Healthy purpose-driven organisations
Supporting social enterprises, NFPs, charities and other NGOs with their people, culture and strategy
Who
We support founders and leaders of organisations who do good. Whether you’re a social enterprise, start-up, not-for-profit, charity, or NGO, if you work towards positive social and environmental impact, we can help.
What
Taking a people-focused approach, we support leaders of purpose-driven organisations with their people, culture and strategy, and provide them with engaging, evidence-based tools and resources and coaching.
Why
We believe supporting and developing people and the organisational culture within purpose-driven organisations is the most effective strategy for achieving their goals for social and environmental change.
Our Values
Authenticity
Our work is adapted from careful research and expertise, reflecting an actual need. It’s genuine and honest. We try not to use corporate buzzwords.
Working together
We all have our unique ideas, insights and perspectives. We listen and collaborate with you to help you and your team foster positive change.
Our work
If you are a leader or founder of a social enterprise or other purpose-driven organisation, we would love to hear from you. Click here to book a time with us or contact us for a free, no-obligation 30-minute chat and take the first step in nurturing a positive workplace culture.
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Coaching services
Need support with your people, culture and strategy? We provide tailored advice to support you to achieve your social and environmental goals.
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Workshops
With you and your employees, we explore unconscious bias, building functional teams, creating supportive workplaces, and more.
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People and Culture Audit
Want help but don’t know where to start? Many founders and leaders start with our people and culture audit.
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Article series
A series of articles, written by us, on all things people and culture, organisational psychology, neuroscience and more.
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Pulse check
Take our free pulse check to gain insight into your people and culture pain points, and we’ll be in touch with some tailored support, tools and resources.
The Team
Together, we have experience working in the purpose-driven sector across Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa and Asia. While our paths have varied since the start of our friendship more than 15 years ago, we have both always been drawn towards social impact. As such, we decided to form Understorey. Here, we draw on Ash’s expertise in Organisational Psychology and working with NFPs, and Toby’s background in neuroscience and education and first-hand experience working within NGOs. We believe that through this partnership we can offer genuine solutions to co-create positive working environments that allow organisations to exceed their social impact.
Ashik Patel, Co-Founder
A big part of my passion for social and environmental impact can be attributed to living in five different countries, and seeing first-hand that we, collectively, need to do more.
My expertise lies within Organisational Psychology and people and culture, particularly in leadership, recruitment, diversity and inclusion, HR consulting and analytics, and career management. I completed my Master’s in Organisational Psychology at the University of Auckland and have worked across Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.
In my downtime, I love playing games, and watching and playing sports.
Toby Whittaker, Co-Founder
From both Japan and New Zealand, I have an eclectic background. I have 10 years’ experience working for a range of NGOs in Greece, Switzerland, Japan, and Senegal, which gives me a unique understanding of the various issues within purpose-driven organisations.
My motivation lies in contributing to the world by understanding and accompanying youth and adults in diverse contexts to learn, grow, and work. This focus on supporting individual growth is why I studied International Education at Oxford, and have completed my postgraduate diploma in Applied Neuroscience (and am currently in the process of completing my Masters).
In my downtime, I love unsuccessfully dabbling in various art forms.
Our experience
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