WELCOME TO OUR TABLE
When we invited you into our friends and family raise, we made a promise: we’d keep you close as we build. This is that. The Rise is where you’ll hear what’s happening before anyone else.
A lot has happened since the beginning of the year. We aligned a training home, showed up at one of Oxford's biggest impact festivals and packed the room, and started building the advisory circle that will help us get this right. Our funding is moving, and this autumn, we're bringing a small group of women together for the first time.
Here’s what’s been cooking…
The Kitchen
THE ACADEMY HOME
We're partnering with Tap Social Movement and Proof Social Bakehouse — Oxford-based social enterprises — to secure our training kitchen at their brand new Milton Park space inside Signal Yard.
This isn't just a space. It's a partnership with people that understand what it means to build with purpose. The kitchen is being built —we're planning to be there next year.
Milton Park's new social and retail destination, built around independent food, drink, and community.
The Table
160 REGISTERED — THE ROOM HELD 50
In April, we co-hosted "Who Gets to Rise?" at the Marmalade Festival — selected from over 500 submissions, one of 70 sessions chosen. The festival runs alongside the Skoll World Forum, bringing together a global community of social entrepreneurs and change-makers. Last year it drew 4,000 attendees.
We showed up alongside Tap Social Movement, Proof Social Bakehouse, and Change Please — three social enterprises tackling the same system from different angles. 160 people registered for our session. The room held 50, and people chose to stand along the perimeter to be in the room with us.
Helen, Tess Taylor (Founding Director, Tap/Proof), Quyen, and Ary Ganeshalingam (Director - Australia, Change Please)
When you put change-makers together, they show up ready to build.
What was cool to see was all the active participation. Aaron Mayper graphic-recorded the session live — mapping what the room surfaced in real time. The visual points to where shared infrastructure could accelerate the work all of us are trying to do.
Graphic recording by Aaron Mayper, A.Mayper Studio.
The Fold
THE CIRCLE IS FORMING
Two advisors have pulled up a seat at our table.
Alison Egan, CFO & Director, Change Please. Qualified ACA, former CFO at Jimmy Choo and LK Bennett. WISE100 Social Business Woman of the Year, Highly Commended 2024.
Habab Mohd, Chartered FCIPD, Deputy Head of HR at Diamond Light Source. Deep expertise in people strategy, governance, and organisational development.
They bring financial and people expertise grounded in lived experience — exactly what Good Salt needs as we build. We're actively expanding the circle. Know someone? → [email protected]
The Till
THE RAISE IS OPEN
Building the Good Salt Academy takes foundational funding — and we're actively assembling it. We've applied for multiple grants and we're working every angle, but the friends and family raise is still open, and it matters.
Every pound goes toward launching our first cohort of women into paid, accredited training in early 2027. If you haven't contributed yet, or know someone who should be in this conversation, now is the moment.
The Scale
NAMED A FINALIST
The UK StartUp Awards selected us as one of eight finalists for the Startup for Good Award. Quyen represented us at the London regional finals — the first time someone else put a spotlight on what we're building.
We didn't take home the award this time, but being selected from 2,100+ organisations tells us the mission is landing, and we haven't even launched yet.
Quyen representing us at the UK StartUp Awards London regional finals.
Social for Good
The Rise
SALT WEEK IS COMING
Before our first Academy cohort launches in early 2027, we're bringing a small group of women together this autumn for Salt Week — a week of kitchen days, community, and co-design in Oxford.
Women who come through Salt Week get first access to Cohort 1. They're not just participants — they're shaping what the Academy becomes.
With gratitude,
