Mental Health Innovations (MHI) and The Mix have announced they are merging, with a focus on strengthening early intervention for young people.
Both charities are oriented around their digital offer, with MHI specialising in mental health data insights and The Mix delivering confidential support for under-25s online and via phone and social channels.
They have worked in partnership since 2018, when MHI launched its free Shout 24/7 text messaging support service.
To date it has engaged with 830,000 children, young people and adults across 2.5 million separate conversations, according to MHI, with 62% of users under 25.
History and finances
MHI was set up in late 2017 with grant funding from the Royal Foundation, and launched Shout soon afterwards.
Its gross income has risen steadily, apart from a slight dip in 2021, from £3.79m at the end of 2018 to £6.12m at the end of 2022. Its expenditure in 2022 was £6.74m.
Meanwhile The Mix was born out of a 2016 merger between the YouthNet and Get Connected charities, both of which were set up in the 1990s. The charity’s official name has remained YouthNet UK.
Its gross income reached £3m in 2020 but has since declined amid a difficult funding environment, to £1.86m for the year to 30 June 2023. Financial statements for that period warned the charity “has a high level of revenue and [gifts in kind] from one corporate and a high level of restricted trust funding affecting cash flow”.
MHI said the merger will be completed mid-September, and the senior mangement team and boards of both charities have been working together for nine months to establish how to combine.
The charity added: “In common with the majority of charities, we’re finding the current economic climate a huge challenge for fundraising. This has, in part, been why we have proactively been seeking opportunities to increase our collaboration, to find efficiencies and to provide a bigger, higher profile base for fundraising.
“We are delighted to have raised an additional £2m over three years to date, from four cornerstone foundations, to enable us to fund the merger. Our ability to secure such substantial funding is testament to the strong case built both by ourselves and The Mix for the valuable role that digital services have to play in reaching some of the most vulnerable people in the UK.”
Two CEOs to continue for now
Victoria Hornby, MHI’s chief executive, said: “Bringing The Mix together with Mental Health Innovations, alongside our Shout text messaging support service, will hugely strengthen our offer for the nation’s young people.
“The merger of our charities will mean we will be able to improve the mental wellbeing of millions of young people through a broader digital offering encompassing an ecosystem of support and empowerment,” she added.
Hornby and her counterpart at The Mix, Chris Martin, will both continue in their CEO roles for the foreseeable future, a spokesperson said.
They said they were “not expecting any restructure that would result in a significant number of redundancies”, although overall organisational structure may be looked at “in the future”.
Staff, who already share offices, are working on joint projects and will not face any relocations or office closures.
The Mix and Shout will be retained as brands, while MHI, now the parent organisation, may be rebranded in due course.
Online resources and direct peer support
In announcing the merger, MHI said its pathway for young people will expand to focus on early intervention through an online support community, discussion boards and online resources, as well as offering more volunteering opportunities that enable young people to directly contribute to supporting their peers.
MHI also said it plans to develop various new products including self-paced learning modules, single-session counselling interventions, an expanded chatbot offering and peer-led one-to-one interventions. These will be co-created with young people engaged with the charity, it said.
Martin, The Mix’s chief executive, said the joining of the two charities offers “an incredible opportunity… to drive earlier intervention for young people’s mental health”.
“Our combined team of amazing practitioners hold unique skills in youth participation and engagement, clinical expertise, volunteering, digital development and data science,” Martin added.
“We will build these elements into The Mix’s work, in order to deliver new interventions with young people at their heart. We believe that this new partnership will create transformational change now and in the future.”
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