Long-term supporters, Inflexion Private Equity, have raised a record-breaking £240,000 for the Impetus-PEF Private Equity Triathlon, taking place on Saturday 15 September this year.

Flor Kassai who is signed up to run in the CVC Capital Partners Olympic Relay race on Saturday also spearheaded Inflexion’s fundraising efforts. Flor took some time out to share what they’ve learned from the experience with us…

Go big or go home

Last year was the first time Inflexion participated in the event, and we put forward four teams and raised £110,000. We found that taking part was bigger than the sport itself – focusing on something that generates good for others helped bring us together as a team. So this year we resolved to go much bigger, and we’ve assembled a team of 33. It’s been amazing to see take up from colleagues across the entire firm – from juniors to partners, men and women spanning all areas of our business. We each have different day-to-day responsibilities, but over the last three months, we’ve had this as a common goal.

Keeping our end goal in sight

There’s a shared motivation across the organisation. We all feel a sense of responsibility to look beyond our own lives and improve the lives of others less fortunate than us. We’re a bigger firm than last year – we have more staff, more portfolio companies, and more connections – and so we all felt we should be able to do much better than we did last year.

The work Impetus-PEF does with its charities really resonates with us all. Backing the best programmes that help young people to succeed and progress in life for us, is much more impactful than giving money to meet a short-term need.

The key to our fundraising success

First, we’ve been extremely fortunate to have support from the very top of our company. Without Simon Turner and John Hartz (Managing Partners at Inflexion) spurring us on and giving us the time to invest in this, we would never have got to where we are.

Second, the newly established Inflexion Foundation pledged to match every pound we raised, so there was a real incentive for us to push the donations up as we knew this would have double impact.

And third, we were able to build on what we learned last year. Focusing on corporates was more fruitful than focusing on private individuals, and a number of us sit on boards of companies where we have direct access to CEOs/CFOs/Chairman and could present our case as to why we deserved their support. So we initially concentrated our efforts on our portfolio companies. We had weekly fundraising updates that we shared across the firm, showing weekly progress and which companies had contributed. The end result was circa 70% of our portfolio companies supporting our efforts. We then concentrated on approaching individuals who we work with regularly such as bankers, accountants, and debt funds. 

A true team effort

While the amount we’ve raised for Impetus-PEF so far is fantastic, I am equally proud of our amazing team. Reuniting us all at the finish line to celebrate a Herculean team effort on Saturday will be incredible!

It’s not too late to follow Inflexion’s example and maximise on your fundraising! Set up your JustGiving page and share it on social media #ImpetusPEFtriathlon.