Are you interested in diversifying your organisation’s funding base and becoming more financially sustainable?  Then a social enterprise may be the answer.  This “How to” programme is led by leading New Zealand social enterprise practitioners and takes participants through the concept, planning and implementing stages to build a social enterprise.

The work of Living Economies is at the heart of CED. Savings pools, cooperatives, local currencies and timebanking; all community led initiatives that that help to develop a resilient local economy. If you want to know more, it could be worthwhile attending the Living Economies annual hui coming up from 12 to 14 June in Auckland. It is very affordable and promises to provide excellent value. Here is a link to the programme and the registration form.

 

The Living Economies Educational Trust promotes a sustainable means of exchange as an alternative to the debt-based and crisis-causing mainstream financial systems.  Living Economies work in a number of ways:  they offer books and articles relevant to economic transformation (both theoretical and practical); sponsor presenters to bring the message to communities throughout New Zealand; and extend support to local initiatives as they start building and growing.

  

 

Mark Daniels from Social Traders in Australia was recently in Auckland to talk about his experiences at Social Traders, an organisation that has been at the forefront of social enterprise development in Australia. The Auckland Council hosted this lunchtime event. Social Traders promotes, supports and opens markets for social enterprises, and invests $1 million a year in social enterprise development throughout Australia.  Social Traders also helps start-ups organisations to leverage further finance from private and philanthropic sources. Social Traders has eight staff.  Mark says there about 20,000 Australian social enterprises (although only 5,500 were netted in its latest survey).

 

Social Traders flagship programme The Crunch is a six month intensive incubation process. Crunch enterprises build individual capacity, develop a rigorous business plan and gain exposure to a range of social investors. Mark tells us that Crunch is more likely to select an enterprise on the strength of the individual that drives it, than the idea alone.  Mark warns social entrepreneurs not to get too attached to an idea of an organisation they’d like to create – he says that that if you love your idea too much, you may not want to test it in the real world. And the real world test is what makes or breaks the organisation.

 

Social Traders and Crunch was made possible by collaboration between the Victorian Government and a private foundation – each contributing matched funding to establish the organisation.

Social Enterprise New Zealand (SENZ) update

SENZ aims to be a membership led peak body for social enterprise in New Zealand, with similar goals to Social Traders Australia.  The SENZ Establishment Board is currently seeking potential investors to enable them to progress their business plan.  A website is currently in development. It is early days for SENZ as yet – my UK experience indicates that having a social enterprise specific national body established to raise awareness and advocate for social enterprises would have a significant impact in growing a thriving social enterprise space here. The challenge is to attract the necessary investment to get the ball rolling. 

 

Other organisations in New Zealand that offer support to social enterprises are:

The Hikurangi Foundation that supports and grows social enterprises and ambitious communities, to deliver solutions to the challenges of climate change, resource limits and environmental degradation. They are involved with over 15 organisations across NZ and provide seed funding, specialist expertise and pro-bono support and mentoring to innovative, commercially viable and scalable or replicable social enterprise ideas. 

[Photo: Alex Hannant from the Hikurangi Foundation]

 

Enspiral, based in Wellington, is a business incubator and social enterprise start-up hub. It’s a democratic collective with more than 100 people across 12 companies delivering services as diverse as web and software, through to animation, graphic design, legal, accounting, environmental planning. All are devoted to a positive social and environmental change. This creative space keeps spawning new initiatives such as Bucky Box, Loomio and Chalkle. [Photo: Joshua Vial from Enspiral]

 

The Good Enterprise Series is a project of Enspiral's Social Enterprise Entrepreneurs Internship Program. Good Enterprise is a series of 10 workshops and a master class that is teaching community members about social entrepreneurship. It is targeted at people who have good ideas that will benefit their community, environment and world around them, so they can learn how to turn these ideas into action and their own sustainable enterprise. Go here for further information. 

CEDNZ Research

 

This nationwide research was commissioned by the CEDNZ Trust with funding from Lotteries Community Research Fund and support from Unitec. It has been a major piece of work that we have been working on for the last nine months. After completing the literature review, focus groups, interviews and an intensive period of data analysis, I am currently working on case studies and writing the research report. Initial results indicate that social enterprises in New Zealand are generally more mature, with larger turnovers and assets than even I had envisaged. The report is due for completion and release by September.  It will provide a revealing snapshot of CED and social enterprise activity around New Zealand at this time. The report will also provide us with a steer as to the kind of support and investment that is needed to enable more successful social enterprises to be established. The CED research literature review is a comprehensive exploration of CED, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, community asset ownership, social finance and social value, both overseas and in New Zealand. It can be purchased for a fee of $30 plus GST and postage. If you would like to order a copy, email Lindsay Jeffs at lindsay@csbec.org.nz. 

 

 

MJ Kaplan, who has been research social enterprise through an Axford Fellowship, will be completing her report in July and presenting findings in August.  One outgrowth of her work is conversations that will be taking place in Auckland and Wellington to explore opportunities for the sector to be more proactive, strategic and cohesive. MJ hopes to further this dialogue when she presents her findings in August.

Scheduled forums are:

Or contact MJ at MaryJo.Kaplan001@msd.govt.nz

 

 

The Philanthropy New Zealand Conference included some social enterprise related presentations. Ingrid Burkett gave a thoughtful presentation on what has been learnt about social investment over the last five years in the Australian context, and how this relates to what has been learnt elsewhere around the world. View Ingrid's presentation online.

 

Scott Willis from the inspiring Blue Skin Energy Project in Dunedin talked about early developmental stages of community enterprises; what their resource requirements are and the

obstacles they have encountered in their early days. Download Scott Willis's presentation.

 

….and there was much more. Go here for all Philanthropy New Zealand Conference presentations. 

 

 

The Auckland Council now have a webpage for Thriving Communities.  

 

Over the last eight months they have hosted a number of sessions with inspirational international speakers including: 

For more information about Thriving Communities contact Billy Matheson, Principal Advisor – Social Entrepreneurship: Billy.Matheson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

 

 

 

Community-Led Change in Aotearoa NZ.  The book draws on three years of experience from around the country and provides tools, resources, stories and learnings to help support and grow community-led development thinking and action. 

 

Jim Diers, International Neighbourhoods Expert from Seattle, says “Just when we need it most, here is a book guiding people back to the power of community. It sets out the principles and practices we need to use, and demonstrates the possibilities when every community is enabled to find its own way. Learning by Doing is a gift to the nation and also to the international community-led development movement.” 

 

Hard copies of Learning by Doing are now available for purchase here for $39.95 + postage and packaging. Digital versions of Learning by Doing will be available for purchase later in the year, and over the course of 2013, Inspiring Communities will be releasing individual chapters free online. Learning by Doing Workshops will also be held in many parts of New Zealand. To discuss tailored training workshops for your community or organisation, please contact exchange@inspiringcommunities.org.nz.

 

…more resources

 

While we are talking resources– the Canadian Community Economic Development website has some great resources and toolkits here

 

Also worth checking out is Jerr Boschee, who has been an advisor to social entrepreneurs in the United States and elsewhere for more than 30 years and has long been recognised as one of the founders of the social enterprise movement worldwide. Check out his website

 

And our very own Vivian Hutchinson is always worth a look or listen. Here is his latest speech 'What's Broken is the We — some thoughts on creativity for the common good.'

 

 

I recently found this gem in the Senscot newsletter. Louis Brandeis, the renowned member of the US Supreme Court famously said: "We may have democracy – or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few – but we can't have both."  This informative graphic depicts the biggest companies in the world, the corporations which own them – and how their power compares to that of governments. See here. So it seems we have our work cut out. But I was heartened by a friend sending me the following about Harvard Business School…

Harvard Business School – is it undergoing a conversion? 

Here are three facts about Harvard Business School (HBS) that I bet you didn’t know. 

That’s all from me for now, wishing you all the best in your various socially just and enterprising adventures

Di Jennings