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your blogs
My Last Song!
Posted By Bubb’s blog
On 8 July 2010 - 10:04am

No, I'm not about to enter a cave monastery never to be seen again.... "My Last Song" is a new and rather interesting website.
It's been developed by an old friend, Paul Hensby, who I worked with at the late lamented National Lottery Charities Board. The idea is based on the fact that many people do not bother to leave instructions about their funerals; songs, what they want left to friends etc. An appalling thought. I have certainly left my own.
You will like some of the content I suspect, articles that encourage people to leave money to charities, to set up in memoriam giving and for older people to work for charities as volunteer helpers.
There is a charity of the month, and many contributions from charities funding research into illness and support for sufferers. Anyway, log on here, and register to look around the useful and original Vault!!
Oh, and I found some tonic. Schweppes indeed (though the organic ...more

With a little trust
Posted By Beanbags and Bullshit
On 7 July 2010 - 9:00pm

One of the most important characteristics of the social entrepreneur is what Linford Christie, in his energy-drink advertising prime, described as a ‘positive mental attitude’. Succeeding at social enterprise usually involves believing that a combination of some good ideas, a bit of luck and and loads of hard work can add up to a better world – and often involves continuing to believe this even when you haven’t been paid for three months and the only thing left in the freezer is an unidentifiable item of dubious nutritional value.

The positivity that provides a will to succeed against the odds is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, amidst the current political and economic tumult, there’s a danger that some sections of the social enterprise movement could be seen to be celebrating the fact that there’s so many hard battles to be fought.

There’s a broad spectrum of social enterprise views on public sector cuts ranging all the way from the view that there shouldn’t be any ...more

Pickled
Posted By Craig Dearden-Phillips
On 7 July 2010 - 8:04pm

To Bournemouth and my first Local Government Association conference. It’s better than it sounds, particularly given the Coalition Government’s pending bill on `Localism’.

This was trailed in a fringe meeting by Andrew Stunell MP, a Lib Dem Local Government Minister. These include a mixture of operational freedoms for Councils about which the public probably cared little – the abolition of the Standards Board, abolition of the Comprehensive Area Assessment, freedom to revert from the Cabinet system to a Committee system) .

But, more interestingly Stunell spoke of an updated version of `Total Place’ – I think they termed it Area Based Budgets - to include a wide range of public sector spending over which, as an elected body, Councils would take the strategic lead (Councils directly spend only about 15% of public money in a given place). While this leaves unanswered the knotty question of how you boss the other 85%, it feels like a step in the right ...more

The Budget and what it means
Posted By The Social Investment Business
On 7 July 2010 - 3:09pm

Two months in, the coalition Government is beginning to reveal a little more about its plans for public services and areas that might be affected by the anticipated spending cuts.

The emergency Budget, delivered on 22 June, shows the Chancellor’s determination to draw a line under the previous administration’s spending commitments and start again. His five year plan sets out tough actions in three areas: tackling the unprecedented Budget deficit; introducing a fairer tax system; and encouraging enterprise and supporting long-term growth across the economy. The Budget and associated papers can be seen here.

Budget measures announced included plans to cut departmental spending by 20% across the board to achieve savings of £17 billion from central Government spending. Whilst health and international development departmental expenditure was said to be ...more

Big Society and Europe; Tonic still wanted
Posted By Bubb’s blog
On 7 July 2010 - 9:52am

Is Big Society bigger than just the UK? The EU offers significant potential for the growth of civil society within the UK as well as across Europe. That potential is not realised.

It is one of the reasons we established Euclid, our European third sector leaders network. There is much to learn as leaders from our colleague Chief Executives in Europe. But we can be very insular us English! Not, of course, that this would mean me giving up wearing my Panama hat as I wander Anatolia!! Or my continuing search for Tonic water!

There is also an interesting angle for the new Government. It could champion The Big Society idea across an overly bureaucratic, statist EU and enable European civil society organisations to flourish.

This also offers the UK Government a chance to propose a significant alternative to the process - based nature of the EU - an alternative that builds on a key Coalition theme. Europe is one of the fault lines between the Tories and the Liberals so ...more

The Budget and what it means by Sam Dowling
Posted By The Social Investment Business
On 7 July 2010 - 12:00am
...more
Sally Osberg to Speak at Commonwealth Club of California Social Entrepreneurship Series
Posted By Skoll Foundation
On 6 July 2010 - 7:23pm

On July 27, Skoll Foundation President and CEO Sally Osberg will speak at the Commonwealth Club of California as part of its year-long series on social entreprenership. Sally’s presentation will be moderated by series director Dr. Ruth Shapiro, and will begin at the Club’s San Francisco office at 5:30 p.m.

The series kicked off in May with Muhammad Yunus, and will continue through next March. It features many of the leading voices within the field of social entrepreneurship, presenting a broad set of perspectives on the field, including Ashoka founder and chairman Bill Drayton, Root Capital founder and CEO William Foote, Acumen Fund CEO Jacqueline Novogratz, Kiva co-founder ...more

Funny Mbewe: Grocery Store Owner and member of the Chikondano Credit Group
Posted By Malawi Five-O - adventures in microfinance
On 6 July 2010 - 4:24pm

Our two newest volunteers Lottie Heales and Yusef Salehi are currently in Malawi asking women around the country just how MicroLoan has made a difference for their families. This is their first installment

Like many of the industrious women in the Chikondano Credit Group Funny Mbewe has enjoyed a lot of success in her retail business since the start of her first loan cycle with the MicroLoan Foundation.

Previously Funny and her husband, Emmanuel were workers on the local tobacco farm that surrounds their village, but this job could not provide them with a sustainable income. The local landowner paid them only annually and they lost out if the crop failed that year, regardless of how much work they had done. Funny and the rest of the workers were left to bear all of the risk of their employer’s financial endeavours; when we asked her about the relationship between the workers and the farm owner Funny replied “there is no relationship, only working”.

Because ...more

Is it fear of flying or fear of falling?
Posted By Allison Ogden-Newton
On 6 July 2010 - 3:48pm

I write poleaxed by fear.  Ever since my children were born I have developed a phobia of flying. Prior to that I was fearless, I even enjoyed paragliding but since Joe's birth fourteen years ago I have really struggled to get on a plane. The upshot of this is that our family carbon footprint, at least as far as flying is concerned, is pretty low, as we have only flown twice.  I do however believe passionately that social enterprise is a global movement and as such travel to see who is doing what, is a must. If possible we really should compare notes and draw inspiration from our colleagues around the world. That is what organisations like SEL are for, to bring the best examples of social enterprise development worldwide to the door of London's movement, and to promote the wonderful work taking place in the capital to an ever increasing international audience.

It is social enterprise day in South Korea tomorrow so I am off in a couple of hours to address a social enterprise ...more

Shop for Change puts social enterprise top of Brum’s shopping list!
Posted By The BSSEC blog
On 6 July 2010 - 3:46pm

As covered in this post, Shop for Change, the new campaign to encourage social enterprises and third sector organisations to buy more goods and services from each other is now live.

It was launched today by Cllr Sue Anderson, who said, “About half the sector places less than 10% of what it spends on supplies with other third sector organisations. Clearly, you can do better than that — third sector organisations can buy from each other and turn their spend to mutual benefit.”

And that is the whole idea of SfC. By buying more goods and services from within the sector we can trade for mutual benefit.

We can also seek out new markets — and this too will be both a good and a necessary thing. With the marketplace for most social enterprises still dominated by public sector customers, there has never been a more urgent need for social ...more