BUSINESS BIO

Where is the commission based? London, but commission members are from all over the country

Key business markets: Inspiring young social entrepreneurs

Mission statement: We are young people equipping future generations to make a lasting positive impact on their world

Members of the team: 28 – 1 full time member of staff, 6 on the advisory board and 21 ‘founders’, 12 volunteer researchers, interns and staff on secondment.

www.yse.org.uk

ambassadors

Matt Kepple

Matt Kepple
  • Youth Commission for Social Enterprise

  • 26

  • Chair

  • Surrey

Social Enterprise Ambassador Matt Kepple is using his own experience of discovering how entrepreneurship can transform lives, to get other young people enthused by the idea of social enterprise

How do you sponsor a child in a developing country if you’re hard up yourself? This was the question Matt Kepple asked himself as a university student.

The answer? Get your friends to help. What started as 15 friends each giving a pound led to the ‘sponsor a kid for a quid’ scheme. This simple initiative won Channel 4’s IDEASFACTORY Award. The programme meant children were regularly sponsored during those university days, and is resulting in the birth of Wahblo, a website bringing people together to help fund charities.

This was Matt’s first step into the world of being a ‘social entrepreneur’.

Now a 26-year-old graduate, he's just coming to the end of a year as chair of the Commission for Youth Social Enterprise, where he has been inspiring young people to find innovative ways to solve society’s problems.

In one workshop, he asked a group of students: How would you change the world?

“They came back with grand ideas involving governments around the world, so I asked them a different question: How would you use your skills to solve one, small issue in an overseas community? Then they started to realise these ideas could actually be taken forward and that really inspired them.”

His input is already helping young social entrepreneurs get results, such as 23-year-old Jonathan Melhuish, who has received £1,000 from foundation UnLtd to develop his social enterprise, 9 Carrots, which promotes businesses dedicated to reducing climate change.

Matt has been really helpful. It was seeing him at a talk at Birmingham University that inspired me to start my own business. He’s really shown me the way.

“We’re working with businesses around London, helping them become more energy efficient,” says Jonathan. “Matt has been really helpful. It was seeing him at a talk at Birmingham University that inspired me to start my own business. He’s really shown me the way.”

Matt sees inspiring young people as his main role at the moment. From Wahblo, which continues to be developed, to his involvement in the Commission – Matt hopes to show young people that simple ideas can be effective, and change the world. 

Inspired himself by the work of Nobel Prize winning social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and known as the ‘banker to the poor’, Matt is also showing that social business is an alternative to charity. He cites work with Danone, the corporate food products business partnering with Grameen to use the social business model to bring nutrient-packed yoghurt to children in the developing world.

“People are becoming disillusioned with charity because they want to know where their money is being spent,” Matt says. “I’m introducing young people to things like Yunus and his partnership with Danone. These are businesses leading to real social change. The possibilities are endless.”

Matt wants to encourage the social entrepreneurs of tomorrow to set up pilot enterprises.

“People need to be confident enough to take their ideas forward and this could be on a pilot scale. Ideas don’t have to be grand and budgets don’t need to be big. Taking things step by step means it’s less likely to fail. And there are people out there to help – like the ambassadors,” he says.

Quick Facts

  • In its first three years, Wahblo raised £5,184 to sponsor eight children.
  • Matt studied chemistry with French, maths and physics at the University of Birmingham.
  • Matt created and presented the Passion4Fashion show at university to promote fair trade fashion. The show became an annual event and helped pave the way for large-scale student run events receiving university funding.

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