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Are you “business angel ready”?
What is a social business angel? Who invests in social enterprises and what do they want? iSE is offering two workshops that will answer these questions — and many others too. If you are wondering whether your enterprise might be attractive to an angel investor, then book
Continue Reading →Crowdfund Birmingham — new funding opportunities for community benefit projects
Further to this post, we now have further news about Crowdfund Birmingham, the new joint initiative between Birmingham City Council and Crowdfunder. Launched at the start of the year, Crowdfund Birmingham is a new campaign to help people with good ideas raise the money they
Continue Reading →‘Unlocking the Warehouse’ — FoE embarks on ambitious refurbishment plans
The Warehouse in Allison St, Digbeth, has been home to Friends of the Earth and a number of other environmental and progressive causes for the past forty years. And now the organisation is about to embark on an ambitious refurbishment plan. FoE aims to raise nearly £250,000
Continue Reading →Women’s Enterprise Hub, free workshop — Working with Angel Investors
The Women’s Enterprise Hub is hosting a free workshop on the 25th April (08.30am-10.00am) and again on the 27th June (same time) called “Working with angel investors — attracting and partnering social angel investors”. → Download the flyer (pdf). → Please note
Continue Reading →Birmingham Volunteer Centre signs up with easyfundraising
Birmingham Volunteer Centre, the city’s volunteering support service provided by BVSC has just announced the following: Did you know you now can help support the Volunteer Centre by shopping? Yes it is true! We have signed up with easyfundraising to raise funds for events like v
Continue Reading →Birmingham City Council launches Crowdfunding Birmingham
Birmingham City Council is launching Crowdfund Birmingham and wants to hear now from local organisations interested in raising money through crowdfunding. The council is setting aside £470,000 from its Community Innovation Fund to provide match funding to pledge on projects that will
Continue Reading →Big Issue Invest launches Impact Loans England
Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue Group, has launched a new investment programme called Impact Loans England. This programme is designed to help social enterprises and charities which might previously have struggled to access small to medium-
Continue Reading →iSE launches new programme of social investment workshops
iSE has launched a new programme to help social enterprises attract social investment. The workshops are designed to provide more information about social investment and give social entrepreneurs the opportunity to practice pitching. The workshops will cover: Introduction to the legal
Continue Reading →ART pioneers new financing model to raise cash for small businesses
ART Business Loans has joined forces with peer-to-peer business lender ThinCats to pilot a unique scheme to raise £500,000 to support local businesses. ThinCats — it’s the opposite of ‘fat cats’ — was established in 2011, partly as a response to the banki
Continue Reading →Social Impact Bonds — the first six years
Social Finance has today launched Social Impact Bonds: The Early Years, a new report covering the progress of the Social Impact Bond market in the six years since its inception with the Peterborough criminal justice system SIB. To date, sixty SIBs have launched in fifteen countries, r
Continue Reading →NAO says PbR schemes are ill-co-ordinated, lack an evidence-base and have unrecognised risks
I am indebted to my old friend Tony Clabby for spotting this… The National Audit Office has just published Outcome-based payment schemes: government’s use of payment by results (June 2015). → Press release NAO website → Summary → Full report The report considers six
Continue Reading →Social investment — made understandable, relevant and available
What do social investors look for in organisations? What’s it like for a social enterprise to go through the process of securing investment? Big Issue Invest (BII) and Charity Bank have put together a social investment workshop to answer these questions. Peter Hughes (Charity Bank) an
Continue Reading →Investment for energy entrepreneurs
Ignite is the UK’s first impact investment fund with a focus on energy. Set up through Centrica, Ignite believe that energy entrepreneurs have a vital role to play in building a better society and are here to help them achieve their potential. Centrica are investing people and money i
Continue Reading →Colebridge Enterprises reaches 4m motor parts packed and boxed
Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago elsewhere on the website we featured Colebridge Enterprises — in particular the huge changes in direction that had happened there under Charles Rapson’s entrepreneurial guidance and Colebridge’s entry into the autom
Continue Reading →GBSLEP roadshow events to promote EU structural and investment fund opportunities — dates & venues confirmed
GBSLEP recently announced that it would be holding briefing roadshows to alert organisations to forthcoming opportunities arising from the LEP’s European Structural & Investment Funds strategy. Dates and venues for these events now confirmed. Please see below. Download PDF flyer.
Continue Reading →GBSLEP announces roadshow events to promote EU structural and investment fund opportunities
GBSLEP has recently announced that throughout February and into March it will be holding briefing roadshows to alert organisations to forthcoming opportunities arising from the LEP’s European Structural & Investment Funds strategy. Venues and timings are still being sorted
Continue Reading →Big Lottery Fund announces ‘Power to Change’ endowment of £150m
The Big Lottery Fund has just announced that it has endowed £150m to the new trust set up to run Power to Change, the new fund supporting community enterprises. The announcement coincides with the publication of a new report on the community enterprise sector published by Social Finan
Continue Reading →New Ideas on Social Value – Confirmed Speakers
November 12, 2014
by Mark Ellerby
New Ideas on Social Value is just a month away and will showcase great examples of social impact and social value and highlight examples of best practice. The event features a range of speakers that have expertise in outcomes based commissioning, social impact measurement or co
Continue Reading →Bibsy Bananas is latest in surge of social enterprises to take up loan finance
ART (Aston Reinvestment Trust), a social enterprise itself, has been lending to social enterprises since it started in 1997. In recent years, perhaps not surprisingly in view of the challenging economic environment and huge public sector spending cuts, very few have come forward look
Continue Reading →New push to increase use and understanding of social investment
Social Enterprise UK has teamed up with the BIG Lottery ‘Big Potential‘ programme and the Social Investment Business to produce a range of online resources aimed at increasing the use and understanding of social investment. BIG Potential is the lottery’s new three-y
Continue Reading →BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL SOCIAL ECONOMY CONSORTIUM C.I.C., trading as BSSEC. A community interest company registered in England and Wales with company no. 07992674. Registered office: c/o Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP, 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham B3 2ES | All rights reserved | Copyright 2013-BSSEC | Created by Citizen Click