Ep. 352 Balancing purpose and profit with Toni Finnimore

Can you build a business that truly makes a difference and pays you well? In this episode, Toni Finnimore, founder of The Social Society, shares how she’s balancing purpose and profit by designing a values-driven business model that delivers real community impact without sacrificing boundaries or wellbeing. We talk about why consistency matters more than quick wins, how to stay true to your vision when the world says otherwise, and what redefining success really looks like after corporate life.

Key moments:

[00:00] Introduction: Anna Lundberg previews Toni’s work and the theme of redefining impact

[01:21] Toni introduces The Social Society and its unique “charity matchmaking” concept

[03:35] Discussing burnout, boundaries, and the evolution of success in meaningful careers

[06:14] The purpose vs. profit debate, and why they can—and should—coexist

[08:08] How The Social Society’s business model works: Subscription, events, real-world matching

[12:41] The value of staying consistent, true to your vision, and lessons on building a personal brand

[16:07] Toni’s daily and weekly routines: Flexibility, event work, and life balance

[18:33] Toni’s advice for anyone feeling pushed off their path: “You do you.”

[19:50] Where to find Toni and The Social Society online

Resources mentioned:

• Toni Finnimore’s Business: The Social Society
• The Business Accelerator Programme: OneStepOutside.com/accelerate.
• Connect with Anna Lundberg: Get in touch on Instagram or LinkedIn.

Balancing purpose and profit

Anna Lundberg:
My guest today is the founder of the Social Society. And she’s sharing how she’s redefining community impact not just through charity work, but by designing a business model that’s really rooted in values, boundaries and real world results. We talk about what it takes to stay true to your vision, why consistency matters more than quick wins, and how to build success on your own terms, even when the world says otherwise.

Anna Lundberg:
Hello everyone and welcome to this month’s interview.

Anna Lundberg:
And I’m here with Toni Finnimore, who I don’t know very well. So I’m as excited as you all are to dig into her story. And Tony, as ever, I’m going to hand right over to you and ask you to introduce yourself as only you can and then we’ll dig into your story and what it is you’re doing.

Toni Finnimore:
Amazing. Thank you and thanks for having me as well. It’s great to be here. Yeah. So I’m the founder of an organisation called the Social Society and we’re a volunteer and events community that effectively top line makes local volunteering easy. And we do that by the human to human matchmaking. I guess we’re a little bit like the bumble tinder or hinge of charity matchmaking. And we bring both local people, employees and students of late, and charities into our community and matchmake them based on their skills, their hobbies, their passions and real time need for the charity and local community.

Toni Finnimore:
The event side of our work is predominantly festival team days, so we bring anything from 50 to 500 people into a field from businesses and we pay local charities to come and ask for help. So we cherry pick the skills and we make sure we support charities in a way that’s actually meaningful rather than guesswork.

Anna Lundberg:
Love that. Important work. How did you end up there? Was this sort of a very clear path laid out after you finished school or have been kind of the little pivots and twists and turns along the way?

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, there was a slightly bumpy period after all, I would imagine when my poor parents thought, what is she going to end up doing? But actually, looking back now, yeah, there was a very clear route, I guess, started in NHS support work, went into advocacy, representing people’s rights and wishes and beliefs, then went into managing those services for charities and community provisions. So mental health, end of life, learning disability services. When I was in it, I was very much like, wow, where is this going? This is hard. Like, this is hard work, especially in communities on ground level. But, yeah, looking back now, there was a very clear reason why I’m here today.

Anna Lundberg:
I guess, connecting the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs famously said. I suppose going back to that beginning, it sounds like you’ve always done meaningful work, but I guess in a different way. Yeah, different container or whatever you want to call it. But how has your view of success, both for you personally in your career, but also, I suppose, more broadly for the charities you work with, shifted since when you first started to where you are today? Yeah, definitely.

Toni Finnimore:
Oh, it’s hugely different. I look back at some of my career, especially in charity and managing community provisions, and it was. It was all day, it was zero boundaries, it was give, give, give, give, give to the point of burnout constantly, you know, huge hu, lots and lots of stress and crisis. Unfortunately, I think charities are still in that position because they’re still plugging local gaps all over the uk. But, yeah, it was a. It was a pretty bleak time and when I was in it, I was thinking, oh, wow, this is really tough. But now way more boundaried, freedom, flexibility and the. The sort of ability to make a real impact is all I really focus on, so lots better at that now.

Anna Lundberg:
That’s so interesting because I’ve worked a lot with people who have left corporate, as I call it, and it tends to be, if you think about the Ike guy, which you may be familiar with, with sort of the things that you love doing and the things you’re good at and making money and things that the world needs, we tend to be on the kind of good at making money side of things and then we want to move more towards making a bigger difference, making an impact. Meaning. But. And I recently wrote an article actually about sort of how passionate what you do can actually lead to burnout. Right. Because you do blow those boundaries. And I’d imagine it’s the same when you’re doing really meaningful work. It’s even harder to shut your laptop down because I see colleagues, and I’m not going to name their particular industries, but where you can easily go up.

Anna Lundberg:
That work isn’t making a difference, but your work actually can make a difference. So yeah, that’s a really interesting tension of I need to understand that if I burn out, I can’t help anyone, I can’t help my family, let alone the people who I’m trying to help in this organisation 100%.

Toni Finnimore:
And it is a tricky one, especially when you’re working closely with organisations that are grassroots on the ground floor, dealing with the client crisis on a day to day basis because you want to step up and do more and help, you know, in a way that’s going to make a much wider impact for them and the people that they support. But ultimately you can only do so much and so by having that time and being boundaried and flexible, you can actually support far more. And I think that Ikigai, I think there’s still a narrative, I think that you can’t have purpose and profit at the same time. And I think it’s a little rubbish, to be honest. I think you absolutely can. But that’s also a journey that I’ve been on.

Anna Lundberg:
Yeah, I’m with you on this, but let’s dig into that because I think that’s true again, both from the individual’s perspective. I mean, I think my Instagram bio, which constantly changes something around more, more income and more freedom and more purpose. Right. Without the hustle and. Absolutely. I think there’s a growing group of us who believe that that’s possible in organisations too. Whether it’s the, the core movement, which I’ve seen be criticised recently, but it’s still moving in the right direction. Right.

Anna Lundberg:
Or you know, the triple bottom line and all these thoughts. So tell us more about that then. How, how are you thinking now in terms of the purpose and profit?

Toni Finnimore:
I think there’s a, there’s a. In terms of client. I was doing some stuff on this this morning, just around the clarity of your offer and not trying to be everything to everyone. The B Corp movement is an interesting one. They are, they are changing but they’re changing their account. They’re like framework their standards, their accountability, I guess what you would call them to be more rigorous. So I think again, I’m actually going through mine at the moment. I think it’s a really good way to hold yourself accountable and also work and collaborate with people that are in the same space to do good.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, yeah.

Anna Lundberg:
And have you had any wobbles along the way? You know, what sort of the dreaded imposter syndrome we always talk about, like how Can I possibly make this work? How can I do this and also make a living? As I would talk us through kind of the inner workings of your mind during this time.

Toni Finnimore:
Every week, Every single week. No, it’s less and less so now. But it is, I think in, in the spirit of being open and honest. It’s an absolute journey, you know, journey. And it’s an, it’s not a linear path. It’s always. It’s a very much like a roller coaster but the highs far outweigh the lows. The impact that you can make, the, the work that we do and the, you can see it, you can see not just in the field with, with the charities that have received the help, but the longer term impact and the connections and the support floor is, is worth, is worth it.

Anna Lundberg:
And if you. No, please, go ahead.

Toni Finnimore:
Just going to say, just, you know, just pretty similar along those lines really.

Anna Lundberg:
I was going to say, building on that, if you could sort of let us have a peek behind the curtain, I suppose, of the business model. How do you navigate that tension of making money for your own sake and for the sake of, you know, business and team members and so on. And then also obviously the really important work that you’re doing. How do you. What does your business model look like?

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, sure. So it’s a subsidiary, I guess. So it’s a subscription based model. So you have lots of, I guess, volunteer skills platforms that are very plug and play, that will plug into hr, pieces of tech for businesses up and down the UK and much further afield. So it’s a per employee cost for the subscription base and effectively what we do is we take the legwork out of it for the organisations and we lead on their employee volunteering, we give them marketing collateral report on their social impact. So that’s one revenue stream and then the festival team days are another. So if organisations. Some we do every quarter so they’ll get their teams together every quarter to have a strategy day and they want to do good on the second day.

Toni Finnimore:
So yeah, we’ll lead and facilitate that. And there’s a financial model or revenue stream in that as well.

Anna Lundberg:
Nice. And what kind of companies do you work with? Do you have a particular focus there? Or anyone who wants to organise those team days?

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, it’s sexual agnostic really. It’s really interesting. We’ve had tech, we’ve had digital, we’ve had. We work with trusted house sitters at the moment, which is a pet sitting company. It’s, it’s really varied. But just anybody that Genuinely wants to make a difference. I think there are lots of. I still get lots of emails saying, can you drive us six hours out of borum wood to just paint a shed or dig an allotment? And I’m like, no, can’t solve the problem.

Toni Finnimore:
And so we are. Yeah, we’re just very clear about, you know, you need to actually want to make a real difference.

Anna Lundberg:
Nice. So you have that filter in terms of making sure that you’re working with the right partners.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, definitely.

Anna Lundberg:
And then you as the founder, we talked briefly before we started recording about public speaking and TED talks and that kind of thing. How do you see kind of your personal brand building as part of your business as well as possibly separate and kind of above and beyond any particular business you have at the moment?

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, I think it’s becoming more. It’s more and more of a thing to build your personal brand. And I never set out to actually do that. Just kind of. I’m not a fan of social media, if I’m honest, and I’m really not, especially not Instagram. And I didn’t used to be a fan of LinkedIn, but the minute I switched from this is what I should post to just me, which is very. My language is all my misel. There’s a lot of just.

Toni Finnimore:
I say how it is. I’ve started sort of growing that brand. Yeah. And it’s just kind of naturally happened and I’ve had opportunities to come and speak on things that I’m just passionate about and the work I’ve done. And it’s been a journey to get there. It’s not an easy. It’s not an easy slog.

Anna Lundberg:
Well, what’s.

Anna Lundberg:
What is. What has that journey been? Well, how did you get the kind of confidence to go now? Actually, you know what, I’m just gonna. I’m not gonna try to, like, sort of tiptoe around or try to play the game. I’m gonna just say, say it as I see it. And that’s gonna obviously hopefully bring the right opportunities and allow you to stay in your integrity. It all makes sense on paper, but it’s harder to sort of have the courage to go, hey, this is me. This is what I stand for, you know, and doesn’t matter the consequences.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah. 100. And honestly, I think for me personally, it’s just been just doing it. I’m very much a doer. I’m like, actually, I’ll think about that later. Let’s just do it. So just post. And also from Personality Wise my whole career.

Toni Finnimore:
Like I’ve always been very good at unpicking injustice or support or being the voice of somebody that needs it most. Like actually that’s not okay. I was always one of those people that would climb the ladder and knock on the hospital manager’s door. Disability discrimination and all of that. Absolutely useless for myself. You know, I’d go to the hairdressers and they’d shave me a rainbow coloured mohawk and I’d give them a 20 pound tip and rule my eyes out like a 5 year old after because it looked terrible, it was awful. I did it for myself, but I’ve always been very good at doing it for others and so I just do. I guess I started by just posting and seeing what happened and that consistency really, really works.

Toni Finnimore:
And I know it’s a bit of a dull thing and people are like, oh, there’s no hack for this, but there really isn’t. It’s the tortoise, not the her.

Anna Lundberg:
It’s both kind of reassuring and annoying that there is no hack and there’s no one answer. Right. But it’s also, it can take the pressure off because I think we, and, and when I hit publish on my first blog, I got 12, 13 years ago and I was like, oh, I’m gonna die, people are gonna read. And of course it was my mum and like her friend who read it. So it’s, that’s the good news. It’s hardly anyone cares because everyone’s so busy. But also it’s such a tapestry, patchwork of a post here I think. It’s not like you go viral or you do a TED Talk and then boom, suddenly it all comes.

Anna Lundberg:
It’s really every, it’s consistency but it’s up sits, downs, it’s. Sometimes something works, sometimes it doesn’t. This feels better, this doesn’t. And it’s just kind of plodding along, it’s not so sexy, but it’s the stuff that works. And in the meantime you’re running your business and doing, you know, living your life. Right. So it’s just a small part of that.

Toni Finnimore:
It’s the same in business, right. You know what the social society looks like today? Yes. The core mission is the same. To change the way we give back to communities, to have these independent spaces and models to do that. But wow, it’s changed so much and it changes all the time. Every project we do, every event that we do, we are. You know, when I first started I was off an investment and I turned it down because everyone was talking about tech and scaling and taking over the world. And actually my core values have always been about human connection and about in those spaces.

Toni Finnimore:
And I was. Laughter. For the subscription based model, like what you want people to subscribe and pay to volunteer and also bringing people together in person was just not heard of. And then obviously we had Covid like, okay, maybe there’s something in this. And then now we’re getting lots and lots of people saying, oh, you know, you mentioned that tech piece seven years ago actually we really want to be out in a field. We want to disconnect from the square that day. You know, our teams are hybrid, they’re stressed, they’re burnt out. We want to be together and we want to do good in a way that’s meaningful.

Toni Finnimore:
So it’s funny turns but that consistency and sticking with your values and your beliefs and having. Well, having that belief. Yeah. That you. The end goal will work.

Anna Lundberg:
Yeah. And that’s music to me is both the human connection because I think especially now, as you said post Covid, but with AI and all these things and you know, I’m fiercely independent, working from home for the last decade and yet, you know, even I want to go out and meet real people and I’m seeing the value in that. So I think that’s so, so important. And then as you said, I think I work with so many people now who get caught up in exactly that, oh, I’ve got to scale for the sake of scaling or the investors are pushing in that direction or oh, I’ve got to jump on this trend now with the AI and it’s got to be. And it’s the, the again the courage, but the patience, the sort of guts to kind of go, no, hang on, I’m staying in my lane. This is what I believe, this is what I want to do. And you know, things will come and go. Right.

Anna Lundberg:
Trends will come and go, investors will come and go. But really. And you’re. It sounds like your vision has kind of played out in reality and, and even if it didn’t, it’s the right thing for you to do. So that’s. That’s such an important lesson.

Toni Finnimore:
I think it is. And that’s a really key point. Like it’s you, it’s you, it’s no one else’s. And you will have, frankly, you’ll have people with opinions constantly. And I still do today. But you know that, that you have to have that utter belief in the model and that it works. You know, obviously it has to work to a degree because, you know, be silly to continue down that path if not. But yeah, just keep keeping going, I think.

Anna Lundberg:
And it’s also sort of quieter version of success. It’s not the rah, rah, look at me with my, you know, traditionally fancy offices and big investors and Facebook just bought my st startup kind of. It’s much more. No, but I’m, you know, I know this is changing the game for charities and for individuals and this is what’s right. And that’s what I’m focusing on.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, 100%. And by being, you know, flexible with my time anyway, in particular, I can get up and be like, okay, well I’m going to, I live in Brighton so I’m going to go for a seafood stroll. I’m going to process my thoughts, you know, take a bit of a call here around this crisis and the charity, what they’re dealing with. And yeah, it’s really important. It’s really important. And that’s my success and their success. Well, and me being able to do that and be boundaried and have that flexibility and grow in the business slowly and sustainably gives them more of my time and support and the team.

Anna Lundberg:
And if we’re bringing this down to a really practical level, what does a typical day look like, if such a thing exists or a typical week for you? What does sort of your working calendar look like?

Toni Finnimore:
I mean this week and next is quite events heavy. So we are doing a pilot with some students at the moment for. Because the same gap exists in students in universities and colleges. They want to give back but in house teams don’t necessarily have the time. So we almost act as a matchmaker and a broker there. So we’ve got some pop ups at the university, some social impact panels. I’ve got two of those coming up. We have got a festival team day in the pipeline.

Toni Finnimore:
I think it’s two weeks away and then every other day is different really. And I guess it’s what I put in the calendar. Like I love to get up, have a stroll, do a sauna a couple of mornings a week, work late. You know, it varies massively in the summer, from June to October we’ll be busy because that’s kind of event season for festival team days and then. Yeah, so events and community matchmaking and.

Anna Lundberg:
Now you have a team. How. What does that look like?

Toni Finnimore:
Yes, we have community managers, we have city leads and then when we come to event season, we have a whole heap of freelancers that come in and like on a rotor that come in and dip in and out and help run the events as and when they can. Yeah.

Anna Lundberg:
And you working fully remotely throughout the year until you meet up for events or how do you come together?

Toni Finnimore:
Pretty much. Well, we’re live direct from the kitchen now and that’s the last few days. Yeah. But I’ve got co working spaces and things that we go into. But. And I’m in London actually this week as well for the Charity Film Awards. So there’s a. There’s a variety.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, put it that way.

Anna Lundberg:
Sounds amazing. Sounds so interesting. That’s what keeps it interesting. Right? The variety of being out, being home in your kitchen, being alone, being with.

Toni Finnimore:
People 100% and the choice to do that, I guess. And the festival team days in particular are very different. Each one of them is different. Kind of like co produce and design them with the business. So some businesses will say we’d really like health and wellbeing and horse box saunas and yoga and movement and breath work. And then others will say, I’m absolutely not getting in my bikini in front of Colin from Accountants. I don’t want that. So it’s.

Toni Finnimore:
It’s very different. So they’re all really different experiences.

Anna Lundberg:
Love that. And I suppose I always ask if you could give one piece of advice and I suppose thinking about someone who is maybe feeling a bit like, ugh, I’m being pushed in this direction or put, you know, and actually I feel like that’s not where I want to go. Can you offer some words of wisdom to how you can kind of stick to your vision, your values and kind of keep going on that path?

Toni Finnimore:
I think, and it’s a really short one as you do you like. And I say this all the time and people, what does that mean? Literally, you do whatever it is that you feel you know and you will have that. But if you have that belief in the end goal and you’ve got all of this narrative saying, don’t do it, do it like this. You have to be careful, I think. I think people will offer advice and sometimes it’s really good advice. We can’t do it on your own. So I’m not saying be stubborn and. But ultimately you know what’s right.

Toni Finnimore:
So just trust, trust your instinct, keep going, consistency. And you do you.

Anna Lundberg:
Yeah, that’s simple. We would get T shirts. But I think that’s the tension again, isn’t it, of listening to experts on certain things where you might not know and there’s gaps in your knowledge, but also understanding the really important things around the values as well as how you want to live your life and run your business. Because that’s the whole point, right? Why set it up if you’re not doing it true to the vision that you, you have yourself.

Toni Finnimore:
So, and ultimately you’ll learn from those experts. The experts. And some won’t be, you know, I’ve many a time over the years and you don’t know, right? You don’t know. You go, let’s get the help, let’s get the support. And then, you know, six months in, you think, actually, this isn’t where I want this to be going. So it’s just life lessons, which is tough. But yeah, just keep doing you and being consistent, I would say.

Anna Lundberg:
Love that. And Toni, where can we find out more about you? Where can we connect with you and follow the work you’re doing?

Toni Finnimore:
So LinkedIn is Toni Finnimore. And then thesocialsociety.org.uk is the website.

Anna Lundberg:
Perfect. Love that. And again, I, I didn’t know you at all before this call. I’ve been so glad to, to find out both about your, the patterns and what you’re doing, which is so different to what I’ve done, but, and yet I just really resonate with everything you’re saying and I know that the audience will too. So thank you so much for sharing that. Best of luck with the next step of your journey as well and looking forward to staying connected.

Toni Finnimore:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anna Lundberg:
If you’re ready to grow a business that actually works, one that pays you well, protects your time and reflects what matters most, the Business Accelerator is for you. It’s a 12-month journey for independent experts who want strategic growth without burnout and without compromise. Apply or join the waitlist at onestepoutside.com/accelerate.

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