Category Archives: Voluntary Sector

Luke FitzHerbert

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Luke_fitzherbert I was going to blog today about a couple of things that the ever-reliable Senscot newsletter reminded me of (namely, the widening of the definition of a social firm, and the Triodos ethical women awards), but then, reading the paper on the way home, I read the obituary of Luke Fitzherbert, and that all faded into the background.

For those who don’t know, Luke was a stalwart of the voluntary sector, created the original guide to major trusts for the Directory of Social Change, a voice of sanity and reason…and a remarkable fount of knowledge on fundraising, administration and transparency in the sector. He was also immensely influential, particularly on campaigning for greater rigour and clarity from grant-making trusts and foundations. He was an expert witness several times on SSE programmes, most recently at our Dartington residential in 2006 (one of the few venues he could cycle to, as he liked best to do). He gave fantastic advice and distilled wisdom to those present, with his normal inspirational mix of passion and integrity: as ever, he enthused about the small and the local, about helping those who need help most, and about the practical possibilities of making change with or without funds.

[He also gave great advice and help to one of our students in particular, Dave Pitchford of Intelligent Giving: you can read Dave’s tribute on the IG blog]

The Guardian obituary in the Society section last week was followed by one in the main section today. It makes me sad that I was too busy to notice this news last week, and also sad because it reminds me of the loss of another great iconoclast of the sector, my former colleague Nicholas Albery. Also a great user of human-powered transport (though walking, rather than cycling in his case), and who also died tragically in a traffic accident.

I only met Luke a couple of times, so don’t profess to have known him well. If you did, and wish to leave a tribute, you can do so via the DSC website…where you can also make a donation to a fund in his honour. The ever-growing page of tributes and condolences demonstrates the impact he had on a huge number of lives, and how sorely he will be missed.

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Yahoo! Charity and Ethical finds

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Just a brief note to point to the Yahoo! Finds of the last year….

In the Charity category (the first year there has been such a category, which must be a good sign…), the winner was Cowforce, with other runners-up including the Alternative Wedding List and the Big White Box.

In the Ethical category, the winner was CreativePaperWales (though maybe more for the funny idea (sheep poo paper) than the website?), with other runners-up including Stop Tout and All Things Green

Winner of the Innovative category is the inescapable Pledgebank (also in the Guardian again this morning), whilst lurking in the Resourceful category, we find SSE Fellow Paul Hodgkin’s Patient Opinion website. You have 5 days left to go and vote (for Paul!) in the People’s Choice section…..

[UPDATE: Gideon Lyons from UnLtd has let me know that the people behind Creative Paper Wales received an UnLtd award (level 2), so we have an SSE-UnLtd match-up for the People’s Choice! OK, so there are a few other sites with massive audiences in the running, but don’t deny me the social entrepreneur  battle isn’t more exciting…. ;0) ]

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Non profit and charity use of web 2.0

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Having mentioned the great Yahoo charity badge widgets the other day, I mentioned that it would be great if we could have the same in the UK. Well, no sooner asked than already happened: JustGiving and Bmycharity are doing just that; indeed JustGiving already has. How do I know? Steve Bridger’s very interesting list of The trends that will drive charities in 2007! told me…and he (like others) is predicting 2007 to be the year of the widget.

So, I thought I’d get involved and am trying out some of the Typepad widgets on the blog. Let me know if the new Blogbar search is good….and check out the Universal Giving widget further down the page on the right. [UPDATE: have removed Universal Giving: seemed slow to load; have added a poll instead] I’m also really interested in the ChipIn widget with which you can map where donations are coming from….but I’m unclear whether you can collect Gift Aid automatically like the charity ones as yet. Great tools, though: will definitely be seeking to use some of these in the SSE portfolio of sites as we continue to redevelop, as well as letting all our current students and Fellows know about them.

One other good link for this is Dion Hinchcliffe’s Best Web 2.0 software of 2006 post. Excellent round-up of sites I know and use, and new ones. Depending on your work, there will be something of use here.

[As an aside, I had a full-on web 2.0 experience yesterday. I use Pandora to listen to music, but then found this site of other people’s Pandora stations, via Dion’s list. So I was listening to one of those, and heard a cool song by someone called Glen Hansard who I then looked up on Wikipedia and listened to on MySpace. So then I searched for the album on e-music, bought it, downloaded it and played it on the trusty shuffle on the tube home. Genius.

UPDATE: have added Pandora widget at bottom of right-hand column]

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The Third Sector and Social Enterprise in 2007

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I’ve been inspired by Rob Greenland’s spoof of what will happen to social enterprise in 2007, so have decided to have a go myself:

JANUARY: The New Year starts with a celebration as the first combined ‘Cooperative Community Interest Company Limited Liability Firm Trust Association by Guarantee with a trading arm’ is officially established. The social enterprise, thought to be the first to simultaneously hold more than eight legal structures at the same time, will focus on developing new acronyms for organisations in the third sector. Its first piece of work is its own name: COCOCOLILIFITAG or CocoLili, for short.

FEBRUARY: A flagship conference is held, attended by the great and good of the sector. Entitled "Definition not delivery: the importance of pontification", the event includes seminars on ‘Make meetings your entire life’, ‘Partnership as a route to entropy’, and ‘Keep it simple stupid: the art of doing nothing’. Five sub-committees are set up on the back of the event to research joint working, silo defining, and deciding what the committees’ names should be.

MARCH: Several luminaries of the sector are injured after a meeting room implodes after a consultation on how many consultations it takes to consult a consultant.

APRIL: The words ‘public service delivery’ are reported to have officially become a mantra for those who worship the god ‘Procurement’. Social enterprise employees and medium-sized charity workers are heard to be muttering the three-word incantation as they go about their business. Social psychologist Professor Timothy Snaffle said, "It’s extraordinary how those three words have become so central to these people’s lives in such a short time. We’ve also started to hear variations on the prayer involving the word ‘Compact’ and ‘commissioning documents’ ".

MAY: A branding consultation is held on what a fairtrade-type brand for social enterprise might look like.  Several days are spent sitting on strangely-shaped beanbags in a room with a blue-sky painted on…until it is decided that the logo should be a hand giving a thumbs-up. The Thumbs Up initiative is launched with a great fanfare, and several members of the public notice.

JUNE: Jamie Oliver is appointed as Shadow Minister for Social Entrepreneurs by David Cameron. A by-product of this is cookbook sales funding the party, ensuring the proportion of earned income allows the Conservative party to be called a social enterprise. Labour follows suit, reconstituting itself as a CIC.

JULY: During a heatwave, a social enterprise called ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’ cashes in with solar-powered mini-fans which go down a storm across the UK.

AUGUST: Confusion reigns as someone introduces a fourth bottom line. Financial, social and environmental are joined by ‘technological’. Social enterprises rapidly adjust their balanced scorecards to evaluate their technological return on investment (TROI), and the number of references to web 2.0 in business plans proliferates exponentially.

SEPTEMBER: Non-profit research experts ENC (Emperor’s New Clothes) release an evaluation which estimates the value of the sector’s values at £1.2bn. This contribution is said by commentators to be ‘undeniable’, ‘incalculable’, ‘immeasurable’ and ‘invaluable’ in subsequent commentary.

OCTOBER: At the Social Enterprise X-Factor finals, controversy reigns after it is revealed that one of the finalists is a registered charity. Louis Walsh is said to be "flabbergasted".

NOVEMBER: The NHS is now officially a social enterprise, after 50% of the PCTs changed into social firms. The government announces that the country should be proud of this amazing achievement, making the UK’s healthcare system the largest social enterprise this side of the Chinese army (which is a co-operative, of course) and the Indian railway (itself a development trust association).

DECEMBER: The Social Enterprise Awards To Outstanding First-class People And New Team Success awards are won by the NHS, with the Conservative party a close second. In his keynote speech, Muhammad Yunus says, "I have no idea what a keynote is, but I am delighted to be here and support these awards.  These fledgling institutions demonstrate the power that can be unleashed by social entrepreneurs in their communities. Now we must see if they can scale up".

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Mondragon and other stories…

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The back(b)log has built up again, so a Friday round-up is in order:

– The Fellowship Ceremony last Wednesday which went really well; congrats to all involved; photos and video to follow soon

– whilst on the subject of Fellows, two more have e-mailed with news:
    – Michelle Baharier writes with news about her organisation’s (Cooltan Arts) new website, afunnyfarm.org.uk which was recently reviewed in 3rd sector magazine: check it out….
    – Nathalie McDermott writes about her organisation, On Road Media:

"On Road Media – is the UK’s first citizen media company set up to provide
training and access for marginalised and underrepresented groups in mainstream
and citizen media, or podcasting.  Our first radio documentary ‘Sareena’s
Justice‘ will be aired next Monday 18th December on BBC Asian Network.  Sareena,
the citizen journalist, is 21 and applying to become a magistrate as part of a
scheme to encourage more ethnic minorities into the judicial system."

So check that out as well! More soon on more Fellows….interestingly, both Michelle and Nathalie were SSE Fellows before going on to get UnLtd Awards and then, recently, go to India on a learning journey. Good to see the way the social entrepreneurship support organisations can dovetail and interact for individuals as they progress.

– SSE was privileged to be visited today by the Mondragon Innovation and Knowledge team; we have so much to learn in the UK from their experience as the biggest group of worker co-ops in the world (currently 82,000 employees) and everything they’ve learned along the way…will blog more in depth at a future date

– Check out the Hippo Water Roller via Springwise!

– Plenty of stuff on Muhammad Yunus receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

– News of a ‘bio-entrepreneur’ school, whatever that may be…

– the ICT Hub National Awards scheme (where is the blog award? ;0)

– a bit tangential, but a very interesting interview with Richard Florida..

More soon…..

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