Diversity and Inclusion

Money doesn’t have to feel this hard: how we’re making financial confidence more accessible 

For a lot of people, finance is one of the most stressful parts of running a social enterprise. Not because they’re bad at it. Not because they don’t care. But because traditional ways of teaching business finance often aren’t designed with everyone in mind. 

Dense spreadsheets. Jargon-heavy presentations. Formats that assume a particular way of processing information. For autistic founders, these barriers can make an already challenging subject feel impossible – not because the content is too hard, but because the delivery doesn’t fit how you think.  

That’s exactly why we wanted to approach financial confidence differently. 

Meet Ellis and Trudi 

The Building Financial Confidence course was delivered across two days each week, with two neurodivergent facilitators bringing different and complementary expertise to the table. 

Ellis (they/them) from Proud Futures led sessions on the human side of financial confidence – the mindset, the barriers, and the burnout that so often sits underneath founders’ relationships with money. Ellis has an ADHD diagnosis, and that lived experience of being neurodivergent shapes how they think about accessibility and design. They understand, firsthand, what it’s like when information is delivered in a way that doesn’t fit your brain. They know the frustration of having to work twice as hard just to access content that could have been presented differently. And they’ve put that understanding to work in how they built their sessions. 

Trudi (she/her) from Wild & Kind CIC took on the practical, hands-on half of the course – the spreadsheets, the numbers, the tools that founders actually need to manage their finances day to day. Trudi is also neurodivergent, and her approach to the material reflected that. Rather than presenting spreadsheets as something to be endured, she gamified them – turning financial modelling into something interactive and exploratory, where founders could play out different scenarios and see what the numbers actually meant for their organisation. It’s the kind of design thinking that only comes from really understanding how differently people can relate to the same information. 

Together, they covered the full picture: the emotional and the practical, the why and the how. And the fact that both facilitators brought lived neurodivergent experience to their design meant the course wasn’t just accessible as an afterthought – it was built that way from the start. 

What the sessions were designed to do 

Across both strands of the course, the sessions were structured around what we know makes financial content more accessible for autistic founders: 

• clear, plain language with no unnecessary jargon or assumed knowledge 
• predictable structure so participants always knew what was coming next 
• genuine space for questions at any point, framed as a feature rather than an interruption 
• recognition that processing time varies – no rushing, no pressure to keep up 
• practical tools grounded in real situations, not abstract theory 
• gamified spreadsheet activities to make financial modelling exploratory rather than intimidating 
• honest conversation about the emotional weight of financial stress for founders 

Ellis also wove capacity building and burnout prevention throughout their sessions – because for many founders, these things are deeply connected. When you’re overwhelmed, financial management is one of the first things to slip. When you feel in control of your finances, that sense of agency can make a real difference to your wellbeing. 

The feedback from participants reflected that. People who had previously described themselves as “not a numbers person” came away feeling more confident. Founders who had been putting off looking at their finances found themselves actually wanting to engage with them. 

Why this matters during Autistic Acceptance Month 

World Autistic Acceptance Month is a good moment to think about the systems we build and ask: who are they actually designed for? 

The social enterprise sector is full of people with brilliant ideas and deep commitment to their communities. Some of those people are autistic. And many of them face additional barriers in accessing the kind of business support that could help them grow – not because they can’t do the work, but because the support wasn’t built with them in mind. 

When we bring in facilitators like Ellis and Trudi – people whose own experience of being neurodivergent informs how they design and deliver their work – the difference is real and practical. It shows up in the structure of a session, the language used, the pace, the welcome extended to questions, the decision to turn a spreadsheet into a game rather than a chore. It shows up in participants who feel like the room was made for them, rather than something they have to navigate despite. The added bonus is that everyone benefits from inclusive design. 

At Firstport, we’re committed to building support that genuinely works for the full range of founders we work with. That means thinking carefully about who we bring in as expert partners and what lived experience and design thinking they bring with them. 

Interested in this kind of support? 

The Building Financial Confidence course informed our investment readiness programme LaunchMe. If you’d like to know more about LaunchMe and whether it might be a good fit for your social enterprise, book a chat with Renae, our Social Investment Relationship Manager.

Ellis is the co-founder and co-lead of Proud Futures who deliver LGBTQ+ leadership, training, and wellbeing programmes, to help organisations build inclusive cultures where LGBTQ+ people can thrive. They provide lived experience led solutions and strategy which creates real culture change.

Trudi is the founder of Wild & Kind, a Glasgow-based social enterprise who support underrepresented creatives and social entrepreneurs through inclusive workshops, training, and peer support focused on skills, confidence, and financial literacy.