G’day mate.
Yep, you guessed it this week’s edition comes from the east coast of the USA. Cape Cod in fact. Apparently there have been 150 sightings of great white sharks off the beach here since June – you can see them here. So going for a swim is not on the agenda for the time being.
Because I’m away, it does mean that this newsletter will be on a brief hiatus for a couple of weeks. I know, I know. I’ll miss you too.
Back on 23rd August, have a great couple of weeks.
It’s not the destination it’s the journey
National Lottery Community Fund have a new web page providing a whole load of tools and resources to help you measure your organisation’s impact. There’s some useful stuff there – they aim to provide ‘the assistance you need to help you navigate all stages of your data and evidence journey’. What a journey that will be.
Dubai or not Dubai
Dubai will be hosting Expo 2020 Dubai next year and as part of it the Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme is offering grants of up to $100,000 (yeah, I deal in dollars these days) to social enterprises, startups and grassroots projects from around the world.
Alongside the grant you’ll receive international exposure and business and partnership opportunities, apparently. I think you may also get a place at the Expo.
All aboard
A great piece of coverage for SSE Scotland Fellow Jordan Butler and his social enterprise Heavy Sound, which uses an out-of-service single decker bus as a mobile community centre offering support, advice and music-making activities to disadvantaged communities. Jordan bought the bus for a quid, throwing shade at all those people who say you don’t get much for a pound these days.
Help is at hand
_SocialStarters have partnered with Pernod Ricard UK to bring together 15 of their senior leaders across marketing & comms, sales, operations, HR, financial management and legal to support 15 social enterprises over 9 months to help them grow. You could get a dedicated business specialist who will be all yours for 2-3 hours a month to fight fires as well as put together essential growth & operational plans.
The Impact Mentoring Programme includes a kick off session by _SocialStarters, a 1 day Troubleshooter event in November where a team of employees work on your business challenge, plus additional support to ensure your objectives for the next year are met.
Eureka
Some fairly substantial funding news – the Bright Ideas Trust has opened its latest funding round to support ‘new community business ideas through the start-up and planning stages with tailored business support, to the implementation stage with grants of up to £15,000’.
Applications are open until 30th September
Heal the world
SSE Dartington are running a free 3 day Climate Action for the Social Economy programme for business leaders in Bristol who want to respond to the climate emergency. The course takes place over 5th, 12th, and 19th September. If you are a social entrepreneur, business owner, project managers HR managers, sustainability
lead or green champion in Bristol or the west of England please check it out.
