Peter Coates Foundation

The Peter Coates Foundation drives urban regeneration in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire through place-based philanthropy blending education, entrepreneurship, and venture investment. Established by local entrepreneur Peter Coates, its mission fosters economic renewal by nurturing talent, stimulating high-tech business ecosystems, and generating jobs to raise productivity and underpin inclusive growth. Core values emphasize community commitment, opportunity creation for underserved locals, and long-term self-sustaining impact via human capital investment. Its venture philanthropy philosophy prioritizes high-potential individuals facing financial barriers, partnering with local institutions like Staffordshire University for capacity-building in business skills, believing transformative change arises from equipping entrepreneurial talent to launch innovative enterprises addressing urban economic decline.

It supports entrepreneurship education and employability interventions including full bursaries for MSc in Entrepreneurship programs delivering practical business training, skills development, and mentorship for budding entrepreneurs from deprived urban backgrounds lacking financial means, enabling start-up launches through seed investment. Thematic priorities target youth unemployment, economic development, and job creation via hands-on enterprise support, business incubation, and urban regeneration activities boosting local employment ecosystems. Interventions focus on talent identification, advanced entrepreneurial skills training, innovation fostering, and high-tech venture creation to tackle productivity gaps, business skills shortages, and economic exclusion in post-industrial communities, prioritizing self-starting individuals with drive for sustainable business growth and community-wide prosperity.

Exclusions encompass core costs, unrestricted grants, capital projects, or general revenue support for charities, with no open applications for non-local or non-entrepreneurial work. Distinctive as a hyper-local catalyst, it uniquely integrates education with venture funding for Stoke-on-Trent's deprived urban residents, favoring high-impact, evidence-based entrepreneurial pathways over broad social services. Priority beneficiaries are financially barred locals demonstrating business potential, especially young people and aspiring innovators in North Staffordshire's regeneration zones, valuing grassroots enterprise leadership and measurable economic multipliers.