We started as a Facebook group for students at the University of Bristol. Feeling that she didn’t fit in amongst her predominantly wealthy peers, our founder Sophie Pender started The 93% Club to create a community for all the students who went to university without one.

As the Bristol club grew to 200 members, Sophie’s story resonated with students across the country and the 93% movement gained traction. In 2018, our second club launched in Durham and marked the beginning of our national expansion.

In the year the pandemic hit, The 93% Club went virtual and expanded rapidly to reach over 10,000 students at more than 45 universities. We secured funding from big-name organisations to run our first training and networking initiatives for university students and we incorporated as a charity, The 93% Foundation.

The success of our student programmes garnered international media attention and we opened the doors as we turned the student network into a members’ club for state-educated people across the length and breadth of the UK.

In 2023, we embarked on one of our biggest projects yet. Building on the success of our student network and responding to calls from state educated professionals, we launched 93% Professionals - closing the loop on our alternative to inaccessible old boys’ networks.