How quickly can I write a newsletter? Today I’m going to find out. I’ve got a million and one other things that I should have done by now so this week’s edition is all about speed. It’s the Usain Bolt of newsletters, the Ferrari of email bulletins, the…well, you get the picture. I’m not messing around..
Time for a coffee break.
Enjoy this week’s news…
You spoke, we listened
Turns out that for a lot of people, Bethnal Green isn’t as convenient as London Bridge so we’ve moved the location of our Fellows event on September 26th. It will now take place from 6.30pm – 8.30pm at our offices on Tooley Street. This does mean that the capacity is slightly reduced, so book quickly is you want to come along for an informal evening of drinks, canapes and networking with other SSE Fellows and social entrepreneurs. (We’ll be running other events outside of London soon).
Speculate to accumulate
Tonight’s Euromillions jackpot is £143 million but I’m afraid there is no point you entering because I’ve already planned how I’m going to spend my winnings. (I’ll give everyone who read this newsletter £100.) But fear not, because you could be in with a chance to win a share of $1 million through the Chivas Venture prize.
I know it’s easy to think ‘I’ve got no chance, they’ll never pick me’ but SSE Fellow Cemal Ezel picked up the main award previously so why not give it a go? Entries need to be in by 31st October.
Keep it to yourself
“Let’s all finish up early and go for a drink”. “The meeting has been cancelled”. “Looks like tomorrow will be a snow day”. Three of the greatest sentences that can be uttered in an office. But none are quite as powerful as “do you want to know a secret?”. Everyone loves a good office secret. Just that opening gambit opens up a whole world of speculation and excitement. So it’s quite something that the good people of Good Finance will be broadcasting their own ‘secrets to preparing for the due diligence process’ live on the internet during a webinar on 26th September.
It’s free to take part, you can sign up here
Bear necessities
A nice piece of press coverage for SSE Fellow Kathy King, whose social enterprise Wild Wonder and Wisdom offers ‘Bear Grylls style adventure for young women facing anxiety, depression and isolation’. They’ve just completed a six week programme for six 14 -16 year olds who learned to kayak, SUP, light fires and cook over a campfire in a supportive and all female environment.
Contender, ready…. Facilitators, ready
Social enterprise, Wellbeing Enterprises CIC, are currently looking for freelance facilitators, social enterprises and voluntary organisations to work with to co-deliver fun, exciting and educational social prescribing courses across the Liverpool City Region. It doesn’t matter what your skill, background or interest is, they want to hear from you. They hope to give people the chance to discover new skills and passions, so get in touch if you can help. Good facilitator rates are available. Contact Caitlin Laws on 0151 237 2670 or via email at [email protected]
Stir it up
The New Economy Programme have launched ‘Stir to Action’, a series of workshops taking place in Plymouth, Bradford, Newcastle, Bristol, London, and Dorset from October 2019 to July 2020. There’s a whole range of topics on offer, from ‘Building Spaces for Community Inclusion’ to ‘Building a Powerful Brand Identity’ or ‘Movement Building Canvas’.
Funded places are available from a range of funding organisations
To boldly go
A useful opportunity for social enterprises in Scotland: ethical brand specialists BOLD are offering five social enterprises the chance to win high quality investment in their brand. They want to hear from organisations that ‘can demonstrate that they are approaching a point of change or would benefit significantly from a top level branding exercise.’
Up with the larks
The next Social Founders Forum takes place in London on Tuesday 1st October at EY London (just round the corner from us). It’s an early affair, kicking off at 8.30am and will cover ‘founder brand and communications’ – how social founders can harness the positive brand story of being a founder, and balance this with the brand of their organisation to win-win effect. Sarah Corbett of Craftivist Collective and Dr Hany El-Banna OBE of Islamic Relief are the headline acts.
Help a Fellow out
Two SSE Fellows have campaigns running at the moment that could do with your support:
Caroline Stephens’ organisation Footprints and Life Works, based in Dorset, has made it through to the last 15 charities for a potential grant of £50,000. The grant will to allow them to hire a workshop and staff to grow their delivery of training for ex-offenders and work experience opportunities in the community. If you follow this link and hit ‘show your support‘ you’ll help them on their way – it literally takes 10 seconds.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Noble is crowdfunding for her social enterprise Advantages of Age, which aims to build an online hub for the over 50s in the UK and provide the resources needed to start their own business. It’s a really interesting campaign, you can read more about it and back it here.
Social life
Finally, if you know a charity CEO (or trustee, leader, or rising star) who is a dab hand at social media or other areas of digital then now is the time to nominate them for this year’s Social CEO awards. There are eight categories to enter, voting closes on 27th September.
