Featured in this
month's newsletter:
......................................................................................................................................
Red Ochre News
Santander
Social Enterprise Development Awards 2012
The SEDA awards for 2012 were
announced towards the end of 2012. Uday Thakkar was on the panel of
judges for eth South East of England entries. “The quality of the entries
was excellent. There were some robust discussions in
picking the winners”. The results for the awards can be seen here.
Haringey – One Borough One Future Fund
Five exciting
projects have been awarded funding from the council’s One Borough One
Future Fund. The £1.5m fund was launched in February 2012 to tackle
inequality across the borough by encouraging individuals and
organisations to come forward with innovative ideas for how to better
deliver services.
From over 300 applications
submitted to the Fund, twelve were shortlisted to the second stage, and
six of these chosen to present at a final pitch event to a group of
experts in December– including Uday Thakkar from Red Ochre. More
information about the fund and the award winners can be found here.
British
Library Growth Club
Robert spoke to
over 50 entrepreneurs at the British Library Growth Club, which is quite
a turn-out considering the snow at the time. Robert spoke on Top
Strategies to Manage your Time. If you would like to know more contact Robert
London Borough of Hounslow
The first stage
of the Hounslow Third Sector Resource Centre consultation (CAN in
collaboration with Red Ochre) is coming to an end. There’s still just
time to have your say on surveymonkey.
If you’d like to know more about the project as a whole click here for more information and useful
links.
Other Opportunities
Case Study Opportunity from Social Firms UK
Clinks and
Social Firms UK have been commissioned by the Home Office to undertake a
piece of work to collect case studies from and about social enterprises
working to enabling offenders (both adult and young offenders) to access
training and employment opportunities.
Social
enterprises could be paid up to £2000 to produce a case study that
captures and shares current key learning and effective practice around
these issues.
Click here for further information.
Social
Franchising
For those interested in social franchising have a look at the Trussell Trust. Chris Mould gave a great
presentation on what this trust has achieved through insisting on rigid
adherence to its guidelines in the creation of over 200 food banks across
the UK.
Training
and support
Upcoming free training at the British Library: Measuring
& communicating your impact
When: Tuesday 26th February
2013
Where: IP Centre, British
Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB
This is an
interactive half-day workshop that will provide delegates with the tools
to understand and quantify the value they create, then communicate that
value to appropriate stakeholders.
The session is a
mix of theory, tools and frameworks, exercises and discussion. Theories
and practice will be illustrated by case studies and real life examples.
Learning
outcomes
On completion of
this session delegates will have:
- An understanding of the basics of impact
measurement and reporting
- The basis for a core bank of indicators
- A draft plan to communicate that value to
appropriate supporters
The event is
free, but you must book in advance. For more information click here or to book click use eventbrite.
Help if you are, or want to be a co-op
Don’t forget Red
Ochre are a co-op development agency. If you are a co-operative looking
to grow, or are considering the co-operative model as a way forward for
your enterprise we may be able to provide subsidized support. Please
click here for more information.
Conference
Roundups
Collaborating
for Change Harrow Mini Conference
As part of the
Collaborating for Change West London programme a mini conference was held
at the Red Brick Café in Harrow on the 9th of January. Various
organisations promoted services for community groups and there were a
number of presentations and a panel discussion. Uday Thakkar presented a
short session on the “Do’s and Don’ts of Fund raising. A mini Masterclass
in getting the funding process right.
Red Ochre’s
involvement is part of the work it is undertaking in Harrow in
partnership with Harrow in Business and Capable Communities to capacity
build community organisations.
RSA
Social Enterprise Spotlight event: Foundations for Growth part 2 -
Culture and Branding (Jan 16)
Uday Thakkar ran
two workshops on finance, funding and the impact on the culture of
organisations of increased funding and growth. This was followed by a
Q&A panel session with over 70 attendees. When seemed to strike a
resonant chord with many of the participants was when Uday mentioned that
it was OK not to grow – there is this constant presumption that everyone
has to grow – it is the quality of your impact that is important.
Volunteering
for accountants
Uday Thakkar
addresses a very large group of chartered accountants at a volunteering
fair organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and
Wales at their splendid premises in Moorgate. The fair sought to
encourage more accountants to volunteer with the charity sector.
Uday spoke about
his journey from rattling collection boxes and painting rooms as a
teenager through to investigating charity fraud in his days in the City.
Professional support for environmental charities in the 1990’s led to
volunteering which in turn led to starting and managing a charity. Now he
is a trustee of 3 charities.
His message was
do this because there is a huge need for financial capabilities, it is
satisfying, it is enjoyable and it is a great learning experience. “One
of the first charities I worked with conducted a really powerful
marketing campaign with virtually no resources – a feat a professional
marketing manager estimated would have cost £250,000. Which begs the
question – why are charities not considered to be enterprising?”
Charity
Finance Group (CFG) activities: Annual Round Up
Uday chaired
CFG’s Annual Round Up vent at Black Rock Investment Management. The round
up was delivered by that doyen of Charity Accountants Pesh Framjee. It
was a fascinating tour de force over an hour and a half as Pesh pumped
out information on environment, legislation, tax, governance, pension
problems and reporting.
The talk
highlighted:
• The difficulty in fund raising and
the fall in donations and statutory grants.
• The public still feel that
charities are still not transparent about the benefits they bring or how
they spend their money.
• The introduction of the Charitable
incorporated Organisation – at long last
• The fact that Criminal Records
Bureau (the infamous CRB) is now the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• How governance and poor
trusteeship forms a large part of the Charity Commission’s investigations
• Over a £1 billion was lost through
fraud in 2010/11
Key takeaway:
trustees should create an opportunities framework along side the risk
assessment that they are obliged to undertake.
Impact
Leadership Conference (CFG and NPC) (January 16)
Uday attended
the conference and facilitated one of the afternoon sessions. The day
started with an inspiring key note speech by David Robinson from
Community Links.
‘The primary
allegiance of the outstanding leader is to mission. It is our Pole Star.
We lead most effectively when we question relentlessly, when we
change continuously, fail thoughtfully, collaborate ruthlessly and
evaluate fearlessly.
‘Impact
measurement doesn’t contribute to one of these things. It is at the heart
of them all.
‘Go bravely
where it leads but never stop the questioning, never deny your humanity,
imagining that numbers alone will tell you what is right, and never lose
that North Star.’
There were
various case studies on how charities are trying to grapple with the
complex task of measuring and reporting impact and social change. There
is still a long journey to be undertaken. The afternoon sessions which
were participatory revealed the complexity of the issues charities are
struggling with from running multiple projects to running global projects
and finding a simple and consistent methodology to measure and report
impact.
Other workshops
During January Uday
facilitated a workshop on governance for a trustee board in Harringey and
concluded a series of workshops on Business Planning and Business
Planning Support for a council unit supporting community projects in a
north London borough.
Quantifying and
Communicating Social and Environmental Value
Robert ran a successful session on Quantifying and
Communicating Social and Environmental Value at Timebank in mid January. If you'd like
to know more about Red Ochre's work on social impact contact Martin or Robert.
Social
Enterprise Bootcamp
During January
Red Ochre completed the delivery of its Social Enterprise Bootcamp in
Croydon, commissioned by the Asian Resource Centre in Croydon, (ARCC).
The workshops were enthusiastically received and the organisations that
attended are fully expecting to get started or accelerate growth.
Introduction
to Social Enterprise
Uday Thakkar ran
two short workshops on social enterprise. The first was for the British
Association for Supported Employment (BASE South East). The workshop
explored how social enterprise could increase employment opportunities
and diversify income and improve sustainability.
The second was
for The Social Enterprise for Community Buildings – project managed by
the Community Involvement Unit at Aston-Mansfield. Uday explored the
requirements of what is a social enterprise and how to set one up and the
benefits for Community Centres
