Category Archives: Social Entrepreneurs

Coffee time: Black Gold and Ethiopia

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I’ve been meaning to blog about coffee for a while, ever since I found myself in Cafe Direct‘s cafe just off Oxford Street. I was reminded to do so this morning in a queue for the good stuff by the person in front of me who ordered a ‘soya latte with sugar-free hazelnut syrup….two shots’, to which the barista even smirked. Having wisely resisted the temptation to ask "and would you like some coffee with that?", I got thinking about coffee, how much I like it…and how guilty I should feel about drinking it.

One interesting post about this fairly recently (ish):
– Britt Bravo on Oxfam using flickr to advocate for Ethiopian farmers which is in turn connected to the film Black Gold (which I’m yet to see: any good, anyone? Or a TV documentary masquerading as film?), itself sponsored by none other than Cafe Direct. Britt’s post also mentions Green LA Girl, who previously set up a blogosphere Starbucks Fairtrade Challenge in which people asked Starbucks to live up to their promise of making any coffee with fairtrade coffee if you ask. Try it today….(congratulations to Shepherd’s Bush branch, who didn’t bat an eyelid).

More recently, she’s blogged about the extraordinary Starbucks vs Ethiopia trademarking stuff. Worth a read, particularly if you’re sitting over a fresh brew currently.

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Leadership in action event: social entrepreneurship reports launched

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On Tuesday, SSE launched two new reports at an event at NESTA, which have wide significance for the sector, government et al….

– The first is an executive summary of the Evaluation of the School for Social Entrepreneurs 1997-2007, by the New Economics Foundation, and with a foreword by Ed Miliband MP.

– The second is a new research report, Leadership in the Social Economy, by Charlotte Chambers (SSE Chair) and Fiona Edwards-Stuart.

[Both are downloadable, as is the press release, from the online SSE media centre]

You can read the official news article about the launch on the main site, which makes clear that both reports make a strong case both for people being the key to sustainable change, and also for tailored, long-term support for social entrepreneurs. Or, to quote Alastair Wilson, SSE Chief Executive:

"These two reports make a compelling case for supporting social
entrepreneurs as a means of driving social change. Both serve as
crucial reminders to all in the third sector that sustainable
organisations are people-powered, and that our most crucial resources
are human ones.”

The event was really well-attended, so thanks to all those people for their support…and for those who were mopping my slightly fevered brow beforehand. First up were a sterling set of keynote speakers: Hilary Armstrong, making her last public speech as Minister for the Cabinet Office, gave a strong endorsement of the SSE, and placed our work in a wider political context. Given our new partnerships with government, this was especially welcome.

She was followed by Liam Black, of the Fifteen Foundation, who entertainingly wondered when he went from being a "bright young thing" to an "eminence grise", as he reflected on his journey as a social entrepreneur. He also gave a ringing endorsement of the SSE, in slightly more forceful terms: "There’s a lot of bulls**t  and hype spoken about social enterprise and entrepreneurship, but none of it by Alastair or the SSE". He also had interesting things to say about his journey, though: that it was alright to be afraid; that if it starts feeling easy, it’s probably going downhill; that everyone makes their own mistakes (but it’s good not to make other people’s again). He was also open and honest about their own struggles with replication (and replicating an ethos and culture), which was refreshing.

Finally, Alastair spoke about how both reports give real evidence that the SSE methodology works and creates lasting change, and how we are now looking to proactively replicate the franchise across the UK. It was great to have the support of Carmel and Ken from SSE Ireland, Fergus from East Midlands SSE, and Jo and Lisa from Liverpool SSE at the event, because this was very much about promoting the network. Also delighted to see several current SSE students and Fellows there, giving them great networking opportunities as well as hearing more about why we do what we do…

The room was then literally divided in two (by the wonders of NESTA’s space-age offices) for the workshops about each publication. I can’t speak for the Leadership in the Social Economy workshop (though I heard good feedback afterwards), but the Evaluation one seemed well-received, and myself and Richard (from nef) were really pleased by the thoughtful and incisive questioning, which allowed us to flesh out the bare bones of the report itself. Questions about response rates, overall aim/purpose, methodology (and its implications for the 3rd sector), time commitment, background / make-up of Fellows and student cohorts all helped further issues come to light, and I had some good strong discussions which carried on afterwards in the networking….

For those who were there, and/or who have read the reports, we’d be delighted to receive any comments below, or directly by e-mail. Thanks.

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Student stories: narrative and numbers

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SSE Fellow Sheenagh Day features on our new spangly SSE website in the Student Stories section. Her profile (and that of her organisation, Maison Bengal) can be read here. Sheenagh was in the office this morning, speaking as an expert witness to 25 or so potential social entrepreneurs who’ve come into SSE for a day-long introductory workshop.

In the 5 minutes before she spoke, she had time to tell me of exciting developments: one is a revamp of the website (www.maisonbengal.co.uk) which is coming soon (incidentally, she commissioned another SSE Fellow, Dave Miller of Bikeworks, to do the re-design), but more interesting to me was some initial findings from a forthcoming evaluation. Sheenagh founded Maison Bengal for clear reasons, as the story above makes clear:

"Sheenagh’s long-term aim is to develop
sustainable export markets for them [Bangladeshi womne’s co-operatives / NGOs] to provide producers with secure
income and thereby contribute to poverty alleviation"

And the initial findings are hugely positive; I can’t give too much away here, as I don’t want to pre-empt the full report, but 100% of the 100 women interviewed said that their life had improved/poverty been reduced as a result of the work in tangible ways (more money for food / clothes etc), while about two-thirds said that there had been a significant improvement in their life/financial situation (significant here means buying a home, land, and so on). Really exciting stuff, and proof that Maison Bengal is not just growing economically  (it has just signed an exciting new deal with a major organic retailer), but also in terms of its social impact.

That kind of story is why they are front and centre in the new website, and I hope those articles will soon be as widely read as our perennial traffic favourites like "What is a social entrepreneur?" and "SSE’s approach to learning".

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Why social enterprise rarely works 2: the fall-out

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When the Wall Street Journal write about social enterprise, and write about it negatively, it seems everyone notices. I blogged my initial reaction to it previously in this post, but the reaction since, and the debate it has provoked, warrants a further mention.

Leading the charge is the Social Enterprise Alliance, the Social Enterprise Reporter here and here, followed swiftly by Nonprofit Board Crisis, and Xigi. There’s plenty more (see this link to view the 50 or so posts linking) comment, mostly from the US / Canada. There’s a whole range of opinion, mostly centering on the organisation (SEEDCO) that produced the report that the WSJ article is based on: ranging from “SEEDCO deserves credit for publishing a case study of their own business failure” to “Seedco, one of the least informed and most inept players to have dabbled in the nonprofit Social Enterprise field”. Difficult to judge from this side of the Atlantic, but both may be true.

By all accounts, the original report (the Limits of Social Enterprise) is worth a read, and is more balanced than the article, which is pretty one-dimensional and un-thought through. SEEDCO focus on one aspect of social enterprise/entrepreneurship (non-profits starting up a business arm) and use their failure to extrapolate more widely….which is always a little tricky. Nevertheless, I think there are lessons / messages / points to wrangle with here for the UK scene, even if it’s just a reiteration of ones we already know. Here’s a few quotes from some of the blogs, for example:

  • “We already know that the purpose of social enterprise is to accomplish a social mission, not to change from being a nonprofit”
  • “While improved self-sufficiency, efficiency and quality are certainly
    key social enterprise goals for most entrepreneurs, no one touts social
    enterprise, earned income or business practices as a magic bullet”
  • “Sustainability is not just about earned income or self-sufficiency”
  • “The report only seems to use the term Social Enterprise to include existing non-profits that start a revenue generating business”
  • “People entrenched in the status quo are threatened by new ideas as they
    gain momentum, so these attacks are a good thing and a sign that we are
    making headway.”
  • “Viewing social enterprise solely from the perspective of
    the for-profit world misses the social goals of nonprofits, where the
    primary measures of success are social outcomes”
  • “Growing numbers of nonprofits are…embracing social enterprise in order
    to diversify revenue streams, increase independence, improve overall
    capacity and advance more mission”
  • “Blind faith (and adherence) to one ‘pure’ model, whilst turning down
    other [funding] opportunities to achieve impact, isn’t entrepreneurial, it’s the
    opposite” [OK, that was me]

I think this gives a flavour of why we should be väska kopia paying attention to the debate; because it covers a lot of the key issues: mission vs. money / business model as magic bullet / sustainability is about more than income / social enterprise as spectrum / the movement challenging commercial business / measurement is king / diversification of revenue / entrepreneurialism vs. blind faith in model…..

Not to mention the wonderful use of the phrase “advance more mission” which is a new one on me.

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SSE part of Ambassadors programme.

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Yes, as this news story details, SSE is part of the winning ambassadors consortium from the Office of the Third Sector. Read the article to get full details of the many partners, and what it’s all about (incidentally the new website has an RSS feed of news which you can sign up to). Essentially, it’s about advocacy and promotion of the movement, from "classroom to boardroom", and we’ll be involved in providing support/training to the chosen people, brokering opportunities for them to speak to potential / early-stage social entrepreneurs in different locations across the UK (part of the idea of the programme is to attract/engage new entrants), and getting involved in the online side of the work.

Should be interesting, and presumably Ferrero Rocher’s all round.

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