The Challenge Network, the UK’s biggest provider of the government’s National Citizen Service programme, has secured an investment worth £700,000 to help it develop new ways of earning income.

The investment, a £100,000 grant plus £600,000 worth of business skills, is being provided by the Social Business Trust.

The project being funded aims to deliver a strategic plan with recommendations about identifying and shaping services to enable the Challenge to increase its earned income and reduce its reliance on grants and donations.

The Challenge Network aims to bring together young people from different social backgrounds and develop their skills in teamwork, leadership and communication.  By doing so it hopes to increase their sense of responsibility and motivate them to improve their local communities.

It was one of 12 providers selected by the government to pilot the National Citizen Service for 16 and 17-year-olds and will provide 3,240 places in London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

Craig Morley, chief executive of the Challenge Network, said the investment would enable the organisation to make a step-change in the way it operates “and generate income to ensure we are sustainable long into the future”.

This is the second investment by the Social Business Trust, a partnership of six global businesses who have joined forces to use their expertise to help support social enterprises. The first was in recruitment agency Women Like Us -  a £200,000 grant plus additional business support.

The six founding partners of the Social Business Trust are Bain & Company, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Permira and Thomson Reuters.