Chris Shaw

Championing Social Change Across Leicester

Chris Shaw is one of Leicester’s most active practitioners in the voluntary and social enterprise sector. With a career rooted in community action and spanning over 40 years he continues to drive bold, practical solutions for lasting change.

Born and raised in Leicester, Chris grew up in Garden City (a co-operatively owned and managed housing estate) adjacent to Netherhall. After graduating from the University of Leicester, he progressed through Leicester Polytechnic’s Youth and Community work programme and emerged (after a spell in Hampshire) as a youth worker at Northfields Adventure Playground in 1985. Since then, he’s held senior roles at Leicester City Council, The Prince’s Trust, Prevista, and the University of Leicester – always with one question in mind: how can I make a difference?

Today, Chris now runs three impactful initiatives:

• Think Funding – a go-to development partner for charities and social enterprises across the region, helping secure funding to deliver tailored support on business planning, evaluation, and community engagement.
• Ethical Business Exchange – a platform to develop projects for social good, which has helped catalyse the Positive Communities partnership and has played a major role in the development of ExSEL programme to grow local social enterprise.
• Social Innovation People CiC – a new platform backing grassroots changemakers, including Leicester’s first social innovation accelerator and plans for a citywide Centre for Social Innovation.

Whether it’s tackling unemployment, supporting local entrepreneurs, or rethinking how communities collaborate, Chris Shaw remains committed to Leicester’s social impact movement – connecting people, securing funding, and ideas to make big things happen.