Being a private company in the social sector isn't easy.
For a start, we're not eligible for most grants, donations or public funding; meaning we depend almost entirely on the money we earn from our customers. And even when funding opportunities arise, there is often a mistaken belief that a private company has money "swishing about", which is far from the truth.
I’ve realised over the years that these constraints are actually our strengths. They've forced us to stay focused and keep pushing - carefully, responsibly and within our means - to create something truly valuable. Being a private company has helped us achieve a lot and, looking ahead to 2026, we're preparing to push harder than ever.
What we’re building next
In the new year, we’ll launch a powerful new search experience for our Enterprise platforms. All of our platforms have seen recent upgrades where users typing in everyday language are now guided to supportive resources instead of just a list of activities.
In the coming weeks we’ll add semantic search, which understands meaning and intent. This superb feature will help people find activities, community members and content, even if they’re not sure how to describe what they want. It also learns over time, so each search gets better (like Google).
We’re also developing a guided conversations tool that creates personalised pathways for users, based on needs and severity. We’ll co-design it with clients in Warrington and Carmarthenshire, alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure it works in practice. The aim is to create an easy-to-use self-help portal that connects residents with the right support at the right time, and reduces unnecessary contact with adult social care.
Measuring what matters
The rapid development of AI in 2025 certainly opened my eyes to what might now be possible. We’d be foolish to ignore it and my plan is to make 2026 the year we use AI to become more sophisticated at reporting. Mind you, it's complicated...
Our platforms support a whole-system approach where friends / relatives / neighbours / groups / professionals / businesses / charities access tools to support one another. Every stakeholder, whether affected or affecting, has different reporting needs:
- A charity may want to understand volunteer-created Social Value.
- A GP practice might want to focus on preventable appointments or hospital admissions.
- A business might be interested in the collective impact of their employer-supported volunteering programme.
- Adult Social Care professionals may focus on referral rates.
A true whole-system approach needs to measure all of these outcomes. Before AI, measuring all of this would have been costly. Over Christmas, however, I built the bare bones of a reporting tool that can already begin answering these questions. It will need careful co-design with our Enterprise clients, but we already have plenty of data to generate new insights.
Why Enterprise matters in 2026
I’ve mentioned our Enterprise model a few times and I want to clarify what that means in practice. Our Enterprise model lets us focus on delivering high-quality, reliable platforms while building a sustainable foundation for Made Open.
This model is a genuine win-win. It generates the income we need to keep investing. It enables organisations to collaborate and share resources (including licence costs). It gives communities an easy-to-access front door for information and support.
What started as a theory back in 2018 is now a proven strategy, with places like Devon Connect, Connect Torfaen, Connect RCT and Living Well Warrington leading the way. Our Innovator model is excellent in its own right but, if collaboration is to thrive, it has to be incentivised. That's why we're committed to delivering clearer and more tangible benefits for Enterprise clients.
Supporting grassroots communities
Many grassroots groups want to use technology like ours but often have tiny budgets. Free alternatives—Facebook, WhatsApp, or spreadsheets—don’t meet their needs, and we’ve had to turn many away.
This year, informed by feedback, we’re launching a new, affordable timebanking platform for community timebanks. It’s a shared space where groups can post offers, log hours, send thank-yous, run events—all within a trusted system. Pricing starts around £500 per year, with optional upgrades for features like advanced stats, micro-incentives, and custom pages.
For the past 15 months, Made Open has quietly supported Time4Good pilots in Plymouth and Cornwall. Ironically, its first contract is an 18-month pilot with a charity in Maine, USA. Challenges there are steep, from Medicaid cuts to access gaps—but their interest shows the global need for connection.
Locally, we’ll continue supporting grassroots communities, following the golden rule I’ve learned over the years: go where the energy is, and don’t chase shadows.
HERE
Of course, we know many grassroots groups want to use technology like ours, but they often operate on tiny budgets and may not have the size or network to justify an annual licence fee that is anything other than low-cost.
These groups often then revert to free alternatives like Facebook, WhatsApp or an Excel spreadsheet to get started (or they simply give up). Too often, these free or low-cost options yield poor results, simply because they weren’t designed to meet the unique needs of a community-focused platform.
This has always been a challenge for us (providing a low-cost solution that requires minimal on-going support) and each year we turn dozens and dozens of grassroot groups away because we simply can't afford to support them. That is, until now!
This year, informed by some fantastic feedback, we’re trying again - only differently. In the next few month, we’ll be launching a new, more affordable timebanking platform, designed specifically for community timebanks. Rather than a fully bespoke platform for each community timebank, it will be a shared platform, more like WhatsApp, where community timebanks can create their own space with timebanking built in.
Timebank owners will have full control over what members can do: post offers and requests, log hours, send thank-yous, run events - all within a fair and trusted system.
Pricing will start at around £500 per year, with optional upgrades for features like advanced stats, micro-incentives, donations, custom landing pages and memorable URLs.
Going where the energy is
For the past 15 months, Made Open has been something of a silent partner in testing Time4Good with charities in Plymouth and Cornwall, while also engaging with larger organisations in Devon and Cornwall on neighbourhood health initiatives and corporate micro-volunteering.
Ironically, despite being based in Cornwall and working so so hard to support local initiatives, Time4Good’s first contract is an 18-month pilot with a charity in Maine, USA. With enormous challenges facing communities there - including steep cuts to Medicaid that are leaving people without access to basics like food, transport and healthcare - this organisation sought out Time4Good after being inspired by what we were building in the UK.
We’ve worked closely with them to make it happen and are now planning further developments to Time4Good, which runs on Made Open software, to explore and test different models for micro-volunteering.
I’d love to do more locally, and we will, but over the years I’ve learned a simple but golden rule: go where the energy is (and don't chase shadows!). In 2026, Made Open will do its very best to bring timebanking and micro-volunteering (via Time4Good) to market for grassroots communities working on low-budgets.
And finally, a personal note
On a personal level, my focus in 2025 shifted toward strategy; that is, putting into words what was already in my head and helping clients think more clearly about what I call the 5Ps: purpose, partners, platform, processes and people. I didn’t quite finish that work but I will in 2026, and I’m looking forward to embedding it into how our clients operate day to day.
As the founder and CEO of Made Open, I absolutely love what I do. Yes, there are moments when I feel deflated - when I wonder why a vision of a kinder, more connected world isn’t more widespread. But those moments are also what motivate me, day in day out. As we say in our vision statement, "In between work and home, there's community". You don’t have to need something from your community to appreciate that sentiment. All that matters is knowing that when you do, it will be there.
Here’s to 2026 and to going where the energy is.