Possibly out of date already: Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You

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Dreams can come true

I’ve been thinking recently that I’d really like to go to a half day seminar for charities and social enterprises on the state of the sector and funding opportunities with practical insight and guidance from experts and leaders. And you know what? The good people at Charity Bank must be mind readers, because they’ve just scheduled Road to Growth, a series of events taking place around the country this autumn meeting just my needs.

Regions to be cheerful

South West England: pat yourselves on the back. South East England: give yourself a round of applause. Scotland: not bad, but I think you can do better. East Midlands and North East England – you really need to pull your fingers out.

Yep, like a broken record I’m banging on about the 2019 School for Social Entrepreneurs Training Survey again. And to add an extra incentive I’m making it a matter of regional pride – fill the survey in and help your region get to the top the very exciting “number of responses from each area league table” which I may publish in the future if I’m really desperate for content.

Fill the survey in here

In the tea leaves

I’m not a futurologist but I can confidently predict that the most in-demand training topic from the forementioned survey will be social impact measurement. It always is. So it’s a good thing we’re running a Measuring Social Impact course in London on 13th + 14th August – at the moment we’ve got seven places available.

Book a spot here

Money matters

If you’ve got some spare change (or just lots of money that you don’t want) and fancy supporting an SSE Fellow then there are a couple of crowdfunding campaigns looking for support:

Paul Ryan is raising money for the Cafe Art MyLondon calendar, a social enterprise initiative for London homelessness art groups and individuals who have been affected by homelessness. It’s an excellent cause – you can buy a beautiful wall calendar or, new for this year, a desktop version. Get ahead with your Christmas gift giving here.

Meanwhile, Cathie Sprague is raising funds for a portable trapeze workshop rig, enabling her to deliver workshops at indoor and outdoor spaces. To date, Cathie has had some amazing impact with young girls in the Teeside region including building the confidence of someone who is now a potential future Paralympian. Back the campaign here.

Get yourself connected

Charities and social enterprises are invited to apply to the Tech To Connect Challenge, a £1 million prize fund that will ‘draw out and help develop ideas enabling civil society to combat social isolation using technology. Ten finalists will receive a £25,000 grant to develop ideas into working prototypes, two runners up will receive and additional £75,000 and the winning idea will win £100,000.

You need to apply by 7th August

Recipe for success

It’s difficult to do a food based bit without using that headline. Organisations using food to create social and environmental change may be interested in the forthcoming launch of the UK Social Gastronomy Hub, part of a wider network of 11 hubs across the world. The UK hub is being created by The Clink charity. There is no cost to signing up, and the aim is that the Hub will promote the work that you do in the UK, while supporting fellow members and sharing best practice globally.

You can find out more about the movement here. If you’d like to sign up, or if you’d like further information, contact Geoff Ranson – [email protected] – and he can get give you all the info you need.

Caution: this section contains an appalling joke

– Which is the coldest country in South America?
– I don’t know, but I bet it’s Chile

I did warn you. Still, you can use the joke to break the ice and gain new friends should you be successful in winning the ‘impact entrepreneur of the year’ award in The GSG Impact Honors. The award is for ‘leaders with catalytic impact on lives or planet through profit with purpose companies (social enterprises), non-government organizations or non-profit social service providers with earned-income model’.

The awards will take place in Santiago, Chile on 18th + 19th November, and the winner will be flown out to Chile to pick up the prize.

Apply by 31st July

For our younger readers

This newsletter has faced recent criticism online that its cultural references can be somewhat dated. This newsletter does not engage with such violent online trolling. Still, as a demonstration of Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You’s ability to connect with Gen Z, we bring news of EY Foundation’s Accelerate Programme.

It’s a one year programme of support for social entrepreneurs under 30 operating across London, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh. If your business’ annual turnover is over £50,000 and you have a credible plan to grow at a local, regional or national level, creating future employment opportunities, you should apply by 15th August.

Read why they are doing it here

Does four equal five?

Finally, an interesting experiment from our friends at Happy: for the month of August they are switching to a four day week. Sounds like an excellent idea.

No messing around: Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You

Posted on July 12, 2019 by David McGlashan

Slightly less glitz, glamour and razzmatazz in this week’s edition than usual – last week’s was too long and I also literally walked out of the office at 10.24pm last night so I’m a little tired and throwing this all together on Friday morning. Friday’s, of course, are all about doing as much as possible as quickly as possible so you can start focusing on the weekend.

So let’s get this done and start thinking about more important things…

Impact and Outcomes Matrix

I did warn you, no glitz or glamour. The Outcomes Matrix, developed by Big Society Capital, is a free interactive tool designed to help you plan and measure your outcomes. It ‘provides a useful starting point for you to consider the social impact that you are trying to deliver and how you will measure it’.

Find it here

SSE Training Survey

At least 75% of subscribers to this newsletter are yet to complete our 2019 Training Survey. Tut tut. What are you waiting for? It’s your opportunity to tell us the courses that you’d like to see us deliver over the next twelve months. According to the stats, it’s been taking 12 minutes on average to complete. Let’s say you live until 80 – if I’ve done the sums right it’s going to take up just 0.00002853881% of your time on earth to complete.

Discover what she learnt during the evening…

Sources of Funding for Charities and Social Enterprises

Is the name of the next one day workshop we are running in London. Taking place next Thursday, ‘will leave the workshop with an understanding of the different income sources available to you, insight into what a range of funders are looking for and an action plan to develop new income streams’. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Book a place here

Job opportunities

SSE Dartington are looking for a Programme Administrator for their Accelerating Women’s Enterprise Programme. It’s a part time (30 hours) fixed term contract until July 2021 – if you are a highly organised, creative and energetic administrator then apply here by August 9th.

Meanwhile in London, our friends at Impact Hub Kings Cross are looking for a Financial and General Administrator. If you’re organised and love numbers and improving operational processes (who doesn’t?), check out the job description and apply here.

Trustee opportunities

SSE Fellow Jem Stein is recruiting a treasurer for The Bike Project, an award winning charity that matches up refugees and asylum seekers without the means or money to travel around the city, with the thousands of abandoned or unwanted bikes in and around London and Birmingham. The treasurer will support their growth as the current treasurer’s term comes to the end. Find out more here.

SSE Fellow Victoria Ijeh is looking for a Chair for her social enterprise Iconic Steps, which develops a growth mindset in young people so they can overcome barriers and take their first steps towards a career. ‘You should have excellent leadership qualities to step into the role of Chair, developing the Board and supporting the capacity of a small team doing big things, as it moves into the next stage of development’. Find out more here.

Five tips on starting a social enterprise, from Igniting Change in Lambeth

Our new programme, Igniting Change in Lambeth, is in full swing. The six-session learning programme supports individuals to develop their ideas for social enterprises tackling issues in Lambeth, South London.

Henna, SSE Central’s communications coordinator, went along to Impact Brixton to observe the second session of Igniting Change in Lambeth.

Action for Happiness @ Happy Startup Summercamp

On the weekend of 13-15 September this year, 150 changemakers will gather in the beautiful Sussex countryside for the 7th annual Happy Startup Summercamp. You’ll find inspiration all around, learn things you didn’t know about business (and life) and make incredible bonds with likeminded peers from around the world. And it’s not just for startups! Anyone that wants to make a positive dent in the world, and doesn’t want to do it alone is welcome…

Mention School of Social Entrepreneurs in your application and you’ll be fast-tracked and get a £100+vat discount on a ticket for the weekend.

Everything you need is here

Business networking sessions across Suffolk and Norfolk

MENTA offer fuss-free business networking through our Coffee Means Business events, where all business sectors are welcome. Sponsored by Ensors, the events attract a wide demographic of business people. There is no need to book in advance – simply choose your networking location, date and time and pay £5pp on arrival.

DadFest 2019

Here’s a date for the diary. Join DadFest 2019 at Beeson, South Devon on September 13th – 15th – the only festival just for dad’s/male carers and their children. DadFest is also home to the Official World Dad Dancing Championships, featured on BBC The One Show in January 2018, as well as 5Live, Channel 5, BBC Spotlight and many other media outlets. The Dangerous Dad’s Network CIC is run by SSE Fellow Ian Blackwell and a social enterprise that supports each of the local dads groups around the country.

You can book tickets here

Cultivating Black Women for Social Change

Friend of SSE Palma Black is forming a socially conscious business which will support African Caribbean and Asian women who are trying to do something good in their communities, but are facing everyday challenges such as parenting, holding down jobs/unemployment, relationship breakdowns, mental health and dealing with grief.

To help get things going, Palma is conducting some research: she is seeking to engage with women who have made a success in establishing community projects, charities and social enterprises. She would like to hear about the personal and professional challenges that have had a negative impact on them and how they overcame them; what they did, who supported them and what made the difference.

Palma would like to conduct in-depth interviews with about 20 women, but will invite others to complete an online survey. It sounds really interesting – if you’d like to take part please email Palma: [email protected]

Live from the Broom Cupboard (but no Ed the Duck): Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You

Posted on July 5, 2019 by David McGlashan

“How do you think of what to write in your newsletter each week?” is a question I frequently get asked (at least once a year). I’d love there to be some sophisticated answer but it essentially comes down to this:

Has anything interesting and amusing happened in the office this week?
Has anything interesting and amusing happened in the world this week?
If the answer to 1 and 2 = no, then fall back onto a bit of nostalgia. Everyone loves nostalgia (the positive type, not the Brexity type).

You can see where we going with this. So without further ado, let’s get stuck into this week’s theme: 80s kids TV shows. Always a popular topic of conversation, and I’ve even included a link to the theme tune for each so you can get stuck down a Youtube rabbit hole for the rest of the day. Apologies in advance, I got a bit carried away so it’s quite long. Next week’s will focus on brevity…

Why don’t you?

The theme tune lyrics of Why Don’t You were ‘why don’t you just switch off your television set and go out and do something less boring instead?’. This was pretty sage advice; for the most part, TV was terrible back then. Only four channels and during the summer holidays one of them would be devoted pretty much entirely to cricket. I grew to love the sport through indoctrination; I’m pretty sure I spent more time growing up in the company of Richie Benaud than I did my own father.

Anyway, if you happen to find yourself a little bored later today (you will do, probably around 4.30pm) then why don’t you do something less boring instead and complete our 2019 training survey. It’s your opportunity to tell us about the training topics that you’d like to see us cover in the future. You could even win a £50 John Lewis voucher for taking part. Ooooooooooooooooh.

Complete the survey here

(If you want to be really helpful- once you’ve finished the survey click this link and it will post the survey to Twitter. We want as many replies as possible, so thank you!)

Jimbo and the Jet-set

According to Wikipedia, the premise of Jimbo and the Jet-set was ‘that Jimbo was originally intended to be a Jumbo Jet, but his designer could not tell the difference between inches and centimetres, resulting in his diminutive size’. The first episode was broadcast in 1985, whereas the metric system was adopted in 1965 so you’d really hope that a plane designer would have got his or her head around it by then.

Fortunately such design flaws don’t apply to the fleet of Virgin Atlantic, which is good news for SSE Fellow Cemal Ezel and his social enterprise Change Please. Change Please provide education programmes and barista training for homeless people and will now be providing the coffee on all Virgin Atlantic flights, adding to their existing relationship with Virgin Trains.

Press Gang

A TV show that was focused around a school newspaper, which very much makes it of its time. Kids probably just do everything on Tiktok (I know the name, I don’t know what it does) and Snapchat these days. You can read the full story on Tiktok and the richest people on it here.

Fortunately, SSE still has a strong focus on quality media production (this newsletter the exception, obviously) and my colleagues have been busy away writing this week. First our head of comms Sophie has been chatting to some of the participants on our Enterprise Learning programme to unearth three ideas for how homelessness charities can increase income.

Not to be outdone, comms assistant Henna has a Glastonbury inspired post looking at five music and performing-arts projects that are changing lives. All five of whom are mercifully free of a Chris Martin guest appearance.

Postman Pat

They are still showing this now, my three year old occasionally watches it. I think it’s actually a commentary on the strength of the Communication Workers Union, because there is no way that in most workplaces someone can be as incompetent as Pat would not get at least a verbal warning. Should Pat get his act together, he may realise that perhaps his future lies elsewhere:

He could apply to be SSE’s new Director of Programmes and Learning. We’re looking for someone motivated by the impact social entrepreneurs, community businesses and social sector leaders can have in tackling society’s biggest problems, and energised by the role that learning and support can play in helping bring about transformational social change. You can find out more here.

Or, he could become either a Freelance Chef or a Progression and Engagement Officer at social enterprise Fat Macy’s, who work with young Londoners living in temporary accommodation and train them as chefs. Details of both jobs are available here.

Perhaps a bit of volunteering would be good for Pat. SSE Fellow Amani Eke is looking for trustees for Project Yogi, a not-for-profit organisation that creates yoga, mindfulness and social emotional well-being based programmes, classes and workshops. They are based in London, find out more here.

Or maybe Pat would prefer to support Open Briefing’s work in advancing the physical, digital and psychological security and resilience of at-risk human rights defenders and humanitarians. It’s a bit of a step up from doing the rounds in Greendale but you never know. Open Briefing have a number of voluntary positions on their advisory board, whether you are an experienced board member or wanting to take your first step at board level. Further details here.

Blue Peter

Any readers have a Blue Peter badge at all? Tweet us @schsocent if you do, bonus points if you have a picture with it. It’s looks like it’s actually quite a decent thing to have, you can get into all these places for free.

Of course, one of the things that Blue Peter is most famous for is its garden. Did the garden inspire SSE Fellow Rachel Summersdale? I can only speculate, but what I do know for certain is that Rachel is looking to raise £200,000 in a community share offer for the Hulme Community Garden Centre. It’s a chance ‘to invest in a unique Mancunian urban oasis, to drastically improve its facilities and to increase its positive social impact’. It looks cool – find out more here.

Similarly green-fingered is SSE Fellow Steve Williams of the OASIS Community Centre & Gardens in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. They’ve just had a crew from BBC Gardener’s World film for a segment on the difference that community gardens make to individuals and to a community – it’s being broadcast on BBC Two tonight on BBC Two. You find out more about Oasis here.

Junior Kickstart

This was absolutely brilliant. Without wanting to get all “it was much better in the old days” I really can’t imagine a production meeting suggesting a show with kids whizzing around on motorbikes without proper helmets getting very far these days.

Anyhow, if you have a social venture working within the education curriculum with a focus on employability – working with young people to access, thrive and progress in their careers – then the Young Academy would like to hear from you. Their free Accelerator programme offers workshops, coaching, mentoring and more. It could be just the kickstart that you need…replica uhren deutschland

He Man and the Masters of the Universe

I struggled a bit with this one. Let me explain my thinking: there is a book called Chasing Goldman Sachs: How the Masters of the Universe Melted Wall Street Down…And Why They’ll Take Us to the Brink Again. Goldman Sachs are a bank. Banks provide financial products. Similarly, Fair4All Finance is an organisation that aims to increase access to fair, affordable and appropriate financial products and services.

And now, Fair4All Finance is inviting affordable credit providers to submit expressions of interest to participate in a pilot scale up programme during the summer of 2019.

Byker Grove

“Alreet PJ lad, are you going the Social Enterprise Acumen Social Entrepreneurs Summer Social?”

“Where’s that Duncan man?”

“3pm – 6pm at the Old Rectory, Houghton Le Spring on Friday 19th July. It looks canny”

“Will there be scran and drink?”

“Why aye man”.

“Haddawaay PJ, I’m going then”.

“Book your ticket here then man”

Home and Away

You can find out more here.

You can do social innovation at home, you can do social innovation away. You can even do social innovation at the Møller Centre at the University of Cambridge; they are hosting a three day Leading Social Ventures seminar for chief executives of medium to large social enterprises who are managing and leading growth and striving for increased social impact.

The course takes place at the end of October and costs £3000+VAT.

Glasto? No, no, no: Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You

Posted on June 28, 2019 by David McGlashan

If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you’re not going to Glastonbury (if you are reading this at Glastonbury, thanks but surely there is something more entertaining that you could be doing?).

Not going to Glastonbury is actually a major part of the Glastonbury experience. Hear me out: if you turn to the person next to you right now and say “not going to Glastonbury this year then?” you can then have an excellent five minute conversation which will involve at least several of the following points:

The BBC’s coverage is so good that you just prefer watching at home
You can’t imagine camping in a tent when it’s going to be 30 degrees
You’d need at least a week to recover
It’s too expensive and big compared to the 90s (when you didn’t go anyway)
It’s too commercial now and the lineup isn’t as good as it used to be
You prefer seeing bands in smaller venues. I mean the Killers are great but you preferred seeing them with eight other people in the Joiners Arms / Fibbers / Junction / Zodiac the first time round.

You won’t get a conversation like that if you’re there. I once made the mistake of not not going to Glastonbury and ended up at the festival. It really made me feel like I was missing out.

So sit back, enjoy this week’s news and take comfort in the fact that unlike the 200,000 people camping outside Pilton right now, you’re the one who made the right decision…

You can read the article here

This is not just any Community Business Challenge

It’s an M&S Business Community Challenge. Opening for applications on Friday 11th July, it’s a partnership which combines skilled volunteers from M&S with grant funding from Power to Change, to support the community business sector. Upcoming programmes will be taking place in Bristol and Bradford; SSE is a partner of the programme and will be hosting some information sessions in the coming weeks for anyone interested in applying to the fund.

You can find details for the Bristol sessions here and for the Bradford sessions here.

Brand news part one

Your company doesn’t need a social purpose to succeed according to an article written this week by Aytekin Tank, the CEO of JotForm. It’s a good piece: “My company, JotForm, creates online forms. We’re not bringing clean water to developing nations or solving global poverty. Instead, we aim to make people and organizations more productive. We don’t have a social purpose—and that’s okay”.

Brand news part two

Making many of the similar points as the article above, The Drum have looked at some of the best and worst examples of cause marketing. Basically it all comes down to authenticity, which is why I reckon you should come on our How to Create an Authentic Mission Led Brand workshop on July 11th.

You can book your place here

Boy zone

SSE Fellow Suzi Godson is currently is a finalist in this year’s prestigious Tech4Good Award for Connected Society with her app MeeTwo. As part of the competition they have created a crowdfunder to enable them to develop resources around self harm and suicide prevention for boys: 1 in 4 boys aged 16-24 self harms and boys who self-harm are 17 times more likely to die by suicide.

Suzi is looking for as many people as possible to donate anything from £1 up. It’s a serious issue but the rewards are fun – a day out with meerkats for two or custard bombing the MeeTwo co-founders.

Back the campaign here

From Boyz II Men

SSE Fellow River Hawkins is running The HUMEN Space, a free safe space for men to talk to maintain their mental health in central London every Monday at 6:30pm. The one hour sessions are for all men, not just those that are struggling; it’s preventative rather than crisis aid so that men can help themselves before they might reach breaking point.

The sessions are an anonymous and non-clinical and take place at 15 Bateman St, near Tottenham Court Rd and Leicester Square tube stations.

I’ve got a favour to ask

I’m going to be sending out the SSE training survey next week, our annual survey of the training needs for social entrepreneurs across all sectors. If you’ve got a newsletter that’s going out in the next couple of weeks and you’d be happy to include some details reply to this email and let me know and I’ll pop some text over to you and will then be eternally indebted to you. We’re looking for respondents from the social enterprise, charity, public and private sectors so don’t rule yourself out on the basis that you might not have the right audience!

All abroad

It’s been open for a while so I may have included this previously but I can’t remember and I’m too lazy to check (it’s Friday, give me a break) but the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust are accepting applications to the Churchill Fellowship. It’s ‘a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand your professional and personal horizons by researching an issue that you care about, with the global leaders in that subject, anywhere in the world’. Quite a few SSE Fellows have taken part previously.

A capital idea

25 of London’s most dynamic community leaders are needed for Civic Futures, a new initiative from by Koreo, Dark Matter Labs, and The Young Foundation, in
partnership with the GLA. The project wants to build shared and collective wisdom from the civic society to help make the transition to a better future. If you are working on grassroots-led change in London (or want to nominate someone who is) they’d like to hear from you. You need to get in touch by 2nd July.

Banging our own drum

Some bits and bobs from around the SSE network:

First, huge congratulations to SSE Cornwall, who picked up Ambassador of the Year at the Cornwall Business Awards last night – and thank you if you took the time to vote for them. A well deserved award for the team. (Read more here)

Charles Rapson, CEO of SSE Midlands, has written a piece explaining how he’s facilitating conversations between social entrepreneurs and the police to tackle the region’s tragic youth crime problem. 17 SSE Fellows and students recently met with the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioning team, including commissioner David Jamieson. You can read more about it here.

Our head of comms Sophie Hobson has shared five tips to help you bring your impact story to life in a blog post for Good Finance, which you can find here.

SSE Dartington have just released details of Climate Action for the Social Economy, a three day programme taking place in Bristol this September. All business leaders in Bristol who want to respond to the climate emergency are invited to apply, which you need to do by 17th August.

Granted

Our friends at Paul Hamlyn Foundation are recruiting a Grants Manager (as in money given out, not managing a team made up entirely of people called Grant) for their Ideas and Pioneers Fund. If you have experience of supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups, ideally in the social change field – and a track record of helping individuals achieve their own growth and development objectives then they would like to hear from you.

The job is based in London, pays £33-£35k and the closing date is 15th July. Apply here.

Last but by no means least…

Finally, Lizzi Hollis of Richard House has begun compiling an excellent list of fundraising learning resources – it contains websites, networking groups, podcasts, social media groups and more.

Check it out here

Sticking its neck out: Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You

Posted on June 21, 2019 by David McGlashan

Happy World Giraffe Day. Are you doing anything special for it? If I’m honest, celebrations in the SSE office are somewhat muted, we haven’t even borrowed a giraffe for the day. People just don’t seem to put the effort in, which is a shame. Still I’m not going to let this dampen my mood so this week’s newsletter contains some “amazing” facts about giraffes that you can share with your friends, colleagues and family as you celebrate later. I’ll even throw in a giraffe joke for you to get things going:

What do you call a giraffe that can turn into a boat?

A girraft.

Enjoy the news…