Sometimes there’s no need for gimmicks to dress up a newsletter, you can just let the news do the talking. This is one of those weeks. There is literally shed loads of stuff going on at the moment. “Dave, this sounds like you are trying to cover up the fact that you had nothing witty to write this week” I can hear some of you say. Absolutely not true. Absolutely not.
Enjoy the news, and have a good weekend.
Ole! Our Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme is now open for applications. This year we’ll be supporting 300 social entrepreneurs across the UK to either start or scale their social enterprise. If successful, you’ll get a place on a 14 day learning programme and we’ll even give you a grant too.
We’re trying to increase the number of workshops delivered outside of London and SSE Yorkshire and Humber are running a couple of excellent courses over the next few months. First up is a one day course for trustees on Measuring Social Impact taking place in Leeds on March 8th. They’ll then be delivering our Action Learning Facilitator Training in April and May.
In Cornwall, the fantastic YSC will be running their two-day Sustainable Leadership course over 11th March and 22nd April and they are currently offering a 50% discount on bookings. There are only a limited number of places available.
Not to be outdone, our Midlands school are delivering Crowdfunding for Charities, Social Enterprises & Communities in Birmingham on May 3rd. You can help to make all these courses successful by booking on and spreading the word!
Further afield, we officially launched the School for Social Entrepreneurs India this week. We’re currently recruiting our first cohort, and you can read more about the launch here.
I’m going off message here so whisper it very quietly and don’t tell anyone I told you, but our Lloyds programme isn’t the only programme of support for social entrepreneurs currently accepting applications. The RBS Skills and Opportunities Fund also opened this week, and you’ve got until 8th February to apply for Goldman Sach’s 10000 Small Businesses Programme.
If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas. But if only the trustees of Kids Company had read Sayer Vincent’s new guide to help readers of charity accounts…
SSE Fellow Madeline Alterman is looking for a Chairperson for her fantastic organisation Artbox, which supports people with learning disabilities to create, exhibit and sell their artwork. It’s an exciting time to get involved with a social enterprise looking to scale.
Also on the hunt for candidates are The Foundation for Training and Education in Care, who are looking to appoint a Chief Executive. It looks like a very interesting role within a charity taking a new strategic direction.
The cheeky scamps at SEUK are down to the last few tickets for next Thursday’s Social Value Summit in London, so be quick if you want to go. They’ll then be heading up the M40 to Birmingham on March 3rd for Fit for the Future, examining the role of social enterprises and charities in health and social care.
SSE Fellow Jaki Bent literally wants to put you on the map. She’s launched Ododow, an ambitious project to map 160,000+ UK Charities, Non-Profits and Community Projects. It takes about two minutes to add your own organisation.
Finally, bookings are coming in for our 6 day Transition to Trading course which starts on March 31st. It’s aimed at charities and social enterprises who want to generate more income through sales. Give me a shout if you want any more info.
What’s on at SSE:
- Replication and Social Franchising, SSE London, starts 25th February
- Measuring Social Impact – Leeds, SSE Yorks + Humber, 8th March
- Sources of Funding for Charities and Social Enterprises, SSE London, 11th March
- YSC Sustainable Leadership, SSE Cornwall, 11th March + 22nd April
- Working with Corporates, SSE London, 23rd March
- Transition to Trading, SSE London, Starts 31st March
