Having a real impact is all that matters
By Jason Light
Image: Some of the key numbers from the PACT 3rd Year Impact Report
We love training people to be the best dog trainers that they can be and whether you work individually or part of one of a big charity this involves impact and business skills.
Due to this, at PACT we strive to support people to develop the skills needed for their businesses to thrive. We hope that one of our strengths as an educator is that we are also a business with purpose, so we can be at the forefront to encourage others to do the same. This focus on purpose was the essence of my last blog titled Why are you here and in a way this blog is a bit of a follow up… think of it as a Why are Team PACT here.
It’s easy to say that your aim is to revolutionise the sector, but what does that really mean, being a membership organisation with hundreds of members and students we must show leadership, right across the board.
Open collaboration; We’ve worked with a wide range of organisations both in our courses but also on the Podcast Barks From the Bookshelf, with over 10k episode downloads, showcasing dozens of amazing people across the sector.
Supporting the sector and beyond; Last year we supported ABTC, Battersea, Blue Cross, Dog Aid, Dogs Trust, Guide Dogs, RSPCA, Therapy Dogs Nationwide and Woodgreen with discounts on courses and stands at events.
Getting out of our comfort zone; Whether its crufts, featuring on BBC Radio or sharing our thoughts in blogs, we’ve been out there sharing our passion and engaging with people.
Image: United National Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
Some of what I am talking about here does not feature in our latest impact report, as its just core to how we run our business and touches upon broad sustainability, beyond carbon reporting and waste management to social impact. Many of these things link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and these things do not get spoken about enough.
Reduced inequalities - Rachel our Head of Moderation always says she loves reviewing the applications and picking our scholarships. This is perhaps a bit odd from Rachel, as I manage the process in a way for fairness so she doesn’t actually know who they are, but its definitely a privileged for all of us being part of the journey of the 10 people who’s benefited this last 12 months.
Decent work and economic growth - Just as there are externalities with the environment, so are there will society having to pick up the slack for businesses not paying their part. A good example of this is our commitment to fair pay for staff. Far too many people in the sector are made to feel that they should effectively donate time and this is not our way. After all how can we speak encourage people charge clients at a rate reflecting their true value if we do not do the same…The biggest increase in the carbon footprint is our pay to staff, with a growing team putting in more hours than ever this was inevitable, but taken into account and fully offset.
Peace, justice and strong institutions - Even with our higher wage tariffs we paid nearly as much in Tax last year than we paid staff, this is a good thing, every business requires the support of society to exist.
Responsible consumption and production - Ethics in marketing is important to us, you may not have noticed, but we have taken a conscious decision that all of our service prices don’t just include VAT, but also any admin fees as this is far more transparent, you shouldn’t get a shock at the checkout.
Image: The speakers at the Dogx Conference 2023
I’ve only seen one person online notice that we pay homage to TED Conferences in the way we run Dogx, which intentionally includes a mixture of inspirational talks, live demo’s, audience interaction, music, games and even the drinks reception.
For us Dogx isn’t just an event with a few speakers asked to do their usual circuit talk, we actually curate the event and work with them to create something unique for the event. We also intentionally use the event to lift up people who we feel people should know about and here more from… think of the lineup similar to Glastonbury headliners with the up and coming, legend and global superstar slots.
One of the main legacies that I am most proud of about Dogx is seeing some of these speakers go on to engage with other communities, often with the talk they first gave to the attendees at our event. This is clearly their work, but even if we’ve just given them the encouragement to do so that’s wonderful.
Perhaps its been drummed into me that its just not British to do so, but It can be difficult to talk about your achievements, but I do so in the blog genuinely with a hope to encourage others.
The latest ImPACT report can be found here, and you can read all of our previous ones via the news tab on our website here: https://www.pact-dogs.com/news-faqs
So please do go out there, discover your purpose and make a true positive impact on dogs and society at large and I would encourage you to publicly celebrate your impact!
All the best
Jason
If you enjoyed this Blog you can read all the previous ones here: https://www.pact-dogs.com/blog