If you've come here through a saved bookmark for a post at http://urbansurvivalproject.blogspot.com please note that the url has now changed to http://www.socialeffect.org .This is because the Urban Survival Project evolved into a wider project called iVolntr (www.ivolntr.org) and then over time the blog began to focus more on advice and help for social entrepreneurs. This meant that the title was misleading and not very intuitive for newcomers. Hence the change to Social Effect.NOTE: If you ... Read Full Story

I recently had a very illuminating chat with Caroline Jaine, the Director of imediate, around community communications so I thought I'd share some of what I learnt.Always start with a clear strategy, Followed by an implementation plan, andFinally outcome monitoring Key point:  Do NOT just rush into comms activity. There are lots of risks and sensitivities, and consequently these programmes often fail. Plan first! The following are the key steps in developing communications for social chan... Read Full Story

Over the past few years I've looked at problems faced by a number of different social organisations, including new startups, developing organisations, and fully established ones. I typically see one common underlying factor; many of the issues stem from a failure to define some key points with the clarity and simplicity needed to make those definitions useful.Before we continue, let me just say that this is not going to be one of those articles with 20 tenets or pieces of pithy advice. It... Read Full Story

I was recently involved in a customer service experience that reminded me just how badly a company can damage its brand by trying to pass the blame on to others. Here's the example...On Monday I was offered a phone upgrade from O2 and accepted it. The operator I spoke to confirmed the contract agreement and the delivery dates and addresses. She told me exactly when and where the phone would arrive: Two days later to my home address. I consequently ensured I'd be working from home to r... Read Full Story

In my previous post on whether Partnerships and Collaboration might save the third sector, I suggested that one reason why small charities are failing is the nucleation of the sector caused by self interest in raising funding. However, beyond a point they all have the same collective goal, which is to effect positive social change. Unlike businesses which are just out for themselves, this commonality of higher purpose means that charities and social enterprises are perfectly placed to coopera... Read Full Story

In a recent post on whether the Retail Industry Could Save Itself Using Game Theory I discussed how retailers have exhibited classic non-cooperative behaviour, which has significantly damaged their abilities to survive the credit crunch. By focusing only on individual interest and survival, their collective hyper-competitive actions have likely damaged their entire industry's market size.The charity sector is becoming similarly nucleated by self interest in raising funding. In my previous... Read Full Story

With the standard flurry of predictions at the start of every year, it's always hard to pick out the value from the vast swathes of text that fill up the multitude of published articles. To make it easier I've distilled out some pointers towards what I believe are the key trends you should be keeping an eye on for 2009.General Retail Industry TrendsThe credit crunch will continue to get worseThe e-channel is still growing fastExperience is everything – Compelling cross-channel experie... Read Full Story

Children England, the umbrella group for children's charities just published results of a survey of small charities (under £250,000). Turns out 4 out of 10 are now in a vulnerable state and could be facing closure if their fundings don't come through. This is up from 1 in 10 in 2007, which is a clearly indictment of the current situation.Unfortunately this is something I'd predicted a little while ago in my post "Will Charities Survive The Credit Crunch?"The charities cl... Read Full Story

In my previous post I talked about Social Enterprise Trends to expect in 2009. I outlined 5 key ones: Rise in social startups and skills available to the sectorHigher expectations from fundersMore support for big ideasMore partnerships and collectivesBlurring of lines between Charities and Social EnterprisesThe trends outlined below however, are not time-boxed to just 2009. These are shifts I believe will happen at some point between now and the next few years, and are therefore worth conside... Read Full Story

Every January  people typically start to wonder what's coming up in the year ahead for their industries. The social enterprise and the non-profit sectors are no different. It's just that fewer people publish anything of value, mostly because these sectors are not awash with analysts in the way the private sector is. Anyway in case you're curious, here's my thoughts on where things might be headed for social enterprise. Let's start with immediate trends to expect in 2009. M... Read Full Story