More sophisticated newsletters than this would possibly begin this introduction by reflecting that football is often a microcosm of wider human endeavor, perhaps pausing to consider the lessons that social entrepreneurs can draw from the performance of Tottenham (and to a lesser and more insignificant extent, Liverpool) in the Champions League this week: perseverance, team work, inspirational leadership.
This isn’t a sophisticated newsletter, however, so we’ll just quote Alex Ferguson: “Football, bloody hell”. What a week it’s been as a Spurs fan. (Younger readers – Alex Ferguson used to be the manager of Manchester United, a team that had occasional success way back in the 1990s. Ask your Mum or Dad about them).
I didn’t think that anything could come close to replicating the emotional roller coaster of Tuesday night, but I’ve just come out of a meeting discussing resourcing plans for future sales at SSE and I have to say that came pretty close. It’s going to take me all weekend to recover…
Enjoy this week’s news.
Standard mate
Standard Life Foundation are offering grants of between £10,000 and £200,000 to organisations that address ‘structural issues and individual practice relating to financial wellbeing’. Applications are open until 1pm on 3rd June and it’s worth having a good read through the funding guidelines – your application must be written in Arial, font size 12, for example. So not like this. OR THIS.
Choose your own adventure
Greetings adventurer, now is the time to decide your destiny by responding to the following question: are you a social entrepreneur, a funder or social investor from the South West of England?
If you are not a social entrepreneur, a funder or social investor from the South West of England, go to next article.
If you are a social entrepreneur, a funder or social investor from the South West of England, click here for details of a Social Enterprise Connect event on 29th May.
I’m sure I’ve made this pro-bono joke before and it wasn’t funny the first time either
If you work for a formally constituted non-profit organisation whose primary purpose is to address issues of poverty, disability or social exclusion then the Cranfield Trust would like to hear from you. They can offer pro-bono (the free type, not the type favouring the lead singer of U2) management consultancy providing tailored business advice and solutions exclusively for charities.
Points of view
There are only a few days left to share your views with the 2019 Charity Digital Skills Report and help map digital skills across the sector, creating a resource for you to benchmark your organisation against. It takes just 5-10 minutes and to thank you for getting involved we have £200 of Amazon vouchers to be won. All responses must be received by 14 May.
Supplies supplies
What is missing from your life? Could it be a contract with the public sector? What if I was to tell you that start up Supply Change is the only digital market place that specialises in making procuring from social enterprises easier, safer and quicker and that they are designing solutions to help social enterprises win and deliver public sector contracts. If you are a social enterprise based in the Midlands, London, the South East or the South West they would love to hear from you.
Find out more here (click sign up in the top right to fill in an expression of interest).
Run Amy run
Colleague. Friend. Mentor. Muse. Inspiration. All words I’d use to describe SSE’s Amy Barbor, who is running the Liverpool marathon on 26th May in support of On Road Media. Set up by SSE Fellow Nathalie McDermott, On Road aims to improve media coverage of communities that are misrepresented by facilitating conversations between the media and people with lived experience of issues from across the UK.
A very important cause – if you fancy sponsoring Amy, you can do so here.
A great deal
Tickets are still available for Good Deals and Beyond Good Business on May 21st. The event brings together social investors with charities and purpose-driven ventures under one roof; I’ve been to previous events and they’ve always been worthwhile.
There a currently some bursary tickets available, making the day either free or heavily discounted. 90% of these tickets have been held for organisations outside of London.
Apply for a bursary ticket here
A helping hand
Our friends at _SocialStarters are currently recruiting social enterprises for their 2019 / 20 Consulting Programme. If you are a social enterprise or ethical brand who would benefit from an extra pair of hands to help you tackle business challenges across finances, marketing, or operational management they can help. If you’d like someone to help tackle your business challenges, apply to join their next cohort of social impact businesses by 1st June.
Chomp
Lunch, of course, is the best part of the working day. Lunch deserves to be celebrated. It’s a good thing then that Eden Project and the National Lottery are organising The Big Lunch on 1st and 2nd June. It’s an opportunity for millions of people to get together and share food, have fun and get to know each other better – if you take part tweet us at @schsocent so we map all the lunches in our network.
All the awards
SSE Fellows have been a busy bunch over the last couple of weeks, to say the least. Here are some highlights:
- At The Running Awards, Alex Eagtle picked up the award for best small charity for his organisation The Running Charity, which uses running to improve the lives of 16-25 year-olds who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
- Josh Babarinde’s Cracked It has been nominated in the social enterprise company of the year category of the Evening Standard Business Awards. Cracked It is a smartphone repair service staffed by young ex-offenders and youth at risk.
- Johnny Chatterton, founded of Campaign Bootcamp, has been given an Obama (yep, as in the former President) Foundation Fellowship. Johnny will receive hands-on training, resources, and leadership development to help scale the impact of his work.
- Success for SSE Fellows in the Lottery’s People’s Project awards too: Jane Kippax and her organisation Step and Stone won £49,750 in the West Country East area, and in the West Country West region Mirella Ferraz won £48,599 with Share Shed.
Congratulations all!
Situations vacant
Our school in Dartington are looking for a Learning Facilitator with experience of facilitating active, participatory and inclusive learning to support the delivery of the Accelerating Women’s Enterprise programme. It’s a part-time (18.75 hours) role, apply by 27th May. Details here.
ImpactEd, a social enterprise to improve pupil outcomes and life chances by addressing the evaluation deficit, are looking for an Impact and Evaluations Manager in London. The job pays £28k – £32k, apply by 20th May. Link here – it’s right at the top of the page.
There’s a saying in the social enterprise sector: “The best people to work for have been on SSE’s social replication and scaling course”. You may not have heard it before, but it has been said (by me). A recent participant was Domino Patemen of Women of the World, a global movement celebrating women and girls. Domino now has three vacancies in London: a Development Coordinator, an Office Administrator and an Executive Assistant. Details here – they all close next week.
