Build With... Impact By Design ✨
How SOMOS splits every subscription with grassroots projects and our community impact fund.
Hey everyone - Khawar here 👋🏽
SOMOS is a social enterprise by design.
The aim is to build practices into every part of the business that support both grassroots organisations and workers doing social justice work.
This includes our business model i.e. how we earn money and where that money goes.
In today’s post, I’m going to break down how our pricing works and why it’s structured the way it is.
But first, let’s briefly look at where SOMOS sits in the wider landscape (and how our approach differs from the other ways freelancers and fractional professionals usually find work).
How Freelancers and Fractional Professionals Typically Find Work 🤔
There are three common routes for building a fractional or freelance career:
→ via recruiters
→ via marketplaces
→ going solo
The first two charge hefty commissions because they handle the part most people really hate… finding clients.
The problem?
Those commissions often stack up to 20–40% of earnings, indefinitely.
And because the platform/recruiter “owns” the commercial relationship, the worker never really builds long-term independence.
Going solo can give you freedom but also all the admin, marketing and responsibility for client acquisition that comes with it 🙈.
SOMOS exists to make the “going solo” route easier and smoother.
Our job is to give people the tools to market their services, operate more confidently and attract work that genuinely aligns with their values.
Commissions vs Monthly Fees 🤷🏾♂️
As we aren’t a “connector” like a recruiter or marketplace, we don’t charge commissions.
We’re instead structured like a software business:
→ one simple monthly subscription fee
→ no take-rate/commission
Along with being significantly cheaper for people, this approach is more sustainable in the long-term because our customers own their commercial relationships, not us.
How SOMOS Pricing Works and Why 🙌🏾
Alongside wanting to offer the best-value deal for our customers, our pricing is designed to benefit our wider ecosystem.
For every SOMOS subscription:
£5 goes to our Impact Fund, which supports long-term capacity building for community partners.
Another £5 goes directly to a grassroots project chosen by the customer, giving each subscriber a small but meaningful way to redistribute resources every month.
Given our current pricing is only £35/month, this donation element is a significant commitment.
Hopefully(!), it helps turn each subscription into a direct vehicle for strengthening communities and movements at a time when they really need it.
How Each Donation Component Works 🌍
The SOMOS Impact Fund 🟢
SOMOS has a unique co-ownership model.
From day one, we set aside a significant percentage of our equity to be shared with grassroots organisations, our advisors, team and eventually our customers too!
The Impact Fund is the part of our model created specifically for our community co-owners: the grassroots projects who receive gifted equity shares in SOMOS.
How it works
Each community co-owner is gifted 500 shares in SOMOS, with the exact same financial and voting rights as any other shareholder.
That means they:
→ receive dividends when SOMOS distributes profits
→ hold voting power in key decisions
→ receive a payout if SOMOS is ever sold
How the fund is financed
→ £5 from every monthly subscription goes directly into our Impact Fund, for the benefit of community co-owners.
→ In addition, SOMOS donates 1% of all additional revenue into the same fund, which is then shared equally among our core partners 😄
The funding we provide is unrestricted, giving partners the freedom to allocate donations where they’re most needed — from wages and capacity building to urgent programme costs or community support.
Our first core community partner: Conversation Over Borders 💛
As it stands, we have one community co-owner, Conversation Over Borders (COB).
I’ll follow up with a more detailed overview of their work, but it’s worth highlighting that despite a horrendous tide of racist, anti-migrant rhetoric in the UK — COB continues to provide thoughtful, cross-cultural support for refugees and asylum seekers.
Their growing community offers:
→ free English classes
→ mental health support
→ digital skills training
→ powerful advocacy and storytelling work
If you’d like to help them continue this essential work, you can do so here.
Projects We Love ❤️
Alongside the Impact Fund, every subscriber also directs £5/month to a grassroots organisation of their choice.
The idea is simple: if you’re building a mission-driven independent career, you should also have a say in where some of your subscription fee goes.
It’s a small but meaningful way for each customer to support the movements and communities they care about most.
How it works
When a customer signs up to SOMOS, they can choose from a curated list of grassroots organisations — each doing powerful work across a range of social justice issues.
Here’s our current list of Projects We Love:
BLAM 🏆
Supporting the wellbeing of Black communities through mental health, education and cultural advocacy.BuildPalestine 🌱
Strengthening the social innovation sector in Palestine by connecting values-led funders with impactful community initiatives.Conversation Over Borders 🤝
Connecting refugees and asylum seekers with volunteers for English lessons, befriending, and confidence-building.foodfacts.org 🍏
Providing credible, science-backed information to help people make informed choices about food and nutrition.Global Voices 🕊️
A multilingual community of journalists and human rights advocates amplifying underrepresented stories worldwide.LAWA 🌍
The UK’s only refuges run by and for Latin American women and children fleeing gender-based violence.Level Up 🔥
A feminist community campaigning for gender justice and liberation from systemic and bodily violence.Linguistic Justice Foundation ✊🏽
Advancing expert-driven, impactful interventions that promote linguistic justice globally.Médecins Sans Frontières 🚑
Delivering urgent medical and humanitarian support to save lives in more than 70 countries.People & Planet 🌍
A student-led movement organising campaigns against oppression, injustice, and environmental harm.Respond Crisis Translation 💬
Trauma-informed, around-the-clock interpretation for migrants and refugees when language is a barrier to dignity and safety.Tech For Palestine 🇵🇸
A coalition of founders, engineers, and advocates supporting Palestinian liberation and digital rights.
Over time, this list will grow.
We’ll invite suggestions from subscribers and use this pool of organisations to guide future Impact Fund beneficiaries too.
The goal is to let our community shape where resources flow — and to create a model where independent workers directly strengthen the movements they believe in. ✨
That’s it for now!
Thanks for being here 🙏🏽
Khawar | Founder @ SOMOS 👋🏽
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