It’s Friday 13th today, so in the absence of me having anything else interesting to report here’s a fact for you to amaze / bore your colleagues with: fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia. This seems to be an almost unpronounceable word, but detailed further research led me to discover something even stranger; fear of long words is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. That’s just absurd.
So there you have it. Bit of a strange opening paragraph, but at least we’ve all learned something. Oh yeah – don’t forget it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday if you haven’t got a card in the post yet.
Photo Credit: abbyladybug via Compfight cc
Enough trivia, here’s the news:
- Impact investment fund Ignite are looking for energy sector or energy-related social enterprises to invest in. The team will be hosting a series of roadshows in 2015, the first of which takes place in Oxford on 20th April. You can find out more here.
- We’ve still got some places on next week’s Measuring Social Impact course next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s usually a sell-out, so take the opportunity and book your place now. There is also space on our Sources of Funding workshop next Friday, so if you’ve got some training budget left this year you should spend it before it’s too late.
- It’s Comic Relief today, and SSE Fellow Caroline Morgan has gone to work today with her make-up done by her daughter – if you’d like to donate a few quid you can sponsor her here. Evidence should by now be available at https://twitter.com/foodiedorset88. (If you think that’s bad, I’ve come to work without any make-up on at all).
- Next week is the Edible Garden Show at Alexandra Palace (20th-22nd March), and thanks to SSE Fellow Emerald Poole and her organisation Aquaponics, readers of HIGSENFY can get two tickets for £25, instead of 16 quid each. You can find out more about the show, and about Aquaponics, here. If you’d like to take advantage of the discount enter AQUA25 when making your booking.
- Everyone loves a good list, so here’s SSE Chair of Trustee’s Charlotte Young with ‘5 tips on building a board for your social enterprise‘. (Watch out for our next clickbait blog post, ‘You won’t believe these social enterprise funding sources’).
- SSE Fellow Esther Foreman has been working with the Young Foundation to develop The People’s Panel, a live crowdfunding festival supporting six start-up social justice organisations. 400 people are expected to attend with a view to supporting the projects. It sounds like a lot of fun! It takes place on March 30th from 7pm-9pm in London and is free to attend, but you need to register here.
- A new fund has been set up to for charities and voluntary groups empowering women to tackle abuse. Grants of between £2000 and £20,000 are available, and the deadline for application is 31st March. You can find more details here. (Thanks to Sharla Duncan for sending this my way).
- The Social Economy Alliance has launched their ‘General Election Charter Campaign’, which is aimed at getting as many parliamentary candidates as possible to come out in support of the social economy. If you follow this link you can message your local candidates and ask them for their support. You can also download a campaign pack to help raise awareness in your local area.
- A social enterprise in Edinburgh is offering the opportunity for you to win dinner with George Clooney. The prize also includes an overnight stay for two in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh, which seems a little forward of George…
- Finally, we’ve added some more taster sessions for our Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme. There are still tasters to be run in Salford, Liverpool, Shepherd’s Bush, Plaistow, Bradford, Dundee, Stirling, Plymouth, London Bridge, Ipswich, Sunderland, Redruth, St Austell, and Bristol.
Have a good week!
