Today we released the Smart Works Charity Annual Report for the financial year ending March 2020.
At Smart Works, we judge our success by the difference that we make to the lives of the women we support. This year’s annual report is a wonderful reminder of all the ways we found to support our clients between April 2019 and March 2020.
Above all, we were able to help more women to succeed at their job interviews. In 12 months our Service grew and we supported almost 4,000 women across the UK, an increase of 21% on the previous year.
We also welcomed a new team when we opened our newest centre in Leeds, meaning more women in Yorkshire can now access our service.
The launch of the Smart Set with our Patron, The Duchess of Sussex, filled our wardrobes for months to come with the perfect workwear essentials and helped give us a new way to think of charity as community. Thank you to the amazing partners who helped bring this to life: Jigsaw, John Lewis & Partners, Marks & Spencer and Misha Nonoo.
The seventh Pretty Powerful collection launched with our partners Bobbi Brown and hundreds of riders got on their bike for our annual cycling challenge. We couldn’t go the year without a big shopping event and the Stella X Smart Works Big Fashion Sale at Somerset House which raised a record-breaking amount. This is in addition to the many events that took place all over the country, raising vital funds to support our work.
Since then, and despite the most challenging circumstances, there hasn’t been a day that we haven’t helped a woman in need.
Our Chair, Juliet Hughes-Hallett, put it perfectly when she said, “I am proud of our wonderful charity. Across the land Smart Works centres have risen to the challenge of helping to transform women’s lives by getting a job. And will continue to do so.”
You can find out more about the highlights from last year by reading the annual report here.