Community marketing agency

Started from her bedroom with a second-hand laptop, Katherine Sparkes set about convincing large companies to entirely outsource their Corporate Social Responsibility budgets. Set free from corporate confines, Sparkes says her boutique agency Flamingo 'runs amok with ideas'. Projects have included Bra Bank, a donation programme to help women in remote African villages and raise money for Breast Cancer Care. Clients include pub chain Orchid Group, heralded by the United Nations for its CSR policy as 'the ideal blueprint for how all modern companies should be run'. Flamingo also practices what it preaches, creating a social media campaign to build a community school in Kenya and supporting local schools' enterprise activities. Flamingo's social endeavours aren't at the expense of its bottom line however, with annual growth of 26%.

• Self-funded, zero start-up cost, just three full-time employees
• Helping corporate companies deliver meaningful CSR activity
• Walks the talk: used social media to build a school in Kenya