There’s only one topic of conversation this morning really isn’t there? After what seemed like weeks of endless hype, build up, comment and media coverage we now know the result: İstanbul Başakşehir beat Mönchengladbach 2-1 in the Europa League. I know, I didn’t see it coming either.

Will things ever be the same again? Only time will tell. But I guess we just have to come to terms with it and move on, and how better than a bit of social enterprise news…

@davemcglashan

I suppose we’d better talk about it

There was of course an election yesterday and a couple of weeks ago I promised to let you know how readers of Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You intended to vote. After a busy night last night counting ballot papers I can exclusively reveal the results:

• Labour 62.18%
• Liberal Democrats 14.29%
• Greens 10.92%
• SNP 5.04%
• Conservatives 4.2%
• Co-operative Party 0.84%
• SDLP 0.84%
• Brexit Party 0.84%
• Other 0.84%

We can dream, I guess..

As easy as abc

I’ve been practicing my grammar this week, paying particular attention to the Oxford comma. Want an example? Here you go: take a look at this great article featuring some of the top quotes from the Women In Social Enterprise 100 event from a whole range of amazing, exceptional and inspirational social entrepreneurs, and our CEO Alastair Wilson.

Read the article here 

Free money

Do you work for a charity, community interest company, charitable incorporated organisation or community benefit society with annual income of less than £500,000? Would you like an unrestricted grant of up to £30,000? Then step over here my friend and allow me to introduce you to The Fore. They are currently accepting registrations for the next round of funding – be quick though, the number of registrations is capped.

Find out more

Don’t be a Kylie

My colleague Kylie borrowed my drill about six months ago and she is yet to return it so it’s probably best if we don’t tell her about the recently opened Human Lending Library in Manchester. Social entrepreneurs looking for business advice can ‘borrow’ a business expert for free, to help them solve their challenges and scale fast. And they’ve got some pretty impressive experts, including the founders of Pret-a-Manger, Carphone Warehouse, John Frieda, Mumsnet and many other leading companies.

cartier replicaYou can get more info here

Ooh ah, PR

The PR and Communications Council will be encouraging PR and communications agencies to “buy social” from social enterprises in 2020. Simon Francis, the newly elected Chair of the Council, is keen to hear from any HIGSENFY readers who can suggest social enterprises that the sector should be using. If you’d like to get in touch with him, you can reach him on Twitter: @si_francis

Something to smile about

Congratulations to SSE student Alex Winstanley, whose organisation Happy Smiles has been chosen as a Co-op Local Cause in Wigan. Happy Smiles was set up with the aim of improving social inclusion, by showing what people with disabilities can do, rather than what they can’t and supports people with disabilities to become inclusion champions. They’ll receive 1% of Co-op members’ shopping bills in the Wigan store.

Read more here

Express yourself

Forward planners can now complete an expression of interest form for our Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme. It’s SSE’s biggest learning programme offers a peer-to-peer support network with like-minded social entrepreneurs, a mentor and a grant (£1k for start-up, £4k for trade up and £7k for scale up). If you complete the form we’ll pop you an email as soon as we open applications.

Further details here

Do you want a new job?

Because here are a few that might be of interest:

We are looking for two development officers (£32,061 – £33, 023 pro rata) on a part time basis to bolster our fundraising efforts. We’re flexible on location – you could be based from one of our network schools or even work in your pyjamas at home. Apply by 13th January.

The SEIDs Social Innovation & Enterprise Hub in Wembley (look it up on a map, Arsenal fans) are recruiting a Managing Director (£65k). The successful candidate will manage, scale and develop SEIDS existing social enterprises and oversee the successful development of new enterprises – if you’ve got wide knowledge of the social enterprise or business sector you can apply here by Sunday 15th December.

replika schuhe

Collaborate and listen

We recently ran an event in Liverpool for SSE Fellows on the subject of campaigning, communicating and collaborating (I can think of a few people who should have attended). Our head of comms Sophie has put together a blog covering how the event unfolded. By all accounts it was brilliant – keep an eye out for similar events throughout 2020.

Read Sophie’s blog

Heal the world, make it a better place…

An interesting looking conference in London on 5th – 8th February: The Creative Change Makers Conference will connect the best creative minds in industry and business’ who share a vision to build a fairer, healthier and more sustainable world. Charities and NGOs can apply for free or discounted tickets.

Check it out here

Gift aid

Finally, a frankly incredible resource from Madeleine Sugden – if you’ve still got a Secret Santa gift to buy she’s put together a whole list of ideas so that you can avoid buying pointless plastic tat.

See the list here

You can do this thing on Facebook which allows you to build a profile of your audience based on people who like your page. For example, someone who is connected to SSE is likely to favour Owen Jones as a journalist, read the Guardian and be a fan of David Lammy and Caroline Lucas. The Wilderness Festival is where they get their musical kicks and if they are looking for a new job they’ll do it via Guardian Jobs. They get their electricity from Ecotricity and if they were having a day out in London it would be at either the Royal Academy of Arts or the Barbican Centre.

What it doesn’t tell me, however, is how they are likely to vote for in the election. So I’ve created an anonymous, one question poll: let me know who you’re voting for and I’ll share the results next week.

(If you’re interested, the results from the last time we did this in 2015 are available here.)

Enjoy the news…

@davemcglashan

Pin the tail on the donkey

Can you have too much election coverage? I’m going to go for an unequivocal yes. Once you get to three debates, a couple of Andrew Neil interviews and some melting globes it begins to feel excessive. If you’ve reached saturation point but feel like you really should know how the election is going to impact the charity and social enterprise sector then ACEVO’s Kristiana Wrixon has you covered. She’s put together a blog summarising how each party’s manifesto will affect the sector.

Read it here

If you’d like tonight’s lottery numbers

Using figures from the 2011 census I have calculated that there are 565,217 houses in Wales. I have stayed in one of them. In one of those ‘gosh, isn’t the world a small place’ scenarios I’m fairly confident that it’s the one hosting the Female Social Entrepreneurs Retreat in January. The odds on that? 565,217 to 1 I’d guess.

What is the Female Social Entrepreneurs Retreat? It’s a 3 days connection, learning, social impact planning and rejuvenation in the beautiful wilds of the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales running from 21st – 23rd January.

You can find out more here

A brand new section in this newsletter

For possibly one week only, here’s all your latest crowdfunding news:

SSE Fellow Christina Wheatley is crowdfunding for Edible Rotherhithe, delivering free after-school workshops to children & young people who live in areas of economic deprivation, food insecurity and poor air quality. A successful campaign will mean they are able to dramatically increase the number of workshops they are able to run. You can back the campaign here.

In Liverpool, SSE Fellow Paul Myers is raising money for Greens for Good, a campaign to bring fresh, nutritious, local greens to schools, homes and businesses across the city. You can pledge from £5 and rewards span from a postcard to and edible wall…back the campaign here.

If all of this has piqued your interest and you want to know how to run a crowdfunding campaign for your organisation, we’ve still got places on Monday’s Crowdfunding for Charities and Social Enterprises workshop. You can book one here.

What do Romania, Barbados and Scotland have in common?

No, the answer isn’t anything to do with failing to qualify for World Cups. They all celebrate St. Andrews Day, which is tomorrow. But only Scotland is searching for social enterprise hotspots that can become the country’s newest Social Enterprise Places. If you live or work somewhere that social enterprise is thriving and are interested in finding out more contact [email protected].

Roll of the dice

An interesting opportunity from the British Council, who are looking for organisations with an in-depth understanding of the UK’s social economy to become suppliers to their DICE programme, which works with entrepreneurs across Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa and the UK. They want to hear from researchers, organisations that can deliver training and conveners – ‘ facilitators, artists, event designers, theatre practitioners and conference planners (etc) who are able to bring together people who often hold diverse, and often contradicting perspectives. ‘

Find out more here

Music sounds better with you

If you find yourself in Brighton tomorrow evening at a loose end you could go and see ‘Kind Rebellion’, a new performance from New Note Orchestra (founded by SSE Fellow Molly Mathieson). Featuring newly composed music, film, animation and poetry it’s been extremely well received so far, gaining a standing ovation at The Attenborough Centre a couple of weeks ago.

It starts at 7.30pm at the Brighthelm Centre on North Road and you can buy a ticket here. 

Ready, steady, grow

The Growth Project are looking for the leaders of charities with a turnover of £200k – £2m to take part in a one year Growth Programme, which will bring together charity
and business leaders to help charities ‘maximise their impact on the
world.’ It’s free to take part and the content looks really good.

Applications close on 10th January

Apply for Thrive

Also looking for applicants are Unltd, who are recruiting for their Thrive social accelerator programme. They want to hear from you if you’re working to improve access to employment for those distant from the labour market or you’re developing products and services for an ageing society. On offer is six months support and the opportunity to secure investment of up to £50,000.

Find out more here 

Situations vacant

We’re looking for a Development Manager (£37,085 – £37,903) to come in a raise loads of money for SSE. If you believe in the potential of social entrepreneurship to create social change, if you are ready to build exciting new partnerships that will diversify our income and support our long-term sustainability and if you are willing to work collaboratively as part of a fun yet focused team then apply by Monday 9th December.

Fancy working for London’s first specialty coffee training academy? Well you can, if you apply for Well Grounded’s Programme Manager (£26-£30k) role. Set up by SSE Fellow Eve Wagg, Well Grounded connect people looking for work with sustainable careers in the coffee industry, regardless of their background. If you’ve got great programme management, leadership and organisational skills then apply by 2nd December.

For the impatient

If you really can’t wait until December 12th and want to vote for something right now then you can support SSE Fellow Alex Baine and his organisation London Football Journeys in the Charity Film Awards. Unlike the election, your vote really does count.

You can vote for them here

Uh-oh

Finally – pointless emails: they’re not just irritating – they have a massive carbon footprint. I’d better start planting some trees.

Have you been watching I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here? Don’t judge me, it’s perfect TV escapism on a cold November night.

For those of you haven’t had the pleasure of viewing, the premise of the show is fairly simple: a group of ‘celebrities’ (you won’t have heard of most of them) are left to fend for themselves in the rainforest in Australia. While there, they carry out a series of fairly mundane and repetitive tasks (called Bushtucker trials) in order to earn stars that earn them a meal that evening. The tasks are made harder and more unpleasant by adding an element of physical or mental jeopardy – one of the tasks this week involved contestants suspended in a glass box 50 feet in the air that was filled with rats and various creepy crawlies.

It all seems very far removed from reality, until you look at more closely. Think about it: this week, I have come to work to perform various tasks in order to earn money to pay for a meal each evening. I have carried out these tasks at my desk, which is contained within a glass box-like office on the second floor, about 20 foot in the air. We have a mouse problem, one could run across my feet at anytime. All that’s missing are Ant and Dec.

There’s only one thing for it: “I’m a School for Social Entrepreneurs employee, get me out of heeeeeeeeeeeere…”

Enjoy the news.

@davemcglashan

I got 439,200 seconds to go

At 11am today there will be just 439,200 seconds until we close applications for our Community Business Trade Up programme. (I know you’ve done the maths already, but just to confirm that’s 1pm on Wednesday). If you are running an organisation or project that exists to improve your local neighbourhood, village or town and you would like to grow your income from trading, make more impact and become more sustainable then click below for more info.

Just here

As rare as hen’s teeth

Odd expression that. Still, it’s not often that one of our Measuring Social Impact courses doesn’t sell out but we still have a couple of places on our course taking place at the end of the month. If you want to come on what I believe is officially the best two-day Measuring Social Impact course taking place on 27th + 28th November in London facilitated by nef consulting in the entire world then you should book your place soon.

You can do so here

Here’s one I made earlier

Once you’ve been on the Measuring Social Impact course and you’ve gathered all your impact data the next thing to do is to put an impact report together. Looking for an example of one? Well, Social Investment Business have recently released theirs, giving a bit of insight into one of the longest track records in social investment (£400m+ over 17 years).

You can read it here

A – Z

When I first moved to London I had to queue up every week to buy a paper zone 1-3 weekly travel card, which I’d invariably lose at least once a month. Now, if I wanted, I could pay for my journey to work using my mobile phone. Mind blowing. (I don’t because I always worry about my battery running out. Same with plane boarding cards. No way I’m risking that one). But now London needs some new ideas, so the 2019 Civic Innovation Challenge is open…

The  programme will bring together tech startups, leading organisations and London communities to co-create innovative solutions to complex social challenges. There’s an opportunity to be awarded a £40k public sector contract to pilot your solution and grow your business, with support from GLA, Microsoft and Social Tech Trust to co-design and refine your proposition with Londoners.

Apply by 12th December

Ho ho ho

I know Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You readers are an efficient lot and you all did your Christmas shopping months ago but if you’ve got a couple of extra gifts to buy our friends at Social Enterprise UK have just published their Christmas gift guide. Yes, it contains some socks for your dad.

Read it here

Does what it says on the tin

Yesterday was Social Enterprise Day, a day dedicated to all things er, social enterprise (the name kind of gives it away, doesn’t it?). The team at Thomson Reuters gathered the views of some of the world’s foremost experts in the sector (including SSE India’s CEO Shalabh) to discuss how social entrepreneurship has evolved in the past few years and what should happen next.  

See what they said here

The job bit

SSE Scotland are looking for a part time (2.5 days) programme administrator (£20k pro rata) to provide effective and efficient administration & logistical support to the whole SSE Scotland Team. The role is home based, as long as you can get to Edinburgh once a month for a team meeting, raising the possibility of some Planes, Trains and Automobiles type escapades. Deadline to apply is 4th December.

Breathe Arts Health Research have an exciting full time Head of Development (£40k) role based in London. Founded by SSE Fellow Yvonnne Farquharson, Breathe is a really cool social enterprise; they’ve picked up loads of awards including Action for Children’s Arts Outstanding Contribution Award, NHS England’s Innovation Challenge Award, PwC’s Social Entrepreneurs Club Award and Nesta’s ‘New Radicals’ accolade. Apply by 24th November.

Impact Hub Kings Cross have a vacancy for a programme administrator (£21k) to assist on  programmes for sustainable and socially conscious food start ups. It’s a 6 month contract with a view to be extended in the future (subject to funding). Apply by December 4th.

Read all about it

Finally, I hope this link works (it points to Twitter) but there’s a lovely bit of coverage in the Metro for SSE Fellow Rose Deakin and her social enterprise The Crop Club, which helps people to grow their own food.

You can see it here

On November 5th 1994 George Foreman became the boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion aged 45, defeating 26 year old Michael Moorer by knockout. Last year, 81 year old Mavis Paterson became the oldest woman to cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats, completing the 960 mile journey in just 24 days. The oldest person to scale Everest? 80 year old Yuichiro Miura, who reached the summit at the grand old age of 80. He plans to repeat the achievement aged 90.

All of this seems remarkable, until you hear the following: tomorrow, aged 38, I am going to a nightclub with my colleague Nils, who’s aged about 50 or something. Nils has a dodgy back and my left knee has pretty much stopped working so we’re going to make quite the pair on the dancefloor. Lucky we’ll both be sporting our Global Hypercolour t-shirts to show just how down with the kids we are.

Wish us luck…

@davemcglashan

Back up crew

If several hours of big fish little fish cardboard box does push Nils’ back to the point of no return we may well need someone to come in and cover his workload. Fortunately, we’re currently recruiting up to seven freelance learning facilitators to come and help us design, plan and facilitate programmes and workshops at SSE London. The contracts range from 12 to 45 days work with a daily fee of £200 – £350. It’s a very cool way to get involved with everything we do at SSE. Apply by 9th December.

We’re also looking for a finance officer (£32k) on a 12 month contract – if you’ve got some experience working within a small finance team in a charitable organisation and are looking for something new, apply by 27th November.

Featuring a contemporary music reference from 1979

I’m not sure that The Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ will get a sounding tomorrow but it’s a message that we play close attention to here at SSE. It’s with that in mind that we’ve put together an exciting film full of top tips on applying to our Community Business Trade Up programme which you can watch here.

There is still time to apply (the deadline is 27th November) so if you’ve got a community business and want to grow your income from trading, make more impact and become more sustainable you should check it out here.

Chill out area

After a big night out at my age I’ll probably need a about a month off to recover. So I’ll be taking a good look at Fairbnb (see what they did there), a brand new marketplace for “authentic, fair and conscious tourism” that promises to donate 50% of its commission to social projects selected by local residents. At the moment, you can book accommodation in Valencia, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Bologna and Venice.

Check it our here 

Ready to mingle

I’m married so fortunately won’t be needing to bust out any zinging chat up lines tomorrow. If I was single, however, I’d be almost certain to roll out an old classic: “Have you accessed finance from a Responsible Finance provider (also known as a community development finance association) in the last five years?”. Boom. To keep conversation flowing, I’d then point out that the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards 2019/20 are now open for applications, and that four social and micro enterprises nominated by their responsible finance provider will pick up a prize of £7500.

Entries need to be in by 6th December

Words of advice

If Eminem was my mentor he may well quote lyrics from his song ‘Without Me’ as a warning ahead of tomorrow: ‘you’re too old, let it go, it’s over, nobody listens to techno”. He isn’t though so it’s a situation which is unlikely to occur in the next 24 hours. My lesson to you? Don’t be an Eminem. We’re currently on the look out for volunteer mentors to support social entrepreneurs on our learning programmes. If you have an in-depth understanding of the process and challenges of starting and running a business / social enterprise / charity and can commit to one hour a month to support one of our fantastic students we’d love to hear from you.

Find out more here and apply by 9th December.

The Fresh Prince

If nightclubs aren’t your thing, Nesta’s Geoff Mulgan is going to be delivering a banging conversation on ‘Social Innovation: How societies find the power to change’ at Nesta’s HQ in London on Tuesday 26th November. The event takes place from 5.30pm – 8.00pm and it’s free to go along. Among other things, Jazzy Geoff (no-one calls him that) will be sharing how the field of social innovation can provide the answers to today’s global social, economic and sustainability issues.

Get involved here

Reflection section

Sunday will be full of questions – why did I think that was a good idea, how did I manage to spend that much, why is it that when you try and be quiet walking up the stairs you invariably make more noise than if you just walked up in a normal manner?  None of the answers to these questions are of relevance to the good people of Pioneers Post, however. What they are interested in though is what you think of them. They want to hear from the social entrepreneurs they aim to serve – what they want from a specialist/independent media and how Pioneers Post can provide it to them in the most useful format.

There’s a quick survey to take part in – you could win an interview or feature by Pioneers Post, a gift card from Divine Chocolate or Soap Co or a ticket to the ‘Good Leaders event’.

Take the survey here

Some cool jobs being advertised this week:

Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship are looking for a marketing and communications manager (£32k -£44k) on a maternity cover basis. It looks a really interesting job spec and it’s based in Oxford, which everyone knows is the world’s greatest city. Apply by 25th Nov.

SSE Fellow Charlotte Whitakker is looking for a programme officer (£22 – £24k) to help design and deliver InCommon’s unique intergenerational programme working to bring children and older people together. It’s a part time role based in Hackney. Apply by 24th November.

And for the very speedy among you, fellow Tooley Street residents The Psychosynthesis Trust are looking for a communications and marketing manager (£31k – £34k. If you are an experienced communications and marketing professional with creative flair who thrives in being accountable for a broad and diverse remit, they want to hear from you. Only catch is the deadline is 5pm today.

Take a stand

All marketeers know of ‘the ‘4 P’s of marketing’ (product, price, placement, promotion – 90% confident I’ve remembered that right). But do you know the 4 Ps of brands taking a stand? Tim McClimon discusses them here.

Why’s this of any interest? Well, we’re running our How to Create an Authentic Mission Led Brand workshop in London next Thursday and I thought it might make some interesting pre-course reading. We’ve still got a few places available,

You can book one here

A hackneyed headline

Did you know that the Hackney Social Enterprise Conference is taking place at Hackney Town Hall next Thursday between 1pm and 5pm? Did you know it’s free to go along and features a whole range of speakers discussing all things social enterprise?

You do now

Ain’t no party like an SSE party

Finally, SSE Fellows are invited to join SSE Northwest in Liverpool on Thursday evening for a night of campaigning, communicating and collaborating. Hosted by SSE Fellow Grace Dyke, there’ll be drinks and delicious food and speakers including Margaret Aspinall, Chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group and SSE’s very own head of communications Sophie Hobson.

Book a place here