JOHN KIRKBY, FOUNDER and international director of the poverty-relief charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP), understands the burden of money worries. At 32, the former consumer finance professional was £78,000 in debt, following a string of bad decisions. Guided by his faith, he says, he renegotiated with his creditors, reducing his debt to £25,000 within four years. Moved by the poverty he witnessed in his home town of Bradford, in 1996 Kirkby left a successful job to use his consumer finance skills to found CAP. From its first office in Kirkby's home, CAP has grown into an international charity, still based in Bradford. Its 247 staff at 22 locations throughout Britain provide debt counselling, a back-to-work programme, an addiction-tackling initiative and financial education. Operating a growing network of 260 debt centres, 852 money courses, 93 job clubs and 22 release groups — all run in partnership with local churches — CAP helps people of all faiths out of debt and poverty. Employees are inspired by Kirkby and chief executive Matt Barlow, joint winners of our Leadership special award this year (94% positive, the top score among small not-for-profit organisations). They receive further unbeaten scores for running CAP on sound morals (97%) and for having a plan that staff believe in (94%). Added to the spiritual reward of helping those in need, staff are well looked after by CAP, which puts 5% of salary into non-contributory pensions and gave everybody a pay rise last year. Its people are happier with their benefits than any others on our list (88%), with the top result for feeling fairly paid for their responsibilities (81%). www.capuk.org
