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Re-Imagining Finance for Community Projects & Businesses

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Need funding to start your community business but not sure where to start? Our event Re-Imagining Finance for Community Businesses and Projects, held last week at the Impact HUB Brixton, generated quite a few ideas that are worth exploring.

The event was part of our How to successfully lead a community project course, which includes a rich variety of online and offline leadership training. Our amazing guest speakers for this event were: Deborah Smart from Social Investment Business, Sarah Henderson from Echo, Jes Bailey from Crowdfund 360, Georgina Wilson from BUD and Reetu Sood. With great opportunities for networking, nibbles and even balloons we had a great evening, reflected in the comments we received, such as “really useful info, really inspired and great vibe, I feel like I can keep going.”

There were plenty of practical tips and ideas for anybody who’s starting up a community project or business and needs to get over the initial hump of lack of resources. Here are a few of them:

  1. If you’re considering applying for grant funding and you have any doubts or questions about eligibility, pick up the phone. Funders love talking to prospective grant applicants and the big grant-makers always have a contact number on their website.
  2. Crowdfunding campaigns are a great route to funding as long as they are designed properly. A campaign should last 30-35 days maximum, and before you start you should have an engaged social media community and mailing list – you need a high proportion of recipients who actually open your newsletter email as well as a good number on the list. Also, don’t forget to give examples of your track record in the communications – successes you’ve had on previous programmes or pilots. If you haven’t done a pilot? Do one!
  3. You might think you need funding to get that shiny website designed, but you could also do it by trading your time and skills. Echo is a community where people trade using time instead of money with a handy exchange rate of 1 hour = 1 Echo. A quick brainstorm around the table showed us that we all do have useful skills to offer, even if you may struggle at first to think what they are.

The workshop was a great opportunity to begin these conversations, and the participants on the How to successfully lead a community project course will be able to tap into vital peer-to-peer support. Click here to find out more about the course.

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A Change in Making Change

A change in making change?

Is there a shift in the way funders work? After a meeting with the wonderful Deborah Smart (obviously this name rings true) from Social Investment Business I left feeling both elated and inspired.

I met with no real expectations, more from a place of inquiry I wanted to see how and what was available for the social entrepreneurs and change makers I support. I must admit that I didn’t come from a place of optimism based on my opinion of the sector and the criteria process. But listening to Deborah’s theory and ideas around change and methodology made me realise that actually, there could be a change in making change.

Why do we need to change the way we support those making change?

I have been fighting with the funding industry some time. When I say fighting, what I really mean in having conversations with myself and others whom get the great opportunity to hear me rant. My objective is and has been. How and why do funders expect those whom they are giving funding to be restricted by predetermined outcomes according to their own agenda? And why does is it seem that you can only really get funding approved if you walk the walk and talk the talk that funders want to hear even if you are creating an amazing impact?  Having worked with several community groups and initiatives, creating social change is by no means easy plain sailing, logistical neither does it require sophisticated wording.

It’s like an untamed garden of beautiful flowers, the flowers you expect to grow beautifully sometimes wither and get eaten up and the ones you had no hope for suddenly blossom and decide to magnify themselves in an unassuming way. But hey its life right, but what if you were so determined to see specific flowers be the eye catchers because after all, that’s what you expected when you planted. What do you do then? Condemn the others and put all of your energy into ensuring that the ones you thought should do, spending hours fighting against what isn’t naturally and organically being created before your eyes. Or do you sit back and enjoy what you see appreciating what has become and explore the how’s and why’s things happened this way?

Far too often things in this industry feel forced based on a government agenda of what “they” believe, without the evidence or confirmation of what is really actually needed on the ground. A community cannot be boxed in to an idea. It is a living entity which moves and takes shape the way it want based on any given circumstance or situation.

Anyway enough of my simile…I get lost in these if you haven’t noticed already

What exactly is changing?

Well, this was the moment where a glimmer of hope reignited the flame within for the finance industry. Deborah explained that the industry as a whole was beginning to rethink the way things have been done, they realised that there was a disparity between their expectations and what is really needed on the ground in grass root communities. Deborah went on to describe it as “turning the titanic” understandably it’s a complete shift and take time, but for me a step in the right direction is simply a step towards what is right, and most of all the acknowledgement that something needs to change was more compelling than anything else.

My smile grew as Deborah said “I’m encouraging people to challenge funders based on the outcomes of their evaluations, and to say I know we wanted to focus on this, but out of trying we found that the need is actually here”, just like my analogy of the untamed garden.

Could funders actually start to do with rather than stipulate an outcome based on assumptions? Could there be a change in making change? I for one welcome positive change and support those trying to make change through my “outside the box” organisation BUD through training and coaching. I’m launching “How to Successfully lead a community Project” in September where students will launch is 12 weeks, so wish me luck!

End like something new has begun

The meeting with Deborah far exceeded my expectations and the level of support she offered me in my endeavour to change the world for better was just what I needed! She ended by saying I can do this! How encouraging it was to be on the receiving end of 4 of the most powerful words put together.

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The Fundamentals of True Leadership

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We all have different approaches to leadership. But for me, and what I want to emphasize in my own life, is that we need to lead through love and fulfillment. We want to reach out and we want to lead others, but often I have seen people confuse leadership with projecting their ideas onto their group. For me, leadership is about questioning what I need to do to allow my group to feel satisfied and fulfilled. The answer to that question, most commonly, is love.

 

I think that being a leader means showing my team love and respect. I think that’s truly what people want, and what will allow others to respond in the same way. It means allowing people to feel included, to feel valued, and to to help them recognise that their role truly is important.

 

For my organisation BUD (Businesses Under Development), I like to take a nonconventional approach to teaching leadership. For me, this means teaching people how to empower others and helping them to feel empowered. We want to encourage positive change in our communities and in the world, but that starts within our own groups. This is one reason I love Pebble Magazine. They take the approach that each pebble makes a ripple, and that’s such a powerful belief. If we encourage positivity in one another, that attitude translates to the way our organisations work and the ways in which our communities grow.

 

When I offer a leadership course, I don’t teach others how to lead through power. I teach people how to lead through love. For me, this means showing others how to understand what your team is feeling, how to respect them, how to make them feel valued and cared for. We don’t try and force productivity upon people, we teach people how to encourage productivity it to blossom. If this interests you, I am offering a workshop on how to successfully lead a community project on September 19th and I would love to see you there.

 

And I think, even beyond our own organisations and community groups, that love and respect is what’s missing in society. As changemakers, community leaders, business owners, or organisational leaders, we can begin changing society by changing the ways we treat others around us. To me, that’s true leadership.

 

We know that so many of you want to lead change, but don’t have the tools. I like nothing more than watching people transform themselves, their organisations, and the world. That’s what I want to dedicate my life to! And that’s why I want to give you a guide I put together on how to successfully build a community organisation. You can download that here, and if you know someone else in need of a tool kit such as this, please do pass it along. We want to see love spread as far and wide as possible, and this is a good place to start. Join me?

If you’re interested in more, go to our website and sign up for our newsletter! 

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A Change in Making Change

,

A change in making change?
Is there a shift in the way funders work? After a meeting with the wonderful Deborah Smart (obviously this name rings true) from Social Investment Business I left feeling both elated and inspired.

I met with no real expectations, more from a place of inquiry I wanted to see how and what was available for the social entrepreneurs and change makers I support. I must admit that I didn’t come from a place of optimism based on my opinion of the sector and the criteria process. But listening to Deborah’s theory and ideas around change and methodology made me realise that actually, there could be a change in making change.

Why do we need to change the way we support those making change?
I have been fighting with the funding industry some time. When I say fighting, what I really mean in having conversations with myself and others whom get the great opportunity to hear me rant. My objective is and has been. How and why do funders expect those whom they are giving funding to be restricted by predetermined outcomes according to their own agenda? And why does is it seem that you can only really get funding approved if you walk the walk and talk the talk that funders want to hear even if you are creating an amazing impact? Having worked with several community groups and initiatives. Creating social change is by no means easy plain sailing, logistical neither does it require sophisticated wording.

It’s like an untamed garden of beautiful flowers, the flowers you expect to grow beautifully sometimes wither and get eaten up and the ones you had no hope for suddenly blossom and decide to magnify themselves in an unassuming way. But hey its life right, but what if you were so determined to see specific flowers be the eye catchers because after all, that’s what you expected when you planted. What do you do then? Condemn the others and put all of your energy into ensuring that the ones you thought should do, spending hours fighting against what isn’t naturally and organically being created before your eyes. Or do you sit back and enjoy what you see appreciating what has become and explore the how’s and why’s things happened this way?
Far too often things in this industry feel forced based on a government agenda of what “they” believe, without the evidence or confirmation of what is really actually needed on the ground. A community cannot be boxed in to an idea. It is a living entity which moves and takes shape the way it want based on any given circumstance or situation.

Anyway enough of my simile…I get lost in these if you haven’t noticed already

What exactly is changing?
Well, this was the moment where a glimmer of hope reignited the flame within for the finance industry. Deborah explained that the industry as a whole was beginning to rethink the way things have been done, they realised that there was a disparity between their expectations and what is really needed on the ground in grass root communities. Deborah went on to describe it as “turning the titanic” understandably it’s a complete shift and take time, but for me a step in the right direction is simply a step towards what is right, and most of all the acknowledgement that something needs to change was more compelling than anything else.

My smile grew as Deborah said “I’m encouraging people to challenge funders based on the outcomes of their evaluations, and to say I know we wanted to focus on this, but out of trying we found that the need is actually here”, just like my analogy of the untamed garden.
Could funders actually start to do with rather than stipulate an outcome based on assumptions? Could there be a change in making change? I for one welcome positive change and support those trying to make change through my “outside the box” organisation BUD through training and coaching. I’m launching “How to Successfully lead a community Project” in September, which will launch in 12 weeks. So wish me luck!

End like something new has begun
The meeting with Deborah far exceeded my expectations and the level of support she offered me in my endeavour to change the world for better was just what I needed! She ended by saying I can do this! How encouraging it was to be on the receiving end of 4 of the most powerful words put together.

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