upReach Annual Report 2023-24 - Report - Page 5
Joint Introduction from Our CEO and Chair
upReach is strictly neutral about party politics
and we never endorse any political party or
manifesto. But we are not neutral about policy,
and we are not neutral about the need to
acknowledge and address the unjust barriers
to career success that are faced by working
class young people across the UK.
While upReach is 昀椀rst and foremost a delivery
charity, helping students from less-privileged
backgrounds to secure elite graduate
employment, that alone is not enough. We also
need to challenge and change the system
so that it is fairer to those from low income
backgrounds. Indeed, as we have advocated in
the Financial Times and elsewhere, we believe
the commercial rationale for tackling this is just
as compelling as the moral argument; both at
the level of the 昀椀rm and for the UK economy,
greater meritocracy can lead to higher
productivity and greater prosperity.
Looking Ahead: ‘Unlocking
Potential’ - New Strategy for
2024-2027
We are pleased to have successfully ended
this past year poised for renewed growth, and
with a new and ambitious three-year Strategy
agreed. The title of our Strategy is ‘Unlocking
Potential’ and these are the key elements of it:
By 2027, upReach has two main goals.
Firstly, we aim to work with at least 3,300
undergraduates a year, sustainably increasing
our reach from the 3,034 we supported
in 23/24. Secondly, after completion of an
external review of our core programmes, we
aim to have even more robust, independently
veri昀椀ed evidence for our impact. This will
empower us to continue achieving benchmarkbeating graduate outcomes for our Associates
year-on-year.
upReach plans to achieve these goals by
focusing on two key enablers. Firstly, we will
invest in our people and our technology, so that
we can become a tech-powered, best-in-class
charity while maintaining our people-focused
model with its unique one-to-one guidance.
Secondly, upReach will inspire and engage
more individuals and organisations to create a
step change in our income generation.
Signi昀椀cantly, the external review of our recent
impact data has already begun, led by the
National Centre for Social Research. We are
hugely grateful to the Hg Foundation, who are
funding this evaluation as part of our renewed
partnership, and we expect to receive the
outputs from the external evaluation later
in 2025.
Lastly, in 2024/25 we hope to win yet more
awards that recognise the quality and impact
of our work with employer and university
partners, as well as recruiting in昀氀uential social
mobility Patrons alongside our longstanding
champion, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.
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