The School for Social Entrepreneurs

Lord Young would be proud...and so would Lord Sugar

SSE launches its new impact evaluation report this evening (watch out for the press release and a further post here tomorrow to see and download the report). New Philanthropy Capital, who SSE commissioned to undertake the evaluation, have a blog post up today which looks at one of the SSE Fellow case studies, Steve Garrett:

"Steve had a bunch of problems he wanted to solve. The Riverside estate he lived on in Cardiff struggled to attract businesses and lacked jobs. A number of people in the area were eating a bad diet, and as a result their health was suffering. And on top of that lots of the food local people were buying came from the other side of the world, which meant their weekly shop had a big carbon footprint. Twelve years ago he came up with an idea that would address all these problems—run a farmers market, using it to generate jobs and encourage people to eat healthy, local produce. The Riverside Community Market Association (RCMA) was born."

Heartily recommended: read on here at the NPC blog

A week is a long time in social enterprise

For the social entrepreneur and social enterprise aficionado, there are two main event seasons: the cluster around October / November (Good Deals, Social Business, Global Entrepreneurship Week etc), and the end of March extravaganza of the Skoll World Forum, its fringe Oxford Jam and (this year), Voice 11. A few reflections on the events of last week, then…

Voice 11 came first, and marked something of a step-up in ambition for the sector, being held at the O2 and (I think) having delegates in four figures for the first time. It had a decent ministerial line-up (even if Cameron appeared only on video) to represent their policy reach, but more importantly the tiered pricing and programme created much more of a buzz of business than previous years. Stands were busy, sessions were well-attended, and the networking area was full of good conversations and deals being done.

Announcements included (*minimum*) £10m more for the Social Enterprise Investment Fund from the Department of Health: good news for the waves of right-to-request spin-outs, and prompting some to wonder what the split of the £10m will be (in terms of grants and loans). The Big Society Bank was also the source of much debate and conflab, with a start date now of summer 2011, though many fear it will be significantly later than that. It was also interesting to hear Vince Cable say there were “40,000” CICs, which was about 10x what I’d thought there were…

The only gripe people had was that it was cold (the third bottom line would have been swiftly dropped for a well-placed patio heater); but this is a hardy sector, and good humour overcame the chills. And that good humour was much in evidence at the awards in the evening (congrats to all winners: especially the NI contingent), with Alexander Armstrong arguably upstaged by Ed Miliband’s range of “I get mixed up with David” jokes…

Up in Oxford, the glamour was more international. Where else but the Skoll World Forum could you find Desmond Tutu and Jude Law at the same event? Skoll takes a TED-type approach, in that the event is pretty exclusive, but much of the content is made available online. From the tweets / conversations I followed, the megatrends, neuroscience and deep leadership sessions are particularly worth tracking down. [click on the previous link for access to videos, blogs and more...]

Oxford Jam is now firmly ensconced as the Skoll World Forum fringe, and Amanda Jones, Ben Metz and Jonny Mallinson (and helpers) did a fab job of pulling it together on shoestrings and enthusiasm. The vibe was great, the dialogue open and challenging, attendance free / on donation, and the drinks were multiple.

Highlights included Paul Cheng from Venturesome (“we’re not far off the social enterprise world’s first Bernie Madoff”), Jonathan Jenkins from UnLtd launching their Big Venture Challenge (“Why are we doing this? Because I’m bored. Bored of having the same conversation about the ‘missing middle’ ”) and Geoff Burnand / Caroline Mason’s (from Investing for Good / Charity Bank) excellent social enterprise quiz over dinner. Long may the Jam (and the late-night cabaret) continue.

It’s a big commitment of time, energy and expense, but I returned with mind opened, networks expanded, and motivation renewed. Can’t say fairer than that.

[Nick Temple is now also blogging at www.NickTemple.org]

Catch 22 Mag: developing young talent and creating success

It seems to have been one of the busiest periods of activity I can remember here at SSE. Barely time to get the head up from the various Big Society initiatives, new forthcoming evaluation or social franchising programme that I've been immersed in.

One of the worst bits about that is that you miss out on some events and SSE Fellow-related things you would normally go to. I was particularly gutted to miss Catch 22 Magazine's reception the other night over at ITN to celebrate the second anniversary of their Academy programme.

Tokunbo (that's him on the left in the photo) and his team do a stellar job, have genuine credibility, and really deliver on their promises; something which is at times too rare in the social enterprise space. Read the annual report for more info on their achievements (and their honesty about the challenges), and to admire their design work too. Or, watch this short video: 6 minutes very well spent. Congrats from all here.

CATCH 22 LONG from Catch22Mag on Vimeo.

Environmental social entrepreneurs

Nice to see this column by Lucy Siegle in the Observer magazine asking if social entrepreneurs can be green. Of course, many social entrepreneurs do work to a triple bottom line of financial, social and environmental. And a fair number of our latest SSE Fellows from Liverpool SSE all do so; sadly I couldn't be at their graduation, but this video by SSE Fellow org Brava Design, is the next best thing. Enjoy:

School for Social Entrepreneurs - Environmental Programme from Brava Design on Vimeo.

SSE in Global Entrepreneurship Week

Yes, it is that time again for Global Entrepreneurship Week, which seems to get bigger and more global every year.

I've tried to work out where you can track SSE down all week, so here is a brief #GEW schedule, along with a few other recommended events.

-This Monday evening, our CEO Alastair Wilson will be chairing a panel as part of the JP Morgan Speaker Series, including social entrepreneurs Kresse Wesling (Elvis + Kresse) + Duncan Goose (Global Ethics / One Water). We also hope to pop along to the evening session at Good Deals. This morning, we were in attendance at the GEW launch at Google towers, and at the ResPublica launch of a new report on community assets they've written with the DTA

- Tuesday is primarily the Guardian Social Enterprise conference for SSE, where Alastair will be on one of the main panels, and I'll be running a 'clinic' dispensing some prescriptions on social impact measurement. Others will be at Good Deals for its second day....

You can also check out the Guardian's brand new social enterprise network which launched an hour ago, and has this fascinating (disclaimer: I wrote it) post on social franchising and much more good content besides

- Wednesday we are at our Hampshire franchise for 'Question Time', and also (hopefully) attending the very interesting looking Clore Social Leadership Inquiry amongst other regional events...

- Thursday is the biggie, obviously; Social Enterprise Day (#socentday for twitter fans), coming just after birthday but ahead of Xmas in priorities....schedule is a little interesting, to say the least, but SSE will be at Is the Big Society Working? for breakfast (with Nick Hurd MP, Steve Moore of Big Society Network and more), acting as a 'human #socent library' at DCLG over lunch / early afternoon, dipping into the UnLtdSocial event, before attempting to moderate a panel at the end of the day in front of LBS + HBS alumni (with Jonathan Jenkins, Liam Black and Chris Southworth from BIS: should be fun!) and much more across the country.

SSE will also be supporting SEC's efforts on the day to lobby and advocate for the social enterprise bill, which is teetering on the edge of being put into legislation. Go along and join in if you can, or attend the All Party-Parliamentary Group....

-Friday is far from the day after the night before, as we have not one but two SSE graduations happening that day, in Liverpool and Hampshire. Do get in touch with either school if you would like to come along....as we celebrate and recognise more social entrepreneurs joining the SSE Fellowship. Should be a fantastic way to end a busy Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Hope to see you around for real, or on social media...

Playing On: the reality of prison life + getting voices heard

It's one of the great privileges of working at SSE to keep in touch with and follow the progress (and be able to assist) the alumni of the programme (or SSE Fellows, as they are known). Recently at the residential down in Dartington, an SSE Fellow from our 2007-8 programme, Jim Pope, helped us out with the delivery of the event.

I hadn't seen Jim for a little while; when he was with us, he was piloting and testing out using drama and theatre in prisons to good effect. So it was great to hear that Jim has kept at it (persistence being a key attribute of an entrepreneur), and has now started a theatre company (with co-founder Philip Osment) called Playing On. Playing On is a theatre company but also has a social purpose: to create new, professional theatre through work with disenfranchised young people from a wide range of backgrounds and circumstances to tell the stories of those who are seldom heard.

And the first evidence of that can be seen at the Roundhouse Theatre in Camden from November 12th-27th with their first play, Inside. SSE will be going along, and would encourage you to as well if you can for what promises to be a really powerful work about prison life. More details/buy tickets here. Or watch the promo below to hear from Jim about the play.

 

Residential report 2: inequality in depth

One of the features at the residential last week was the appearance of expert witnesses speaking on particular topics (strategic planning, partnerships, inequality etc). We thought it would be useful to share these on the blog both for those students (and Fellows) who couldn't be there, and to a wider audience that might be interested.

The set of slides below are by SSE Chair Charlotte Young, who was speaking on inequality and its impact. This gives an overview of the state of the UK, possible reasons for that current situation, and some thoughts about approaches and interventions that might help tackle it.

Impact of inequality dartington

View more presentations from SSE.

Social enterprise and entrepreneurship links from September

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.

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.

Shine 2010: unconference photos

Slideshow of some of the photos from the Shine 2010 unconference, Thursday and Friday last week. Photographic evidence that I did indeed run out of chairs for my 'introduction to measuring social impact' session, amongst much else besides.....