Why The Community Pledge Exists
A Simple Pledge by Businesses. A Lasting Difference for Communities.
Communities are stronger when people know what is already there. Right now, so much help exists – but people struggle to find it. Charities and community groups are doing brilliant work. And small businesses want to be part of that too. The Community Pledge exists because something was missing. Small businesses had no simple way to say yes to their communities. And communities had no way to see that those businesses cared. We built The Community Pledge to change that.
Many Small Businesses Want To Do More
Many small businesses want to support their communities. The desire is real. But time is tight. Resources are stretched. And the path from wanting to help – to actually helping – is not always clear.
These are incredible businesses. They are woven into the fabric of our communities. They are the coffee shop, the accountant, the local garage. They show up every day.
But visibility is hard when you are small. A print advert costs money and lasts a day. Social media costs money and competes for attention. There is no simple, affordable way for a small business to say – we are here, we care and we are part of this community.
That gap is real. And it matters.
The Circle, Not the Triangle
If Everyone Cares CIC works in a circle – not a pyramid. No hierarchy.
A business joins The Community Pledge. Their membership helps fund and support aDoddle.org – making it completely free for charities and community groups to create their profiles and free for people to use the community map to find help, support or opportunities.
Users of aDoddle get to hear about The Community Pledge. They discover businesses in their local community who are Community Pledge members. And the team at If Everyone Cares can keep doing the work they do – because of the businesses who join and the organisations who add their profiles.
Everyone gives a little. Everyone gains something. The circle keeps moving.
When We Listened to Businesses
The Community Pledge did not come from a spreadsheet. It came from listening.
Many small businesses told us the same thing. They wanted to do more in their community. But they did not always know how. And even when they did – time, capacity and resources were stretched. Then there was the pressure they felt when approached by a charity or community group – and had to say no.
Because saying no feels awful.
A local charity gets in touch. They need support. The business wants to help – but genuinely cannot right now. There is no good way to say no. It feels cold. It feels like a door closing in someone’s face.
The Community Pledge helps to change that
Now there is a softer answer. A kinder no. A business can say – unfortunately at this moment we are not able to help directly, however we have signed up to The Community Pledge where we support aDoddle.org. If you haven’t heard of it yet – because of us and businesses like us it is completely free for you to create a profile for the work you do, the help you need and the difference you make. It also means more people in the community can find you.
That is not a no. That is a signpost. And it makes it easier for charities and community groups to be found by the people who need them most.
And there is something else. As a Community Pledge member, businesses can also create their own profile on The Community Pledge business map – sharing who they are and what they do. Visibility for them. Connection for everyone.
What The Community Pledge Actually Does
The Community Pledge is designed to be simple. Deliberately so.
Membership is annual and starts at less than £1 a day. It is priced specifically with small businesses in mind – businesses with up to nine employees. Larger businesses are very welcome too. Pricing for larger teams is being finalised – please get in touch to find out more.
For that membership, businesses are supporting aDoddle to stay completely free for charities, community groups and people across the community. That matters. And it is something to be proud of.
But there is more to it than that.
Founding Members have the use of the Founding Member logo. Something tangible. Something that can go on a website, printed materials, in a shop window and even on merchandise – think key rings, pens, jute bags. It starts a conversation. It tells the community – this business cares.
Over time, as we all learn together, we will share hints and tips and ideas for how to raise your profile as a community-minded business. And we would love to share your good news stories through regular online articles on The Community Pledge website – because the good that businesses do deserves to be seen.
We want to be honest. The return will not be instant. This is not a quick win. It will grow as The Community Pledge grows. But the businesses who join first are the ones who make everything else possible.
Deciding to help is not the same as helping. One business joining makes a real difference. Yet when one hundred businesses join – well that really starts to change everything, for everyone.
Honesty About Where We Are
The Community Pledge is at the point of launch. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
aDoddle is growing. It is the UK’s first network of connected, area-based community maps – and it is already well established. There are more than 3,000 profiles of charities, community groups and organisations across 121 connected area maps. Maps can focus on any UK area or community niche. They can be dropped straight into any website. People can search, browse and save their favourite organisations. And aDoddle is the only platform we know of with a unique traffic light system – showing users at a glance how recently each profile has been updated, so they can judge how current the information is. Organisations with profiles can even grant permissions to team members to help manage their profile. It does not yet show everything – and we will always be honest about that. But this is not a new idea. It is a developed digital infrastructure – built carefully, built for communities and growing all the time.
Jaki King, Founder and CEO of If Everyone Cares CIC, has been working on this for over a decade. Not because it is easy. Because it matters.
Before the pandemic, Jaki spent two hours with four vice presidents from Deutsche Bank reviewing the business model. Their words stayed with her. They said – once you hit the tipping point, you will have underestimated the potential of this.
We believe that too.
When The Community Pledge reaches 1,500 members it becomes fully funded and fully staffed. When it reaches 10,000 members – there is real surplus funding to invest back into communities. Not a solution to everything. But a meaningful contribution. Real money going to real places where it is needed.
The map will show where there is need. Where there is duplication. Where there is excellence that could be replicated elsewhere.
That is worth building towards.
The Heart of It
No one should ever struggle to find the help that is already there.
That is why aDoddle exists. That is why The Community Pledge exists. That is why this matters.
Communities are full of brilliant organisations doing incredible work. Businesses that care. People who want to help and people who need it. The pieces are already there.
The Community Pledge is how we connect them. Simply. Affordably. Together.
If you are a small business reading this – thank you for getting this far. You already care. That much is clear.
The next step is simple. Join us. Be one of the businesses that chose to show up.
One person. One charity. One business. One community. One map. One click at a time.
A Note on How This Article was Created
This article has been created and shaped by Jaki King, Founder and CEO of If Everyone Cares CIC – the organisation behind aDoddle.org and TheCommunityPledge.com.
It reflects more than 25 years of experience working in and alongside communities and over a decade of exploring community mapping, visibility and connection.
The content has also been shaped through listening to hundreds of real stories, insights and experiences shared by people, organisations and communities over time.
As part of the process, Jaki used AI as an accessibility and thinking tool to support how she works as someone who is dyslexic, autistic and has ADHD. This included helping her to structure ideas, refine wording and maintain clarity, while ensuring that the final content reflected her voice, her values and what matters in the work she does.
The article has been developed iteratively, going backwards and forwards to ensure it feels true to that.
Time invested: approximately 5.5 hours from first draft to final version.
