Brixton Finishing School is dedicated to increasing diversity in the marketing industry by finding and developing untapped talent, making roles feel accessible to anyone who has the drive to succeed. Propeller has proudly been delivering pro bono PR, content and event support to BFS since 2018.

Earlier this year, Brixton Finishing School asked its students how they felt about the ad industry’s approach to diversity and inclusion. As a school for young, under-represented groups, this was the ultimate litmus test. Unfortunately it didn’t provide positive results. 

100% of respondents said the industry was not doing enough about inclusion, and 71% said they believe the main barrier to pursuing a career in the advertising industry was ‘not knowing the right people’, while 31% said their race was a barrier to entry. 

These statistics showed that the efforts of the ad industry to be more diverse and inclusive weren’t good enough, and – as BFS relies on the generosity of the ad industry to keep going – we used this shocking statistic as the inspiration for a brand new fundraiser: the 31 Challenge. 

The aim would be to help Brixton Finishing School reach its £10k goal to raise funds for its C19 “virtual” training programme.

Each team could enter an individual or team to complete 31km in 31 days – cycling, running, pogo-sticking, swimming – whatever they fancied. They tracked their progress and competed against one another.

After reaching out to our contacts and promoting the initiative, we were delighted to see the industry get involved en masse and take on the challenge. 31 days and a lot of sweating later and we beat the target, raising over £12,000 for the new ‘virtual’ Brixton Finishing School from The 31 Challenge alone!

Thank you to all those incredible businesses and individuals involved in the 31 Challenge – Vizeum, Snap, Cognism, Mailtastic, Total Media, Unruly, Nano Interactive, and of course our own teams at Propeller Group – without your generosity, the School would not have the vital funds required to keep creating more positive futures for its students. 

Work with Brixton Finishing School to improve the future of the industry. For more information or to donate please go to:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/brixtonfinishingschool
https://brixtonfinishingschool.org