Last month, we proudly launched The New 1%, One World Together’s new North Star.
But getting here meant taking a deliberate pause.
Over the past six months, we’ve slowed down to take stock. We welcomed new faces to the team, created space to reflect on our first 18 months, and asked ourselves some big questions: What’s working? What isn’t? What does the world need from us right now?
In the face of growing inequality, climate crisis, and deep social fractures, we knew we couldn’t keep moving on autopilot. It was time to reconnect with our purpose, to reimagine our role, and to build a strategy that could meet this moment—with boldness, honesty, and hope.
Here we’re pleased to share our Co-Founders and Chief Stewards’ compelling speech at our Community Festival. We hope you feel inspired and invigorated by this. That you recognise The New 1% in you and come and join our growing movement and momentum.
Welcoming The New 1%
We live in a world that has spent $4 trillion on aid since the 1960s.
$4 trillion.
And we live in a country where the UK public give £2 billion, on average, to development charities annually.
There have been big wins in global education and health in this time, and we’d certainly be worse off without all that work. But with all that money, all that effort… shouldn’t things feel… fairer by now?
Yet poverty is still widespread and communities, households, individuals and children are still living with the consequences of that. The pictures we see in charity marketing today are the same we’ve been seeing since charity began. And it’s not good enough.
That’s because we’re stuck in the story of ‘aid’ and ‘charity’. That’s not just a problem for the dignity of those striving to improve their lives and those of their communities. It’s a problem for those of us trying to do good too. People like you and me.
The systems we have created to ‘deliver’ aid have also been crippling deeper and more sustainable progress – and sucking up large proportions of the finances invested.
Rather than fund change at the community level, aid and charity approaches have wrapped up support in ‘projects’ that are shaped, designed, controlled and evaluated from here, far away from where they’re meant to be impacting lives.
These projects are not always aligned with community priorities. Applying for funds can be traumatic and uncertain. And if applications are successful, projects come with tight restrictions that control how funds are spent and give no flexibility for changing directions as circumstances change.
The old charity model puts power in the wrong place. It demands proof, paperwork and perfection. It clings to control. And it often misses the mark.
This makes no sense.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
One World Together is here to change all of this – with your help.
With The New 1% we’re building something different.
A global movement of everyday people choosing solidarity over saviourism.
We’re changing the narrative on giving, away from charity and towards solidarity with the communities and people that count.
We’re building a movement of people who believe communities themselves should decide how to create change. Not us.
We believe that true power does not come from individual wealth and elite status. The Old 1% is over. We’re reframing power – true power – as generosity and collectivism.
Mobilising around the concept of microdonations at scale, we fund community groups directly and with no strings attached. It’s trust-based, transparent and totally transformational giving.
Trusting our partners that they know what’s best for them.
Because changing the world isn’t about giving more. It’s about giving better.
As we celebrate our second birthday we’re so proud to take stock of how far we’ve come.
Our partners haven’t just received funds. They’ve used them to reshape lives.
In Manchester and Sheffield, Community Savers has been able to respond swiftly to the cost-of-living crisis and launch a new campaign for social housing, in the context of Manchester’s 19,000 strong waiting list for social housing.
In Nairobi, Muungano wa Wanavijiji’s Youth Federation supports more than 12,000 young people across informal settlements. Our solidarity funds have mobilised their creativity and collective power to respond to climate change impacts.
In Zambia, Play It Forward combines football with education and health initiatives. They’re using unrestricted funding to support students, plan for the long-term and reach new groups of excluded youth.
In Kenya, Raising Futures has delivered vocational and business training for over 2,500 young women. They’re turbo-charging these programmes through our funds by providing counselling, lunches, child‑care vouchers, and menstrual support.
What unites these stories isn’t just the what. It’s the how.
No proposals. No hoops. No handholding.
Trust. And impact.
And our partners say that’s what matters most.
Not the money, but the freedom. The belief. The empowerment.
That’s the transformation. That’s the revolution
We’ve done the maths and even we’re surprised at quite how impactful our new model is by design. Trust doesn’t come with a price tag – only impact.
By cutting out vast operational costs in the UK, and getting money to communities with no strings attached, your pound has 50 times the community impact.
50 times the impact.
So the £15,000 we’ve sent to our partners in our two years to date? The same level of community impact could have cost the traditional charity system £750,000!
Yes, you heard that right. £15,000 with One World Together achieves the same as £750,000 might in the traditional system.
So if you think that donating £1.25 a month won’t make a difference, we’re pleased to tell you otherwise. Together we really can make each pound count.
Whether you want to stand against a broken system, build a revolution in giving that makes each penny count, or just do the right thing for communities – The New 1% is a space for us to do all of this – with joy, connection and belonging. Together.
We don’t just want to give.
We want to belong.
We want to build something better.
We are The New 1%.
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