About Business, James speaks with Charlie Hyman, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury Football. His fast-growing social enterprise harnesses the universal power of grassroots football to tackle major societal challenges for young people, providing thousands of disadvantaged youth with vital role models, mental health support, and a true sense of belonging. Charlie shares the 7 steps in starting, building and scaling a charity. He explains the business mechanics behind this scale: how diversifying income with brands like Mastercard and Adobe, and treating a charity like a high-growth private company unlocks true scale. James and Charlie explore the strategy behind taking Bloomsbury national and how Charlie built a proprietary AI tool to scrape Charity Commission data for fundraising intelligence. They examine how to close high-value deals, attract top-tier corporate talent with pure purpose, and what commercial businesses can learn from high-ambition social…

People in this episode

Host: James Reed

Guest: Charlie Hyman

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Bloomsbury Football, Mastercard, Adobe

Places: UK

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