BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY

 

In 1999, Gill Emslie, Judy McAllister and I set up the Findhorn Foundation Consultancy Service as a department in the Education Area. We ran the Business Experience Week, and did training, coaching and consultancy for businesses like PricewaterhouseCoopers, the NHS in Manchester, Equal Exchange, Greenpeace and Standard Life. Fees of up to £1000 a day went into the Foundation’s common pot. After three years we suggested a profit share, but the Foundation declined, partly because they couldn’t cost things like the office space and our internal and notional staff costs, and partly because it was controversial to have one unit earning extra income when others couldn’t. So the Findhorn Consultancy Service went independent and sat in the wider Community, and tithed money back to the Foundation in recognition of the relationship and the name.

Robin Alfred