Purpose Driven Founder - Speaker - Campaign Strategist
Hi! I’m Katherine Sladden,
Co-Founder of Breakthrough
Breakthrough backs the people who have experienced injustice in their lives to lead national campaigns for change. I spend my days helping direct-experience leaders win real change in law and policy. I also love sharing what I’ve learnt about how to build a movement, shift power and create change through talks and workshops.
Breakthrough
I co-founded Breakthrough after four and a half years working alongside survivors and bereaved families from the Grenfell Tower fire. I saw how powerful it is when people lead the fight for change themselves, and how little support there is to help them keep going for the long haul.
Breakthrough is a campaign accelerator. We back people with direct experience of injustice to lead national campaigns for law and policy change, with the strategy, skills and support they need, built around their whole lives, not just their campaigns. Our leaders are based across England and Wales.
In just 3 years our impact includes:
16 campaigns backed
14 laws and policies changed
13.8 million lives improved
About Katherine
I'm co-founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough, and I've spent 15 years in people-powered campaigning, learning what makes people join a movement, take action and win.
Breakthrough backs people with direct experience of injustice to lead national campaigns for law and policy change. I built it from nothing but an idea and a determination to create the infrastructure grassroots campaigners need.
Before Breakthrough, I was the founding Campaigns Director at Change.org UK, where I led a campaigns team through a period of rapid growth. We delivered more than three campaign wins a week, including putting a woman on a banknote, No Page 3 and changing the law for 16-year-olds in police custody, and we grew the platform into the largest advocacy site in the UK. I’ve also advised the ONE Campaign, Virgin Unite, the Malala Fund and Nobel Prize nominee Jaha Dukureh.
I then spent more than four years alongside Grenfell United, advising survivors and bereaved families as they campaigned for justice. That time shaped everything I’ve done since, and it’s the reason Breakthrough exists. Between them, these experiences have taught me how movements start, grow and win.
Alongside Breakthrough, I work with people, businesses and organisations leading change, through keynotes, workshops and consultancy that help them build a movement that shifts power and wins change. My sessions are practical, personal and, I hope, fun, and your team leaves with a framework they can use the next morning. I’ve spoken at TEDx, Ideas Fest and Wild Times Gathering, hosted panels at The Conduit, and run workshops for Trust for London, Disability Rights UK, Girl Guides and more.
If you’d like to partner with Breakthrough or you’re planning an event, team day or campaign launch, I’d love to hear about it.
Speaking
My talks draw on what we're learning at Breakthrough, backing people with direct experience of injustice to win real change, and on 15 years of people-powered campaigning before that. I speak at conferences, festivals and team days - most recently at Ideas Fest, Tenacious Awards and the Wild Times Gathering. I also deliver campaign design workshops for campaign teams looking to level up their impact.
Keynote: How to start a movement
For conferences, team days and leadership events
Every movement that inspires people to join answers three questions: what do you want people to believe, how do you want them to feel, and what do you want them to do? With stories from Grenfell to the campaigns we back at Breakthrough, this talk shows how to build a cause, team or brand that people want to be part of for the long haul. Your audience leaves knowing how to start their own movement, and with a simple framework they can apply straight away.
Book me for your event.
Workshop: How campaigns break through
For leadership teams, founders and purpose-driven teams
A hands-on session built around three lessons from Breakthrough campaigns and beyond. Participants work on a goal of their own, mapping power, finding champions, shaping a clear ask and stacking small wins, and leave with a plan they can put into action straight away.
Book me for a workshop
Watch Katherine in action
Work with me
Alongside Breakthrough, I take on a small amount of advisory and strategy work, sharing what I’ve learned about building campaigns that last. That might be a strategy session before a launch, a facilitated away day, or being a thinking partner for a campaign director or leadership team.
If you're planning a campaign and think I could help, I'd love to hear from you.
Let’s Talk
Whether you'd like to hear more about Breakthrough, book me to speak, or have a chat about your campaign, I'd love to hear from you.