22 October 2025
When we refer to IntoUniversity at Impetus, it’s about highlighting the art of the possible: what can be achieved and really showcasing what it looks like to scale with impact.
Bea Theakston, Investment Director, Impetus
After 17 years of partnership, IntoUniversity is graduating from Impetus’ portfolio and joining the Impetus Alumni Network. They have built a highly effective programme and grown sustainably, ultimately proving their transformative impact on the young people they serve.
With Impetus’ support, IntoUniversity has become a textbook example of scaling with impact. They have grown from one centre serving 850 young people to a nationwide organisation serving more than 60,000 annually. Through this growth, they have retained their impact: 58% of their students progress into higher education, compared with 29% from similar backgrounds nationally.
As we celebrate IntoUniversity’s graduation, we look back on what our partnership has meant over nearly two decades – for Impetus, IntoUniversity, and the young people whose lives they have transformed.
Lisa may only be in Year 5, but she knows her future: she’s going to be a doctor.
She knows it will be hard work, but she’s not deterred. She loves “learning about animals and living things,” her favourite subject is science, and she’s already thinking about university. And if she’s ever feeling stuck on her homework, she knows she can ask the education workers at her local IntoUniversity centre for help.
I think IntoUniversity will help me become a doctor with their mentoring sessions.
Lisa, IntoUniversity learner
This is what IntoUniversity does best: they work with young people from age 7, helping to develop their ambitions from a young age. Lisa attends after-school study sessions every Thursday at their centre in Northwest London, as did her older brothers.
Embedded within communities with high rates of poverty, IntoUniversity’s holistic model offers long-term academic, career, and pastoral support. They work with young people throughout their educational careers to set them on the path to success, ensuring they have the right guidance and resources to make an informed decision about their future and achieve their goals.
The relationship between Impetus and IntoUniversity has been absolutely integral to everything that's happened for us as a charity since we started on our expansion in 2007. We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved together.
Dr Rachel Carr, CEO, IntoUniversity
When Impetus’ first came across IntoUniversity in late 2007, the mission alignment was clear.
Only 29% of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds go to university, compared to 50% of their better-off peers. And even with the same qualifications, they're still 50% more likely to not be in education, employment, or training (NEET) in adulthood.
IntoUniversity’s model offered an opportunity to make a dent in these numbers. They joined Impetus’ portfolio as soon as they became a registered charity, and we’ve worked in partnership ever since.
IntoUniversity’s long-term work with Impetus draws a lot of parallels with how we support our young people. Not only are Impetus always able and willing to provide short-term assistance at critical times, but they also have an incredible holistic view of the charity's journey so far, where we're going, and the support we'll need to get there. That very much mirrors how we work with our young people across the UK.
Hannah Margetts, Assistant Director of Development, IntoUniversity
Impetus provides its partners with what IntoUniversity CEO Dr Rachel Carr calls “the Three ‘P’s”: pounds, pro-bono, and professional support.
Long-term, unrestricted funding is core to Impetus’ offer, giving partners crucial funding for senior hires and to build core foundations.
This funding is supplemented by expertise from Impetus’ world-class pro-bono network, providing services most non-profits cannot afford. Over 17 years, IntoUniversity has received an array of pro-bono legal, business development, and governance support from organisations including CVC Capital Partners and OC&C.
Finally, professional support. Each Impetus partner is assigned an Investment Director, who spends on average one day a week working directly with the leadership: helping to focus their mission, facilitate strategic decisions, and accelerate growth and impact.
There's no other organisation that we work with that provides us with multiple different things that we need as a charity. That's really special, the holistic sense of what Impetus is trying to achieve.
Dr Rachel Carr, CEO, IntoUniversity
Impetus supports its partners to achieve impact that is transformative for young people. This requires a continual drive to do better: asking tough questions about whether your work is translating into real outcomes and using those answers to make programmes more effective.
I’m really proud of the data-driven approach that Impetus instilled in us from the very beginning... not just reporting to our donors, but assessing the impact and effectiveness of our programmes, how we're making improvements locally and nationally to provide the best support for our young people.
Hannah Margetts, Assistant Director of Development, IntoUniversity
This self-reflection requires openness from the charity and trust from the funder – a dynamic that has been integral to the partnership’s long-term success.
Every Investment Director we've had has known so much about the charity. They know us inside out: what we do, why we do it, our strengths, our weaknesses, how they can support us to be better. That's been a theme that's run through the relationship, and the trust and honesty goes both ways.
Dr Rachel Carr, CEO, IntoUniversity
Throughout the past 17 years, Impetus and IntoUniversity have worked shoulder-to-shoulder to refine their impact.
Impetus has supported IntoUniversity to scale with impact, delivering benchmark-beating outcomes nationwide. Along the way, Impetus has learned from IntoUniversity, applying those insights to help other organisations in our portfolio grow, slowly, intentionally, and with impact.
IntoUniversity has played a really central role in our understanding of what impact means in practice on the ground – what's required for growth and scale.
Bea Theakston, Investment Director, Impetus
Now, as IntoUniversity enters the Impetus Alumni Network, we begin a new stage in our relationship, recognising IntoUniversity as an “impact exemplar.” In practice this means that we're still very much partners. We hope to continue learning from IntoUniversity and to collaborate where appropriate on the broader questions around systems change and policy, where our missions align.
Our 17 years of partnership with Impetus has been truly transformational. Impetus is in the charity’s DNA, and this is the next stage in our relationship.
Dr Rachel Carr, CEO, IntoUniversity
Find out more about our 17-year partnership with IntoUniversity and how, together, we’ve supported thousands of young people to thrive in their schools and communities:
