A HAND UP

NOT A HAND OUT

A BRIEF HISTORY

 Created in 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Roddick. Bird was homeless at the age of
five and spent time in orphanages and prisons growing up, inspiring him to found
this magazine to help others in situations like his.
 The Big Issue is a magazine that is only sold by those who are homeless or in
vulnerable accommodation and those facing poverty. These are the magazine’s
vendors.
 The Big Issue was a monthly magazine until 1993 when issues began to be sold
weekly.
 It is a social enterprise, so the majority of the profit from the selling gets pumped into
helping to solve the root cause of the problem.
 Gordon Roddick passed away in 2007, and today, John Bird is a member of
parliament campaigning for the rights of the homeless and to support them.
 The magazine has remained print-based for a very long time, though now copies
can be delivered to your door for a subscription fee. It is bought by vendors for £1
and sold to customers for £2.
THE AGENDA

 The Big Issue turns the homeless into a micro business, allowing them to make a
legitimate income and integrate them back into a mainstream society
 It also offers support in the form of financial advice and aid, addiction help, and
relocation or rehousing. The Big Issue Foundation (founded in 1995) is a related
charity people can donate to independently from buying The Big Issue.
 Other social enterprises or socially conscious traders are allowed to advertise within
The Big Issue; very few large scale businesses are allowed.
 The Big Issue is now produced and circulated in Australia, South Korea, South Africa,
Japan, Namibia, Kenya, Malawi, and Taiwan.
 The magazine is an entertainment and social affairs magazine that includes
segments such as;
 Political features
 Social features
 Celebrity interviews
 Guest reporters
SUCCESSES

 61% of the readers are aged between 18 and 39, and slightly more women than
men read it.
 The magazine sells over 300,000 copies a week, and has sold over 200,000,000 since
1991. Over £115 million has been made
 Because of his work on The Big Issue, John Bird is now an MBE in the House of Lords,
and was awarded an honorary doctorate of business from Plymouth University and
an honorary doctorate of letters from Oxford Brookes University. He is a vice-chair of
the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Poverty, Social Enterprise, Libraries and Water
 92,000 people have sold The Big Issue, and 3700 new vendors join every year
 Big Issue Invest, the UK’s first ‘social merchant bank’, has invested £30 million
across 300 social enterprises. This has been directly benefitting 1.8 million people
and creating 3200 jobs
 Over the past 10 years The Big Issue Foundation has achieved 40,000 positive
outcomes for vendors and recorded over 6,000 positive steps forward taken by The
Big Issue vendors