As a pioneering organisation, we need to invest time and resource in developing new approaches to trade that will help millions more people living in poverty in the developing world to transform their lives. If new initiatives are to be effective and sustainable, they must be based on a thorough understanding of the issues involved and initial testing. However, our ability to innovate is limited as these innovative small-scale activities fall outside the funding criteria of many donors.

Catalyst is a donor-funded projects fund that allows Traidcraft to test new ideas that could lead to larger programmes of work. Between April 2010 and March 2012, eleven Catalyst projects, costing a combined total of £85,000, catalysed a further £1,427,000 in grant funding and benefitted an estimated 600,000 people. In financial terms, that is an impressive return on the initial investment (1:17)