You Make It & The Penny Group

You Make it is an award-winning London-based charity that empowers unemployed or underemployed young women of colour, aged 18-30, based in London.

Financial inclusion sits at the heart of The Penny Groups Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. Our collaboration with You Make It, set out to empower young women from underrepresented communities with the confidence, skills and practical pathways needed to build long-term financial stability.

Motivation behind the collaboration

The motivation behind our partnership with You Make It stems from a recognition of the persistent barriers faced by people from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds in accessing financial education and career opportunities. Our goal is to help break the cycle of exclusion by teaching key financial concepts to build confidence and providing tangible pathways into the financial services industry.

We chose to collaborate with You Make It for their focus on empowering women who are disproportionately affected by economic hardship and systemic inequality. Their work aligns with our own values and provides a direct route to engage with individuals who stand to benefit the most from increased financial access and opportunity.

The collaboration in action

Our collaboration with You Make It began through two of The Penny Group employees mentoring participants from the programme, this then extended into three main areas:

1. Financial Aid

Recognising the importance of broader institutional support, we secured financial support with our network at The Openwork Partnership to obtain a £15,000 sponsored grant through The Openwork Foundation for You Make It. This funding helps ensure the charity can continue delivering its vital work and expanding its outreach to more women.

2. Financial Wellbeing Workshops

In 2025 employees from The Penny Group delivered interactive workshops to 17 women aged 18–30, covering budgeting, pensions and state benefits, debt management, borrowing and inflation, and career skills. Led by team members from trainee to director level, the sessions were practical, relatable and designed to build real-world confidence. Each participant received a user-friendly accessible information pack to reinforce learning and provide practical tools for the future.

With our next workshop sessions scheduled for early 2026.

3. Work experience opportunities

To bridge the gap between financial education and employment, we offered two participants a four-week structured work experience programme. Each placement was tailored to the participant’s career interests. One joined our MI & Data team to develop technical and analytical skills, while the other rotated across Client Services and the Advice teams to gain insight into the financial planning journey.

The placements aimed to provide tangible insight into the industry and demystify professional environments that may have previously felt inaccessible.

For Amani, who joined our MI & Data team, the experience was transformative.

Amani stated how the experience was “a real confidence boost… In this short amount of time I’ve learned so much” and she noted that she “ felt really supported by You Make It and by The Penny Group”.

During her placement, Amani developed practical skills in widely used systems in the data and analytics industry, strengthening her CV and employability. She built a report that remains in active use at The Penny Group, leaving a lasting contribution beyond the duration of her placement.

Measurable Progress, Meaningful Impact

Our initial goal was simple: make a meaningful difference.

Through financial education, structured placements, and charitable funding, we have laid the foundation for a scalable model of financial inclusion, one that connects knowledge with opportunity.

Feedback from You Make It has been overwhelmingly positive, with participants reporting:

- Increased confidence in managing their finances

- Greater understanding of pensions, debt, and long-term planning

- Expanded awareness of career pathways within financial services

Securing the £15,000 grant further strengthened the programme’s reach and reinforced the value of cross-industry collaboration.

Looking Ahead: Building a Sustainable Programme

We are proud of what has been achieved but this is only the beginning.

Plans are already underway to:

- Deliver further financial literacy and career development workshops

- Formalise a long-term mentorship scheme

- Expand structured work placement opportunities

- Provide pro-bono financial workshops for You Make It employees, beginning with sessions on the importance of pension savings

By continuing to grow this partnership with You Make It, The Penny Group hopes to contribute to lasting change, helping to reshape who has access to financial knowledge, professional opportunity, and long-term economic security.

Get in touch

To find out more about You Make It, please visit their website here

Email info@thepennygroup.co.uk or call 0207 061 2345 if you have any questions or should you wish to speak to us.

Empowering Financial Futures: The Penny Group & You Make It