Purpose Driven Founder - Speaker - Campaign Strategist

BUILD A MOVEMENT THAT SHIFTS POWER AND CREATES CHANGE‍ ‍

I help people leading change bring communities together, inspire action and win, with stories and strategies from 15 years of people-powered campaigning.

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Picture of Katherine Sladden, wearing white shirt with arms folded.
Virgin Unite
Malala Fund
One.org
Ideas Fest

About

I’m Katherine Sladden, and I’ve spent 15 years learning what makes people join a movement, take action and win.

Today, that work is centred on Breakthrough, which I co-founded and lead as Executive Director. Breakthrough backs people with direct experience of injustice to lead national campaigns for law and policy change. We 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’re planning an event, team day or campaign launch, I’d love to hear about it.

Katherine Sladden, smiling, holding microphone and chairing a panel

Speaking

Keynote: How to start a movement

For conferences, team days and leadership events

Successful movements mobilise people to action at scale. I share stories from 15 years on the front line of people-powered campaigning, from putting a woman on a banknote to standing alongside the Grenfell families, and turn them into a simple framework: a vision people believe in, values people feel, actions people are inspired to take, and the momentum to keep going. Your audience leaves knowing how to bring people with them, and with a simple framework they can apply straight away.
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workshop: How movements break through

For leadership teams, founders and purpose-driven teams

In this session I share the campaign strategy behind winning movements. Together we work on your own goal and build a plan for it - from setting a clear goal, understanding who holds the power to influence change, designing engaging actions people want to take and building momentum by stacking small wins. Everyone will leave the session with clear next steps and a framework for turning lessons into action.
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STRATEGY

I take on a small number of clients for campaign strategy consultancy. Focused on purpose-driven businesses, leaders and nonprofits getting ready to launch a campaign or grow a movement.

If you're getting ready to launch something you want people to rally behind, I can work alongside you to co-create the strategy shaped around your purpose, your team and your goal. I start by listening to your leaders and team, then run interactive workshops and co-create a plan, with optional check-ins as you launch. I take on a small number of clients at a time, and an engagement usually runs over 6-8 weeks.

Let's talk about working together
Kat with a colleague, holding a mic and speaking to a room

  • "When I was navigating some of the hardest decisions of the campaign - when to push, when to hold back, when to recognise that I had done enough - there was a team that understood both the political realities and the human cost of this work. Every person campaigning from direct experience deserves this kind of support behind them. "

    — Zelda Perkins CBE

  • "Breakthrough helped me understand how to take everything I was seeing on estates across the country and turn it into pressure on the national government. They connected me to people and programmes I didn’t know existed. They helped me get funding to keep going."

    — Kwajo Tweneboa, housing campaigner

  • "Kat is a strategic thinker and great executor, who understands how complex issues can be turned into hard hitting, impactful campaigns."

    — VP GoFundMe

BREAKTHROUGH

Breakthrough is a campaign accelerator that backs people who’ve lived through injustice to lead the drive for change.

I co-founded Breakthrough in 2020 to give people the strategy, connections and infrastructure to be heard, build power and win change that’s actually felt - in their lives and in their communities.

You've lived it, now lead the change

16 Campaigns
14 Laws and Policies Changed
13.8 Millions lives CHANGED

Zelda Perkins wearing Can't Buy My Silence tshirts
Kwajo Twenboa campaigning outside parliament
projection onto parliament
Delivering Better in Parliament

LET’S TALK

Looking for a speaker, inspiring workshop or strategic support for your next campaign? Get in touch.