Author Archives: sse

First 2010 round-up: Kershaw, Kingston, CICs and key moments

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Alarmclocktime First post of 2010, the 419th on this blog, no less. And a welcome back to everyone; I've been delving back into the delights of some policy consultation responses (festive fare indeed), but more excitingly welcoming two US interns for the month of January as part of our long-standing arrangement with St Olaf College in Minnesota. Welcome Matt and Nick to the team, and I hope they will be blogging here soon.

SSE London is recruiting students as well, so do get in touch, or suggest us to people who you think might benefit from one of our learning programmes. Check out all the various bursaries + events….

To start the year, a quick round-up of relevant news and info:

– Social enterprise features in the Archers shock (good work from the Plunkett Foundation….)

– Social enterprise ambassador and Big Issue Invest supremo Nigel Kershaw was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours list. Congrats to him, and also to John Kingston at Venturesome, and Margaret Lee of the Cresco Trust in Northern Ireland. See here for an article with more details

– The CIC regulator has acted following a consultation on the dividend caps in the structure; this means a change to 20% dividend (rather than 5% above base rate) and a 10% interest rate cap; if this kind of stuff fascinates you, you need to get out more you can check out more on Soc Ent Mag's website; this largely seems to be what the sector was calling for to encourage greater investment. Given that the consultation report (see here) demonstrates that two CICs have paid a dividend in the last four years (total of £4500), it may be that the interest rate cap is the more telling of the two changes.

– Nat Whittemore did a great round up of the key moments of the social entrepreneurship decade towards the end of the year: do you agree? What would be the ones for the UK? I like the top 10, although how the latecoming Office of Social Innovation, with its (relatively) paltry funds and three men and a dog staff team make it in, I'm not sure :0) Nat also did his top 10 most viewed posts of 2009, which is well worth checking out; Rob Greenland's top 10 is a good read too if you're as snowed in as we look likely to be here

– As our (one) policy head over here, the first half of the year is going to be election-heavy for me, so was interested to see the Conservatives first foray into the NHS zone, with its mini-draft manifesto. ACEVO reckon that the promised move to personal budgets will create a "market for small social entrepreneurs"

– Can the 'John Lewis' model be applied to public services? Well, they did well over Christmas….

– We covered the HCT / Unite row a little bit at the end of the year; it's widened out more into a social enterprise / unions row; and where there's a social enterprise debate to be had, you'll find Rod Schwartz with a large wooden spoon, stirring and provoking: Are Social Enterprises Different When It Comes To Industrial Relations?

– Finally, Ben Metz + friends are trying to organise an unconference-y type fringe event to the Skoll World Forum in Oxford in a few months. If you think you'd like to get involved in OxJam 10, and support what could be a great networking / practice sharing event for social entrepreneurs, sign up to the pledge here. We have!

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Thoughts and thanks for 2009 at SSE

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IMG_0721 It's late on my last working day here, but I wanted to capture a few reflections on the year gone by. It has been an amazing year for SSE. We've opened four new franchises in the UK (Cornwall, Yorkshire, Hampshire, Devon), a third London programme (Lewisham) and our first international franchise (Australia). Which means there are currently over 200 social entrepreneurs being supported on SSE programmes. 150 of them gathered in Dartington (see left) for by far our biggest ever residential. This is exponential growth when you consider we currently have 420 Fellows from the past decade. So great success to date, and more to come from those social entrepreneurs going through. But also big challenges ahead, for us and them, with the financial climate ahead looking challenging on all sides, and our aim to maintain and improve on the positive outcomes and impact we've had in the past.

Thanks to all those who've challenged, responded, read and debated on this blog or another: especially fellow bloggers and tweeters Rob Greenland, Liam Black, Mike Chitty, David Floyd, Martin Cooper et al. I think this year has demonstrated that the best and most real debates happen away from the mainstream sector press, and via social media. We'll endeavour to continue to keep it real, and will expect the challenges when we don't.

Thanks to the other agencies we've worked with in partnerships across the UK, and beyond. And thanks to all those organisations and organisations who've funded and supported us through an enormously busy year. 

Thanks to the SSE staff across the country for all their great and dedicated work this year: Sylvia, Lisa, Kate, Matt, Sally, Conroy, Caroline, Amalia, Jennifer, David, Tracey, Callum, Dodie, Sheila, Danny, Eilis, Fergus, Ann, Benny, Kirsten, Courtney, Amy, Sally, Bjorn and many more! And especially to my colleagues here in London who are such a great team: you know who you are.

And, before this goes in to full Paltrow-esque weepy mode, a final thanks to all the SSE students and Fellows who are doing the really hard work and making the hard gains up and down the country, demonstrating their commitment, inspiration and drive. You keep us inspired and motivated too.

See you next decade, everyone.

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Silly season in full flow? Tony Blair is a “social entrepreneur”

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Just when you thought we'd expanded the definition of social entrepreneur to breaking point (with the "Jedward are social entrepreneurs" article), along comes Tony Blair declaring that he, too, is a social entrepreneur. At first, I was merely amused by this (will he apply to come on our programme, or perhaps to be an Echoing Green or Ashoka Fellow; does he qualify for an UnLtd Level 1 award? how did we miss him in the Social Enterprise Ambassadors interviewing? will he apply for the Social Enterprise Mark? etc). But Rod Schwartz has done a more serious, full demolition job on his blog, detailing the reasons why Tony Blair might not quite hit the mark:

– mission / motivation: the financial imperative would still seem to be the most important for our erstwhile former Prime Minister

– lack of entrepreneurialism: though few of us might balk at a £2m retainer from a couple of large financial services organisation, this hardly qualifies as something he initiated where risk and personal responsibility is part of the piece

– focus (or lack of): Blair really has a broad portfolio of activities, rather than a laser-guided focus and commitment to solving one issue

– impact: all social entrepreneurs, ultimately, have to measure themselves by their social impact; my understanding is that his faith foundation has done some good work, but has he really got much done? difficult to tell without greater transparency

Do you think Tony Blair is a social entrepreneur? Look forward to your comments below….

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Debates on the blogs

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Who said Xmas was a time of winding down? Hundred things to finish by the 23rd….and being bombarded with tweets about Rage Against the Machine and snow. Grrrr.

So, a brief post to point to a couple of great debates / conversations that have been happening on a couple of different blogs of late:

– More on Call Britannia: when is a social enterprise not a social enterprise?  on the BSSEC blog which is an interesting-ish debate about the old definitions chestnut, but made more interesting by the organisation all the commenters were talking about entering into the fray….

– Some final thoughts from Bangladesh is a slightly unpromising title for a great post by Liam Black which prompted quite a few comments and a healthy debate underneath. Perhaps because of the following line: "I will probably punch the first whinging social enterprise type I run
into back home who starts complaining about [government] cuts. Just build a fucking
business that can make money and help people. If you can’t do that go
and work for the council or a bloody RDA."

Both well worth reading, as they cover issues like scale, business models, government reliance, impact, ownership etc etc. Some of the healthiest, most interesting stuff I've read this year.

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Social media (twitter) tactics for social entrepreneurs

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Not claiming I had anything to do with this. Kudos to Chad Norman at Blackbaud for what is a great slideshow of social media tactics (and tools) that non-profit organisations, or mission-driven organisations, can use. If you're wondering why/how twitter, facebook et al could be important and how to start, here you go.

50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits

View more presentations from Chad Norman.
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