Social enterprise and entrepreneurship links from September

Rackspace-1010-05j-550x353 Slightly delayed due to the SSE residential, but here's my round-up of interesting, relevant and topical links in the world of social enterprise and entrepreneurship from September:

– Not officially September, but as I'm late, two events from early October worth following up on were SoCap 10 and SBC10. Check out the tweets (#socap10 #sbc10) and videos etc online if you couldn't be there like me.

– Stats + definitions: a generation hangs their head as the debate continues…. new research questioned how many social enterprises there are, which also prompted a call for clarity of definitions

– More forward- (and outward-) looking was Pamela Hartigan's interview on Dowser.org explaining why you don't have to be a social entrepreneur to make change, but it's good to know what they are…

– I'm pretty much in whole-hearted agreement with many of Malcolm Gladwell's points in this New Yorker piece on the limitations of Twitter + Facebook in creating change

– Global social entrepreneurs were excited by the Unreasonable Institute and Echoing Green applications opening. SSE is a pipeline partner to Unreasonable, so we're looking forward to seeing who they get on board this year; hopefully some SSE Fellows will be encouraged to apply

– Suffolk was the county on everyone's lips as they announced their intention to outsource "virtually all" services to social enterprise….

– …while Suffolk councillor (and social entrepreneur) Craig Dearden-Phillips wrote openly about the need (and lack?) of financial incentives for social entrepreneurs

Sean Stannard-Stockton took impact into a new holistic era, beyond reductive metrics (on Social Edge)

– Big Society-wise, I have mostly been enjoying Karl Wilding (NCVO)'s neat overview presentation, Paul Hodgkin (SSE Fellow / Patient Opinion)'s article on importance of conversation + technology, and Radio 4's Analysis programme on Big Society (hat-tip to SSE colleague Ian Baker for the latter)

– Jonathan Jenkins (from UnLtd Ventures / Advantage) is as good as anyone on social investment, and this article on the need for angel investment brings out some of the key points, and the key current problems, of this emerging market

– David Robinson, one of the most quietly effective leaders in the social sector, writes about (and welcomes) the first pilot Social Impact Bond

– Social Entrepreneurs Ireland held their latest awards event, which I heard was fantastic: round-up and article on the event here

– Rod Schwartz got a good debate going about mergers, partnerships and egos in social enterprise

– Paul Light is a US professor who's been beavering away at social entrepreneurship for many years; he knows his stuff, as this Just Means interview makes clear

– The Social Enterprise Ambassadors programme had its closing event: details and photos on the website

– Tim Harford, who I'm a fan of on More or Less, has written a couple of interesting critiques of 'nudge' theory (behavioural economics stuff); see Nudges are for Markets, not Nations and To Nudge is One Thing, To Nanny Another

– And finally, because everyone loves a list, Inc.Com's 10 tips for managing a one-person sales force (a concept familiar to many of our students…) and this great post of 15 excuses for not making ideas happen.

Presumably no. 16 is writing a blog post to delay other work. On which note, over and out.

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Residential report 1: Dartonia, Social Enterprise City of the Future

So it's that time of year again where SSE has its residential; we are down in Dartington in Devon, which has a close connection to SSE as Michael Young (our founder) was integrally involved in Dartington, and because it is now the organisational home for the Devon SSE franchise.

Nearly 150 social entrepreneurs are here from around the UK: Fife, Liverpool, Wigan, Devon, Cornwall, London, Yorkshire…..with also visitors from SSE Suffolk and Australia staff and supporters….all descending on a tranquil part of the world for a three-day intensive learning experience, but also (hopefully) one full of useful networking, inspiration and enjoyment.

This year, the stakes have been upped. Participants were given a 'passport' as they entered, welcoming them to the Social Enterprise City of the Future: Dartonia. Apparently, the fictional Dartonia is a struggling and deprived area in need of help from teams of social entrepreneurs to address its various problems. And the government (a la Big Society) has thrown down the gauntlet. So there are four teams (red, blue, green, yellow) and five sector groups within those (arts, health, environment, crime, education), tasked with coming up with financially viable projects and strategies which are clear in their purpose (and communication) and clear on how the social benefit and impact will be measured and achieved.

Each team gets a budget (Dartonia Dollars) to spend on advice (evaluation, marketing, finance etc) or to speak to focus groups, or hear from experts on particular areas. And there's much more besides: press releases, financial forecasts, and a live Question Time (chaired by yours truly, Nick Dimbleby) featuring a representative from each team.

Thus far, it's going well; some accommodation disasters aside (far from ideal, but now thankfully sorted: the curse of events etc), everyone is cracking on with the challenge and very much entering into the spirit of things. It's a game, a challenge, but also one with a purpose: particularly a chance to experience (against very urgent and pressing deadlines) the difficulties of building / leading teams, and of partnership and collaboration.

And of course, there's also been much networking over drinks and dinner and, for a diverting couple of hours, karaoke. Highlights of the latter included a fearsome, full-bodied version of "She's a Maniac" from Flashdance, and an emotive "Another Day in Paradise". Combine the two and you get some sense of the event so far :0)

More photos, video and audio to follow over the next few days.

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A small and clear presentation about the Big Society

There's been much written and said about the Big Society but it's been sometimes difficult to get clarity on what it means, what's happening, and what the opportunities are. In some areas, that's still unclear (and will be until post October 20th, when government announces its spending plans in the Comprehensive Spending Review), but this presentation by Karl Wilding over at NCVO is as clear as it gets. Enjoy.

 

 

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Shameless sponsorship post: 13 (and a bit) miles of pain

RockyNormally, this blog looks outward at the world of social enterprise + entrepreneurship, bringing (hopefully relevant) news, information, recognition and opinion.

But, just this once (and maybe for a reminder post next week), this blogger is indulging in a bit of self-promotion. I'm running a half-marathon in two weeks time, to raise money for SSE bursaries (giving social entrepreneurs who wouldn't normally get the chance to get supported on the programme). Along with my colleague Emma Mortoo, I will be running the Royal Parks Half-Marathon in sunny London town.

My training, like Rocky, has mostly involved running up the steps of Chiswick Town Hall (marginally fewer steps than the real thing), which seems adequate preparation for me. This is my excuse when Emma, whose stride length is about half mine, disappears into the distance from my wheezing frame.

Anyway, if you can, we'd love your support. You can support us here.Thanks in advance.

 

 

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Brief thoughts on the Social Impact Bond (and the future of funding)

Bond
Yesterday I found myself at NCVO listening (and responding) to draft recommendations from their Funding Commission, which is looking at funding in the sector for the next 10 years. I won't dwell too much on that, but would recommend reading the Emerging Recommendations paper to inform your thinking for the short and long-term.

Social investment and bringing private / commercial / new sources of money into the sector both feature amongst its pages, and the Social Impact Bond (SIB) is also named as one of the financial models that might helpe achieve this. It is an ingenious model, that encourages private and social investment (through social AND financial return), mitigates risk (and upfront investment) for government, and provides that crucial upfront money for the providers in question. And it focuses the sector, quite rightly in my view, on measurement and proving their impact: delivering outcomes they say they will.

Today is the official start of the first pilot, which will tackle reoffending in Peterborough which has been widely covered in the media this morning: nice to hear the sector on Radio, TV and in the mainstream press. And one hopes it is a great success.

At NCVO, I happened to find myself opposite Toby Eccles from Social Finance the organisation behind the bond pilot. So I took the opportunity to ask my main question on SIBs, which I previously raised in our Big Society recommendations paper (pdf), which is "what about the less-easily monetisable outcomes, particularly those (such as social capital, trust, confidence etc) which are crucial to the Big Society agenda?" The risk being that this new money focuses on the easily quantifiable / monetisable stuff (for returns etc), at a time when funding and investment is shrinking across the board.

Toby rightly pointed out that they had to prove the concept, and do it with a fairly chunk-able, solid area (reoffending is such an area where costs, savings etc are easy to quantify) before moving on to other more complex and nuanced areas in a few years. And that SIBs are only one part of the piece. Which makes a lot of sense to me, and I hope that SSE and others can engage and participate in helping forge + create new SIBs (and other financial models) in other relevant areas of social policy.

The challenge, as I see it, is two-fold.

One is that "in a few years" might be a timescale that doesn't stack up in the current climate for a whole range of organisations, if government puts emphasis on this particular model (which is so attractive in the current economic circumstances). Particularly if the Big Society Bank, as the NCVO recommendations currently say, is primarily used to help underwrite these new models. Because, as the recommendations also make clear, there are also other crucial areas that need investment or attention: financial literacy (including investment readiness), early-stage grants (a la Communities First etc), impact-first investment of other types, increasing entrepreneurialism, skills for scaling/trading, attracting philanthropy and corporate support in other ways, and so on and so forth.

Secondly, therefore, how do we ensure that the various funding initiatives and funders (Big Society Bank, Big Local Trust + other Big Lottery programmes, Communities First, Social Impact Bonds, Venturesome, UnLtd, venture philanthropy, trusts + foundations etc etc) are complementary and meeting as many of those needs as possible, in the toughest climate in years? And in the years to come.

From the recommendations, and those thoughts, I take a few things away: as practitioners, social entrepreneurs and social enterprises, we can: measure impact better (more robustly, transparently, quantifiably as possible), improve our understanding of different types of donors (and the quality of asking + relationship management), increase our knowledge and understanding of finance (and of those we work with), and engage in the conversation about new financial models.

Which should be enough to keep me going for now…..

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