Collective Conversations: Building Collaboration Beyond the Founder: SheRACES Impact Hour

For this year’s International Women’s Day, we delivered a series of Affleck & Co.

Impact Hours with a range of organisations supporting girls and women in Sport. We were paired up with Sophie Power and the team at SheRACES, for a session that

proved to be enjoyable and useful for all involved.

SheRACES exists to level the start line for women at races, across all sports, with a

current focus on road and trail running, cycling and triathlon. They work with

sponsors, athletes and race directors to identify and dismantle the barriers that

prevent women from competing in races and events. 

The organisation was founded by Sophie Power after an image of her breastfeeding her young child during an ultramarathon was shared widely across the media. That image highlighted something that might have been talked about previously but hadn’t fully been addressed - the fact that the racing world was not designed or operating with women’s lives in mind.

Sophie had recently had a baby and the event organisers would not allow her to

defer her place, which meant she found herself balancing elite endurance sport with the realities of motherhood. That image made people stop and think, and it became a catalyst for wider conversations about fairness, inclusion and access in racing.

From that point onwards, and perhaps without knowing what was yet to come,

Sophie and SheRACES became a movement focused on changing the system

rather than expecting women to work around it.

When we came together, the organisation was at a really interesting stage of growth. They had already established strong momentum in the UK, had increasingly popular activities underway in India, and were in early discussions about how things would work in the US. They were on the edge of something exciting, with potential to expand their impact globally. The opportunity to work with Affleck & Co. with an Impact Hour came at the perfect time, as they were feeling stuck about how to move forward with purpose.

The focus of our Impact Hour was on current options and next steps. With growth

came opportunity, but also questions around structure, strategy and delivery. They

wanted support to explore what the right organisational model might look like as

interest increased and new opportunities opened up, particularly how to build a

structure that didn’t rely too heavily on the same few people and could support

sustainable growth.

Before the session, we reviewed all the information they had shared with us,

including their recent charity status application, updates on future plans, their

website, strategy documents and the wider vision for the organisation. We read it all

eagerly, keen to understand the operational side of things, but also the values that underpinned the work. We quickly got a good sense of the change they wanted to

see in the world.

From there, we designed a one-hour structured workshop to sense check what we

had read and heard, particularly around their vision, mission, values and objectives,

while also getting quickly into the bigger question of future structure.

Drawing on experience from working with other organisations, we developed three

possible models for them to explore. The session gave us space to test those

options together, to ask clarification questions, and to let them reflect together on

what would work best and why. It was more a case of kicking the tyres than driving

off into the sunset, but it was a great way to develop ideas together, and make sure

there was alignment on what would work.

One of the best parts of the hour was hearing from each of the team members on the call. As organisations grow quickly, it can be easy for decisions and responsibility to sit with the same few people. Creating space for everyone to contribute brought different perspectives, strengthened ownership, and made the future feel more shared.

With Sophie on the call, it was impossible to lose sight of why SheRACES exists in

the first place. While her story was the catalyst, the discussion focused on how the

wider team could build something bigger than one person, creating systems and

distributed leadership that would support long-term impact.

The session was extremely energising. This was a new process for us and so it was

pleasing - and a bit of a relief - to know that in just an hour we could successfully

work through the right questions, bring fresh perspective, and get agreement on a

way forward. While we love working with an organisation over time, it was also

rewarding to see what a difference 60 minutes could make.

By the end of the session, we all felt there was a clearer way forward. We closed

with a summary of what had been agreed, what remained unresolved, and what the next steps would be. After the session we wrote that up into a practical action plan and recommendations, which we shared within the week.

A few weeks later, we heard back that the session had been a valuable starting point and that actions were already happening. That was brilliant because it confirmed what we had hoped: that even a short, focused intervention could help create stronger collaboration, clearer shared ownership, and a way of working that didn’t rely on the same few people for everything.

For us, it was a positive experience from start to finish. It was exciting to work with

an organisation like SheRACES, where the purpose is clear and the organisation

has the potential to impact women around the world. While we haven’t gone quite so far as to sign up for an ultra race just yet, we are cheering from the sidelines, and

looking forward to seeing where SheRACES go next. If you would like more information about SheRACES or how you can support, check out their website. And if you’d like to find out more about the Impact Hour and how Affleck&Co. could help you, get in touch by e-mail.

Written by consultants:

Ruth Shaw and Vicky Lowe