Sweaty Betty Foundation
The Sweaty Betty Foundation was launched in March 2021 with the support of our partner and funder Sweaty Betty, the activewear brand for women
Our vision
is a world where every woman and girl is active, healthy and happy
Our mission
is to empower women and girls from every background to get active, and stay active – for life
Our values
EVERY VOICE COUNTS
We pursue diversity of perspective relentlessly
OUR STRENGTH IS IN EACH OTHER
The women and girls we work with are our best assets
WE ARE BRAVE
We’re prepared to try new things and do it differently
WE WILL CHANGE LIVES
Our actions make a real difference
WE REALLY CARE
Everyone has the right to be active, healthy and happy
Our current priorities
The Foundation’s focus for the first few years will be supporting girls aged 10–18 to try new activities at school, at home and in their communities, so that they can discover the ways they love to get active, and stay active, for life.
particularly those from lower income families and ethnically diverse communities, especially:
In the UK, those from Black and South Asian heritage backgrounds
In the US, those from Black and Hispanic heritage backgrounds
Our geographic areas of focus will be specifically selected to ensure that we can work with girls from these backgrounds.
We recognise that there are other groups of girls who are also less likely to be active, including LGBTQ+ young people and girls with disabilities, and our work will support these groups too.
Our trustees and staff
Board
Like every charity, our voluntary Board of Trustees has the ultimate responsibility for setting and monitoring the strategy of the Foundation, ensuring it complies with the law, and ensuring the charity’s finances are well managed.
Our Board is chaired by Tamara Hill-Norton, the founder of Sweaty Betty, who is incredibly passionate about the Foundation’s mission. We carried out open recruitment in 2021 and we are lucky to have found a group of talented trustees. Find out more below..
Staff
The Foundation has two staff members, the Director, Nicola Marshall and Business Development Manager Sophie Planes.
Nicola has 15 years’ experience working in the charity and sports sectors, with organisations including Save the Children and Cycling UK. Nicola is responsible for ensuring the Foundation achieves its strategic objectives and for all its day-to-day activities.
Sophie has a background in retail, and has worked for Sweaty Betty for the past 5 years. In this role, Sophie looks after the fundraising and communications, as well as the relationship between Sweaty Betty team members and the Sweaty Betty Foundation.
The Sweaty Betty Foundation Trustees and Director
Amman Kaur Johal
Amman currently works in the Building Safety Team at Greater London Authority, supporting the Mayor of London’s aim to improve the safety of buildings in London following the Grenfell Tower fire. Amman is delighted to be part of the SB Foundation board of Trustees.
Chantel-Mariee Lewis
Chan has worked on various campaigns, specialising in marketing, social media and public affairs. Chan is of Jamaican descent and was born and raised in Peckham, South London and is looking forward to supporting the foundation in making an impactful change to girls and young women.
Efe Odeka
Efe is a Financial & Management Accountant working in the real estate sector. Prior to this, she worked as a Senior Audit Manager. Passionate about social change and health Efe is excited to be joining the foundation to support their mission.
Ginny Yang
Ginny is a Senior Retail Area manager for our UK stores. She has been with Sweaty Betty for over 12 years and has impacted so many during her career always ensuring that we are living out values and empowering women.
Isabel Turner
Isabel has 20 years of experience in helping charities and foundations create positive social change. She is looking forward to bringing this experience to support the Sweaty Betty Foundation.
Julia Straus
Julia is the CEO of Sweaty Betty where she helps lead the business to fulfil its mission to empower women through fitness. As an athlete growing up, she has always felt a deep passion for the power of sport to impact a girl’s lifelong confidence and she’s proud to be able to support the foundation as a trustee.
Lynne Peabody
Lynne has a background in sustainability and the beyond-profit sector. She is currently the Acting CEO of EY Foundation which supports young people from low-income backgrounds into employment and higher education.
Nicola Marshall
Nicola is the Director of the Sweaty Betty Foundation. She joined the team back in January 2021 and is the driving force behind the Foundation. Before joining The Foundation she worked with Cycling UK and Save the Children.
Sue Jenkins
Sue is an independent consultant to the charity sector, supporting teams and leaders to be the best they can be. She specialises in strategy and organisation development and is excited to bring her knowledge and experience to help the Sweaty Betty Foundation grow.
Tamara Hill-Norton
Tamara is the founder of Sweaty Betty and the Chair of the foundation. She has always been passionate about inspiring women to lead an active lifestyle. Now through the foundation, she is excited to empower teenage girls to get active, particularly those that have not had the opportunities to do so.
How we work as a foundation and with our partner, Sweaty Betty
The Sweaty Betty Foundation is an independent registered charity. As a corporate foundation, our main funder is Sweaty Betty (and its wonderful customers), but the charity makes its own decisions on what projects to fund and what funding to accept from Sweaty Betty.
We are not operating an open grant programme. As a small foundation, we have formed a select number of strategic partnerships with organisations who share our values and who we believe collectively can help shift the dial on teenage girls activity levels
We have thoroughly researched the physical activity, community, charity and commercial sectors to find organisations with innovative and scalable ideas to get more teenage girls active.
We work with both small and large, local and national organisations who have great ideas to get active and we have played an active role in co-creating new initiatives with them.’
If you believe you can help us achieve our mission, do get in touch by email: sbfapplications@sweatybetty.com
