What being a charitable social enterprise means to us
Date posted
26 Feb 2018
Better is the customer facing brand of GLL, a charitable social enterprise, a non-for-profit organisation which exists for the benefit of the community. We're all about helping to make community services and spaces better for everyone. Our people invest time, energy and effort into helping and improving communities through the services we offer - and with great results.
For GLL, this is what being a charitable social enterprise means to us:
- We don’t have shareholders like private companies, or any bonuses to pay out. Instead, we invest any surplus money we make back into our services. So far, we’ve invested millions of pounds into sport and leisure
- We act as a charity and are are here for the good of the communities we operate in
- We believe social values are just as important as financial performance
- We also believe in our people, the staff who make our business work – especially the ones working in our Centres. Many of our senior management team have worked in local government, so we understand what our partners need and the pressures they’re under
- We’re owned by our staff and Society members, who have a non-dividend-paying share in GLL. That means our workforce is empowered, motivated and involved in making important decisions that affect the company. In fact, the majority of our Board are elected by the workforce
- Wherever possible, we work with other social enterprises and buy Fairtrade goods and services.
Our success means we’re proud to be the first leisure operator in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Social Enterprise Mark and the Big Society Award, this is something that we remain immensely proud of today.