A year ago, the company I’d built over two decades went into administration. I expected the hardest part to be financial.
Instead, it was the isolation - the quiet shame, the stress, and the feeling that when everything collapses, most people don’t know how to come close.
That experience changed me. It forced me to rebuild from zero: my confidence, my identity, and my plan for what comes next.
And it made one thing painfully clear: founder crisis is far more common than we admit - and most support is either too vague (“mindset”) or arrives too late (“after the damage”).
That’s why I’m setting up the Fortitude Foundation.
When entrepreneurship gets brutal, we help founders get back on their feet.
Fortitude helps entrepreneurs in crisis stabilise, recover, and rebuild - through fast, practical triage, founder-led community, and a pathway back to income, confidence, and momentum.
I’m raising funds to cover the costs of charity setup and the initial launch promotion, so we can reach founders who are struggling in silence and start helping them earlier - when it matters most.
What the funding will be used for
1) Charity setup, governance & compliance — £10,000
- Legal/formation support and charity registration process
- Trustee onboarding + governance framework (conflicts policy, controls, approvals)
- Core policies (safeguarding, data protection, complaints, risk)
- Accounting setup and compliance readiness
2) Website, systems & supporter database - £2,500
- Basic one-page launch site + hosting + email domain
- Secure registration form with segmentation (donors / volunteers / partners / founders)
- Lightweight CRM pipeline + automated confirmations (keep it simple/lean)
3) Launch promotion & distribution — £15,000
- High-quality launch assets (video edits, design, landing content)
- PR + outreach support to founder communities, accelerators, and media
- Targeted paid promotion tests to reach founders who won’t publicly ask for help
- Community partnerships and distribution (sponsorships/placements where appropriate)
4) Pilot support delivery + partnership engine (first 6 months) — £20,000
This is the “make it real” budget: deliver real support early, and build the rails for scale.
Peer-led triage + founder support
- Subsidised triage calls / sessions for founders in acute stress
- Training + playbooks for peer-led triage (so founders can support founders safely and consistently)
- Facilitated small-group circles (structured peer support with accountability)
- Triage tooling + intake flows (routing, urgency flags, follow-up cadence)
Referrals network (credible, fast, and safe)
- Build and manage a vetted referral panel: insolvency practitioners, restructuring advisors, tax, legal, employment, mental health signposting
- Standard referral packs: “what to expect”, decision trees, scripts, and checklists
- Case coordination/admin support so founders aren’t bounced around
Long-term corporate sponsorship opportunities
- Create a sponsor proposition + tiered packages (Founding Partner / Supporter / Event Sponsor)
- Outreach and relationship-building with relevant firms: corporate finance, restructuring/advisory, insolvency, accounting, legal, banks, insurers, EAP/mental health providers
- Sponsor benefits that stay ethical: underwriting triage sessions, funding founder circles, supporting resources/events (no “lead selling”, no exploitation)
- Produce basic sponsor reporting: impact metrics, anonymised case studies, and annual impact updates
Resource development
- Practical crisis toolkit (templates, scripts, “first 72 hours / 30 days” guides)
- Light facilitation costs and materials for pilots
5) Operating costs & contingency — £2,500
- Essential tools, admin, and unavoidable setup costs
- Contingency buffer so we don’t stall mid-launch
Transparency Commitment
I’ll publish regular updates showing exactly what’s been delivered with the funds and how they’ve been used. That will include: charity setup milestones (registration/governance/policies), website and registration funnel live with the number of supporters registered, launch/distribution activity and outcomes, and - most importantly - pilot delivery results: number of founders supported through triage, peer-led circles run, referrals made (by category), and anonymised learnings on what helped most. As we build corporate sponsorship, I’ll also report on partner conversations secured, sponsorship commitments (where agreed), and how sponsor funding is being used - always in a way that protects founder dignity and avoids any form of exploitation.
Organizer
