The Cat’s Mother network has provided connections since 2019 for diverse young women wanting to build careers in the creative industries. Today (March 10), the not-for-profit will host its first ever fundraiser to directly safeguard the enterprise's future as well as its beneficiaries.
Natalie Wade (pictured above), Campaigner winner at the 2023 Women In Music Awards, is the co-founder of Small Green Shoots, which creates pathways and training for young people from low-income backgrounds and opens up access to the creative industries. Wade later co-founded the female-focused industry mentoring and networking service, The Cat’s Mother. The service now counts more than 230 active mentors (Cat’s Mothers) who represent different roles within the music industry – from marketing to management, legal to licensing, PR to publishing.
Here, Music Week hears from Wade and co-chairs of The Cat's Mother, Women In Music Roll Of Honour 2020 inductee Sara Lord, and Charlotte-Anne Myler, about the mentoring platform and why it is holding its first fundraiser in 2026.
Firstly, how and why was The Cat’s Mother founded?
Natalie: “I’d founded Small Green Shoots in 2009 and one of my successes from that was Niki Evangelou who was working there and helped me build the company. We kept noticing something. Every time we had a new intake of ‘sharps’ [people aged 18-24] – the people we’d train to become ‘shoots’ – all the boys would be like, ‘I want to do digital, I want to do A&R, I’d love to get a shot at marketing.’ And the girls were like, ‘I’m really organised, I’m really good with people, I could be a receptionist.’ Unequivocally, there was a difference there.
“I thought, ‘There's still work for us to do.’ But I didn’t know how to do it through the mechanism of Small Green Shoots. I was so desperately under-resourced; I had little time, little money. So me and Niki came up with the idea to get other people – like Sara, initially – to help us to spread the load. That’s how we came up with the idea of banking time. We don't have the money, but we can use the time of some of the people that have given us goodwill instead to help us to address this imbalance.”
For those who aren’t so familiar with The Cat's Mother, what services does it provide?
Charlotte-Anne: “The foundation is one-off, 30-minute chats between mentees and mentors, which can be online or in person. The mentees come prepared with a handful of questions they want answered. And if they can't get the answers they need, they can speak to someone else or attend our networking events. This month, we have one at Factory International in Manchester based around International Women's Month, which is on the same day as the MOBOs [March 26]. We have another in Nottingham [on March 13] as well, which is part of Beatknot's Music Academy Festival. So we're there online but we want to be there in person, too, and we want to grow and reach different regions.”
Charlotte Anne-Myler
Natalie: “On the regional thing, the biggest regret I had about Small Green Shoots, which was something that I couldn't help, was that it was London-based. I wanted it to be accessible to everybody but I had to base myself near the music industry to make it viable, you know? And what I realised with Cat's Mother is that I could learn from the problems of Small Green Shoots and take it out of the business model of The Cat's Mother. So having it be online has made it regional, more egalitarian.”
Another great outcome for us would be to find two or three companies who want to partner with us on a longer-term basis. We’d have the security of being able to plan things further in advance, being able to make sure that the two jobs that we need to be done – the events and the fixing – are done really well. And we want to continue to grow regionally, which is something we’re passionate about.
Sara Lord
You're hosting a fundraiser dinner tonight at The Club at The Ivy in London. Can you tell us why it's happening now and how you plan to ringfence the money raised?
Sara: “We've been very lucky that we've had early support from a couple of companies, which kicked in after Covid. We’ve had amazing support from Amazon Music UK for the last two years that’s been very focused on the network’s regional aspect. Laura Lukanz [head of music, Amazon Music UK/ANZ] is a massive supporter of ours and one of the best people out there. That’s one of the things she’s very passionate about. She comes from Manchester and she didn't originally know anyone in London, so it was that thinking of, ‘How do we get people to be brave to come to a place where they don’t know anyone? How can we help with that?’
“And then we've had a couple of private donations. PPL were very generous as well. We’ve had industry support, but these things are expensive and there’s always room to give more money. So with the fundraiser, the two main wishes are: we know that we can do between three-to-five events a year, with half of those being regional, and the money raised will allow for getting three or four of us on a train, and for the fixer, the events manager and the social media manager to be paid, and for us to be able hold these events to continue to give any support we can to the young women.
“But another great outcome for us would be to find two or three companies who want to partner with us on a longer-term basis. We’d have the security of being able to plan things further in advance, being able to make sure that the two jobs that we need to be done – the events and the fixing – are done really well. And we want to continue to grow regionally, which is something we’re passionate about.”
What’s different about The Cat’s Mother compared to other social enterprises?
Natalie: “We didn’t want to put a burden on the very busy women who are Cat’s Mothers. It’s about creating resilience amongst young people. We did a lot of research when we first started and saw that a lot of [schemes] weren't overly successful. So our thing was, ‘Build your network, meet a Cat’s Mother once and then they’ll refer you to someone else who's another Cat's Mother who's working in a similar area to what you want.’ All that time, that young person is expanding their network. After Covid, a lot of young people have found it quite difficult to put themselves in front of people. The Cat's Mother helps those underlying issues and their soft skills. The women learn how to present themselves to someone new every time they're introduced to a new Cat's Mother. And, for me, that's one of the really unique aspects about what the network does: you see someone, then you're referred to somebody else. There's no dependency, there's just resilience.”
Sara Lord
Sara: “One of the best examples of what we’ve done differently is that we held a workshop at PPL's offices where we had a business/life coach come in and do an hour-long workshop with about 30 young women. It was because everyone said, ‘Oh, I hate networking.’ She did lots of practical exercises, such as group chats. Then we walked the young women to a bar around the corner where we had about 30 Cats Mothers sat there and we said, ‘Right, go! Your homework is to get an email or a LinkedIn or a coffee or something.’ We gave them a practical target. It was such a brilliant evening.”
Natalie: “Also, we're not one of them condescending, 'This is how you do it’-type things. We're not a school; we're trying to give women the tools to empower themselves. So if they come back and say, ‘Actually, we'd like to do this,’ then that becomes our next agenda. We collect feedback and we deliver on that basis, which is why we're still here talking to you today.”
We didn’t want to put a burden on the very busy women who are Cat’s Mothers. It’s about creating resilience amongst young people.
Natalie Wade
Anything else you’d like to mention about the platform and its aims?
Natalie: “What I will say is The Cat's Mother is so stealthy. It’s the most low cost, high value social enterprise that I've ever worked alongside. The quality is fantastic. Small Green Shoots – and there's other charities – what they do is great, but they need grant funding, permanent bases, and they have high overheads. This was set up to be the antithesis of that: to be light, stealthy. It's the industry investing in itself. We don't have to have a department of fundraisers. We can't pay for that. We want the money to be front-loaded with the young people we're working with. We want to make sure that the money given goes straight to the beneficiaries rather than to a charitable administration. And I understand there's a place for that, but at The Cat's Mother, we want to do things differently. We want it to be very big on ROI for anyone who invests in us.”
Charlotte-Anne: “Our formula works. And, obviously, we’re looking for more partners and outside in other regional spaces, too. So any leading businesses that want to collaborate – get in touch.”
For donations to support the ongoing work of The Cat’s Mother, including mentoring, training, masterclasses and workshops, regional and London events including The Cat’s Mother of the Year Awards, follow this link. For all other enquiries, including partnership opportunities or other ways to support the network, contact: laura@thecatsmother.co.uk
PHOTO: Natalie Wade of The Cat's Mother
