A very misleading headline. This week’s edition is a little dry, it seems I used all my creative inspiration on last week’s poetry edition. So much so that I’m taking off on holiday for a couple of weeks to recharge my batteries. No Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You until 6th November, you’ll be relieved to hear.
Enjoy this week’s news (there’s a lot of it) and have a good couple of weeks.
Charities have been getting a rough time in the press recently, so it’s good to see some social enterprises getting positive PR. Lauren Razavi highlights the great range of organisations working in the sector in her piece “Social enterprises on a mission to make money – and change lives“. Next, Huffington Post takes a look at how UK Startups Are Leading The Way In Social Responsibility, featuring DNDP and We Walk The Line, both SSE Fellows. Finally, a good example of a business acting to tackle a social problem, as puzzle makers Gibson work to reduce loneliness. The world isn’t always a bad place…
A couple of months ago we ran our first ever crowdfunding workshop, and the results have been pretty positive so far. Paul Ryan raised £17,500 (against a target of £4500!) for Cafe Art and now two more of the participants have launched their campaigns. Amy Lishman and Aids Alliance hope to raise $15,000 to improve HIV care for 120 children and adolescents in India, while Carolyn Barber is raising £5000 for the Hampshire Festival of the Mind, taking place in May 2016. Check them both out! (If you have a crowdfunding campaign in mind, our next workshop is on 27th January).
Founder of the Big Issue John Bird has been appointed to the House of Lords, as a non-political party peer. Excellent to see such a firm advocate for social entrepreneurship appointed to the chamber.
Some funding news for you: Cosmetics firm Lush have £4,000 grants available to organisations that ‘support small, grassroots organisations around the world working in the following areas: environment; animal protection; and human rights’. Santander have £5,000 grants for ‘local charities or local projects of national charities’ in their Community Plus programme. Triangle Trust have £50,000 for organisations ‘working with carers or the rehabilitation of offenders or ex-offenders within the UK’ – applications need to be in by 5th November.
Current SSE student Louisa Weinstein is running workplace and employment and civil and commercial mediation courses through her organisation The Conflict Resolution Centre. The Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediation Skills Training course takes place on February 6th, and Accredited Workplace and Employment Mediation Skills Training takes place on February 22nd. Enter ‘SSE’ as a promotional code and you’ll receive a discount.
Social Saturday took place last weekend, but if you missed it (or you just miss it) there’s a bonus event taking place this weekend in Canary Wharf as social enterprise The Doing Well offer a free mindfulness taster session between 3pm and 5pm. You can book your spot here.
The SSE network have been busy picking up awards left, right and centre. Handmade Alliance, founded by SSE Fellow Mari Duthie, picked up the Charity Times ‘Social Champion Award’ at the Charity Times Awards, regular speaker on SSE courses Georgie Fienberg and her organisation Afrikids won ‘Best International Charity’ at the same event, and current student Harriet Laurie and her organisation The Horse Course have been shortlisted for the Guardian Charity Awards. In Cornwall, recent SSE graduate Nikki Markham (of Transferable Skills Training) was part of a group which one awarded the prestigious Sir Eric Dancer Thriving Communities Award in recognition of the work of the ‘Together We Can Succeed’ programme.
SSE Yorkshire and Humber are running a one-day ‘Introduction to Measuring Social Impact‘ on November 24th. Speaking on the course will be Andy Peers, Operations Director (Yorkshire) for the British Red Cross as well as Sue Osborne, CEO of SSE Yorkshire & Humber and North-East. Snap up your place before they all go.
Finally, Co-operative Bank and Co-operatives UK plan to launch a £1m programme of support for the ‘co-operative economy’. The scheme is set to launch next year and run for three years.
Coming up at SSE
- Working with Corporates (Midlands), SSE Midlands, 3rd November
- Working with Corporates (Cornwall), SSE Cornwall, 6th November
- Kickstart Your Social Media Strategy, SSE London, 17th November
- An Introduction to Measuring Social Impact, SSE Yorks, 24th Nov
- Sources of Funding, SSE London, 27th November
- Writing Successful Bids, SSE London, 4th December
