Over the past few years I've slowly been moving more and more towards a focus on social enterprise. Along the way I've worked on grassroots projects, run initiatives, joined and chaired charity boards and provided advisory help and input to social enterprises; all with the end goal of covering enough ground to be compelling as a consultant in the social space. However, as I began to understand the UK social sector, I began to develop a curiosity about how things work in other parts of the wor... Read Full Story

[Taken from my new blog @ http://www.socialeffect.org - Click here to Update your feeds, or subscribe via email]Here's a quick snapshot of how brand awareness impacts the different audiences for Social Enterprises, NGOs and Non-Profits.If you ever wondered why your organisation should be devoting time to building mass recognition, this should clue you in.* HNWI = High Net-Worth Individuals (Philanthropists, Investors) Read Full Story

[Taken from my new blog @ http://www.socialeffect.org - please visit and update your feeds!]Having problems loading? View this presentation on SlideshareHere's the jist of it...A brand is what your audience feels , thinks , and remembers about your enterprise.Brand used to be ‘ offline ’ and ‘ online ’ Now it is seamless , and primarily driven by how you are perceived via the web.And now that organisations can create their own profiles , brands can effectively function as ‘ people ’ i.e. In t... Read Full Story

[Taken from my new blog @ http://www.socialeffect.org - please visit and update your feeds!]Over the past few years I've slowly been moving more and more towards a focus on social enterprise. Along the way I've worked on grassroots projects, run initiatives, joined and chaired charity boards and provided advisory help and input to social enterprises; all with the end goal of covering enough ground to be compelling as a consultant in the social space. However, as I began to understand the UK s... Read Full Story

[Taken from my new blog @ http://www.socialeffect.org - please visit and update your feeds!] A year of working with different social startups and growing enterprises has highlighted one very unfortunate trend. Too many social entrepreneurs are wasting precious resource on building websites for their startups. If you're about to hand over a few thousand pounds to a designer somewhere to create you a logo or build you a few pages, STOP!! Read this first...Here's a few key fundamentals you shoul... Read Full Story

[Taken from my new blog @ http://www.socialeffect.org - please visit and update your feeds!]I've recently had a number of people with ideas for startups come to me for advice on how to get these ideas going. In each case the idea has appeared to plug a perceived need in the market, suggesting a no-brainer that the 'inventor' is therefore about to take risks to pursue. After a little investigation however, I'm usually able to find equivalents that already exist, or good reasons for why it's no... Read Full Story

After a year and a half of development and evolution, what started out as The Urban Survival Project has finally changed so significantly that it is time to move on.The core idea of USP itself evolved into a broader wikipedia-esque volunteering platform called iVolntr, for which I never really found a suitable funder and thus has largely been parked as a project. The blog too has shifted from a focus on the development of these projects into one that primarily provides ideas, help and advice ... Read Full Story

I was just watching an interview with Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank, and it got me thinking. Amidst all this fear about our economies going bust with our commercial and investment banks, what's going to happen to Social Enterprise?As Yunus says, food prices have doubled, oil prices have gone up, and the financial crisis is affecting people's purchasing power everywhere. But not all financial institutions are suffering. Microfinance institutions for example, have stronger portfo... Read Full Story

I've just read that the volunteering charity V is going to start referring to volunteering as 'favours', because apparently their research shows that two-thirds of young people find the word 'volunteering' a turn-off. Haven't they ever heard the phrase 'calling a rose by any another name...'. In this case if young people think its a pig, calling it a tiger isn't going to change anything.Let's look at the two issues they point to... the reasons why young people don't volunteer.They see it as s... Read Full Story

Guest Post: This was written in response to Poverty Is Being Lost In a Sea of Green, by Joel Kimber - a friend of mine and Marine Biologist, working on how marine animals may or may not interact (positively and/or negatively) with offshore renewable energy developments.---------------------------Unfortunately, despite the green issue being "trendy", very little is actually being done about it. Very little at all. Politicians constantly talk about it - but predominantly to win votes - funding ... Read Full Story