What Empire Fighting Chance does

Empire Fighting Chance is a UK-registered charity (number 1156690) and company limited by guarantee, founded in 2009 in Bristol and headquartered at The Mill in Easton, Bristol, which it acquired via community asset transfer from Bristol City Council in 2014. The organisation delivers a portfolio of trademarked, psychologically informed non-contact boxing programmes — Box Champions, Box Therapy, Box Careers, Box Juniors and Box Sisterhood — targeted at young people aged 8 to 25 affected by inequality, mental health difficulties, NEET status, or risk of involvement in crime. Core delivery combines qualified boxing coaches with embedded therapeutic and mentoring support, structured around 20-week programmes, and is extended nationally through a network of 55-61 partner boxing clubs, 31 locally trusted organisations and 129 trained practitioners across England and Wales; flagship delivery partners include England Boxing and Matchroom Boxing.

The underlying "technology" is a service methodology rather than a software platform: a proprietary blend of non-contact boxing instruction with clinically informed mentoring, validated by University of Bath research and supported by a diversified delivery ecosystem that also includes in-school delivery, the Counter Punch Project (police-referred diversion), and the United Bristol sport-based employability programme jointly delivered with Bristol Bears Foundation and Bristol City Robins Foundation.

Revenue is generated through a multi-stream charity model rather than commercial sales: institutional grants (Youth Endowment Fund, Big Lottery Fund, Esmee Fairbairn, Sport England, WECA, Bristol City Council, Medlock Charitable Trust), philanthropic committee fundraising (The October Club has raised over £820,000), corporate partnerships (RedRock Consulting, Foot Anstey, Overbury, National Grid), corporate team-building days at the Bristol gym, individual donations, and community fundraising events such as the annual Gloves Are Off Quiz. Customers — meaning the young people served — are reached via referrals from schools, social workers, police early intervention teams and mental health services, with an additional direct-to-consumer pathway through the gym and self-referral channels.

Name

Empire Fighting Chance

Legal name

Empire Fighting Chance Limited

Website

https://empirefightingchance.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Empire Fighting Chance is a Bristol-based UK charity that delivers trademarked, psychologically informed non-contact boxing programmes — including Box Champions, Box Therapy, Box Careers and Box Sisterhood — for young people aged 8 to 25 affected by inequality, mental health issues, NEET status or risk of crime, funded primarily through grants, donations and corporate partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Youth Development Services

akta.pro primary industry

Boxing & Kickboxing Fitness Classes (HSADABAF)

Keywords

• Youth boxing programmes
• Non-contact boxing therapy
• Youth mentoring services
• Youth employability training
• Sport-based youth intervention

Headquarters

HQ city

Bristol

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: Individual donations through the website, fundraising events including quiz nights, skydives, sponsored runs, and corporate fundraising
2. Corporate Partnerships: Corporate team building days, long-term corporate partnerships through the Empire Impact Collective, and corporate sponsorships
3. Grant Funding: Funding from trusts, foundations, and government bodies including Youth Endowment Fund, Big Lottery Fund, WECA Youth Guarantee, Sport England
4. Team Building Experiences: Half-day or full-day corporate team building experiences at the boxing gym, delivered by expert coaches and psychologists

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels7 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Empire Fighting Chance delivers psychologically informed, non-contact boxing programmes for young people aged 8-25 facing inequality, mental health challenges, NEET status, or risk of offending. Core programmes include Box Champions (intensive personal development), Box Therapy (mental health support), Box Careers (employability), Box Juniors (primary-age), and Box Sisterhood (young women). The charity also runs the Counter Punch Project, United Bristol, and Holiday Activity Programmes, plus corporate team-building experiences and a training/licensing model that enables partner organisations to deliver the programmes outside Bristol.

Product overview

Empire Fighting Chance offers a suite of psychologically informed non-contact boxing programmes designed to challenge and inspire young people aged 8 to 25. The core portfolio consists of four main programmes: Box Champions (non-contact boxing with psychology-informed mentoring), Box Therapy (boxing combined with therapeutic support), Box Careers (boxing with careers and education activities), and Box Juniors (boxing classes for 10-16 year olds). These are supplemented by Box Sisterhood for young women, the Counter Punch Project for early intervention, and United Bristol employability programme delivered in partnership with Bristol Bears Foundation and Bristol City Robins Foundation. The organisation also offers corporate team building services and holiday activity programmes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Box Champions: Combines non-contact boxing and psychology-informed mentoring to give young people aged 8 to 25 the skills and inspiration to make positive changes in their lives.
• Box Therapy
• Box Careers
• Box Juniors
• Box Sisterhood
• Counter Punch Project
• United Bristol

Products and services

• Box Champions

Quantifiable outcome

• 86% average success rate across five core outcomes (13% higher than 2024)
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

14 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Matchroom BoxingflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 November 2024Three-year national partnership with Matchroom Boxing and England Boxing to support boxing clubs across the UK. Partnership focuses on recruiting, training and supporting boxing clubs to deliver sports-based mentoring programmes. Includes GTM activities, parliamentary advocacy, and network expansion with goal of 100 clubs in the network.
• England BoxingflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 September 2021Partnership to recruit, train and support boxing clubs across the UK to deliver the Training with the Champions programme combining boxing, mentoring and psychological support.
• Bristol Bears FoundationcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerJoint delivery partner in United Bristol employability programme, bringing rugby-based engagement alongside Empire's boxing approach.
• Bristol City Robins FoundationcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerJoint delivery partner in United Bristol employability programme, bringing football-based engagement alongside Empire's boxing approach.
• Avon and Somerset PolicecoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerEarly Intervention Team partnership for Counter Punch Project, providing £10,000 from Innovation Fund for diversionary support to 20 young people aged 11-25 involved in or at risk of crime.
• Love Stapleton Road PartnershipcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-agency partnership involving police, local authority and community partners to improve safety and quality of life in the Stapleton Road area.
• University of BathcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partnership with Jess from University of Bath to evaluate Box Sisterhood programme and develop evidence base for impact.
• RedRock ConsultingminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCorporate sponsor of quiz night and supporter of corporate partnerships. Provided Bristol Bears experience for young people like Andrew.
• Bristol Beer FactoryminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCorporate sponsor providing drinks for quiz night events.
• MwanzominorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnership for Counter Punch Project, providing employability support.
• Future PagesminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnership for Counter Punch Project, providing employability support.
• Southmead Development TrustcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnership to deliver sessions at The Ranch Adventure Playground and Greenway Centre in Southmead, North Bristol.
• Lancashire County CouncilcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerPartnership with practitioners from Children Youth Justice Service, Empower Contextual Safeguarding Team, and Children and Family Wellbeing Team for Box Champions training.
• Active LancashirecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey partner bringing Box Champions to young people across Lancashire through schools, community groups and youth services.

Scale indicators24 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• StreetGames: StreetGames is a UK charity that brings sport to young people in disadvantaged communities, operating local doorstep sport programmes and the Young Action Sports network. It shares Empire's mission of using sport to engage at-risk youth and competes for similar Sport England and Youth Endowment Fund grants.
• Sport in Mind: Sport in Mind is a UK charity that uses sport and physical activity to improve the mental health and wellbeing of people experiencing mental health problems. It is the closest direct parallel to Empire's Box Therapy programme and serves a partially overlapping beneficiary base.
• OnSide Youth Zones: OnSide Youth Zones operates a network of state-of-the-art youth centres across the UK offering activities for young people aged 8-19 (up to 25 for those with additional needs). It shares Empire's youth-venue delivery model, target age range, and reliance on local-authority and corporate partnerships.
• Active Communities Network: Active Communities Network is a UK charity that uses sport to engage marginalised young people in disadvantaged areas. It operates community sport programmes with a similar philosophy to Empire's grassroots youth engagement approach and competes for the same Lottery and Sport England funding pools.
• Sported: Sported is a UK charity network supporting community sport groups and social enterprises using sport to tackle disadvantage. It operates a member network that may include organisations structurally similar to Empire's 61-club partner model, and shares the sport-for-social-change thesis.
• Fight for Peace: Fight for Peace is an international charity founded in Rio de Janeiro that uses boxing and martial arts combined with education and personal development to support young people in disadvantaged communities. It is the most directly comparable organisation to Empire Fighting Chance in terms of methodology, target demographic, and youth-development mission.

Broad incumbents

• Catch22: Catch22 is a UK social business and charity working with vulnerable young people across education, justice and social care. It is a broader incumbent serving overlapping beneficiaries (including youth offending referrals similar to Counter Punch) but with a much wider service portfolio than Empire's sport-based specialism.
• UK Youth: UK Youth is a national umbrella charity supporting a network of youth organisations delivering youth work across the UK. It is a broader incumbent than Empire but shares the youth-development mission and could serve as a potential umbrella/distribution partner for Empire's training-of-practitioners model.
• The Prince's Trust: The Prince's Trust is the UK's largest youth charity, supporting 11- to 30-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds into education, training and employment. It is a much larger, broader incumbent with overlapping programmes to Empire's Box Careers (NEET support) but operates at national scale with significantly greater funding and political visibility.

Others

• Leap Confronting Conflict: Leap Confronting Conflict is a UK charity that uses experiential learning and outdoor activity to support young people affected by conflict and challenging behaviour. It is thematically adjacent to Empire — both use activity-based intervention for vulnerable youth — but employs outdoor/adventure rather than sport-specific methodology, making it an adjacent rather than directly competing peer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/EmpireFightingC

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Empire Fighting Chance