I thought that it would be interesting to see who the ‘top’ individuals and organisations tweeting about social enterprise and social entrepreneurship were, so I put together a list of all people using the hashtag #socent over the last few weeks and used PeerIndex to rank them by their ‘social influence’.

PeerIndex isn’t perfect but it uses information on peoples’ ‘Authority’, ‘Activity’ and ‘Audience’ on social networks to give them an influence score (more info here).

Have a look at the list below. You can also follow the list on Twitter, or follow me on twitter at @lucywood.

If you’d like to be added to the list, let me know and I’ll add you on.

The last forum was held in January 2011 in Saudi Arabia and focussed on “Innovation as a Means to Competitiveness” looking at how to develop competitivess to “build sustainability, promote responsible development, and drive economic growth.” The forum looked at the current challenges to competitiveness and how innovation can provide solutions to them.

Sally Osberg, President and CEO of The Skoll Foundation was one of the key note speakers talking about how social entrepreneurs are can be one of these innovative solutions particularly about Conscious Capitalism and Conscious leadership.

Sally’s session focusses on social entrepreneurship and the work of The Skoll Foundation. She rightly points out that social entrepreneurship, conscious capitalism and strategic philantrophy can not work without PEOPLE. Sally states that social entreperneuers are every bit “entreprenurs” but working to solve social problems across the globe. To her, conscious leaders “are motivated by the desire to discover a company’s deeper purpose, rather than by personal gain. They focus on delivering value to all stakeholders, and work to align and harmonize the interests of customers, employees, suppliers, investors, the community, and the environment in as much as possible. Conscious leaders cultivate awareness throughout their business ecosystem, beginning with themselves and their team members,and moving into their relationships with each other and other stakeholders.”

At the Skoll Foundation their work is based on investing, connecting and celebrating the work of social entrepreneurs. Unlike many funders The Skoll Foundation see the full spectrum of assets that they have and make investments that are capable of leveraging change both in the private and third sectors.  The work that The Skoll Foundation does is “shaped by four pillars”:

• The Issue- The mission of the Skoll Foundation is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems. It supports organizations that are aligned with the following six issue areas: economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, health, institutional responsibility, peace and security, and tolerance and human rights.
• The Innovation- An approach that fundamentally disrupts the status quo to solve social and/or environmental problems.
• The Inflection point – Where an organization has an approach that is proven, having already implemented it with success and is now ready to apply the approach on a much larger scale.
• The Impact- Impact may be demonstrated by behavior, infrastructure and/or policy change in social and/or environmental issues. The Skoll Foundation seek organizations whose innovations are positioned to directly affect one or more of these on a large scale and can show evidence of significant impact already achieved. Broadly, behaviour change includes changes in the awareness and behavior of key actors, including the general public, companies, funders, beneficiaries, etc. Infrastructure change deals with systems or market changes. Policy change relates to government (regional, national, international) and regulatory policies.

The Skoll Foundation looks for those game changing social entrepreneurs who have business models that are driving large scale social change, where the innovation can scale globally.

Sally Osberg The Global Competitiveness Forum Talking About Conscious Capitalism- Social Entrepreneurs.

More presentations from the forum can be found on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/gcfchannel#g/u

For more information on The Skoll Foundation visit their website http://www.skollfoundation.org/

I work with many individuals who have identified a social issue and have an idea for how to solve it. They often come to me with just an idea and need help to articulate the business model that sits behind it and what actions they need to take to make it happen. UnLtd (The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs) have developed a useful toolkit that helps individuals to navigate this process, giving practical tools and working models for planning and implementation that will help social entreprenuers to start up, pilot and achieve long term sustainability, growth and replication.

The toolkit is based on two key areas, one the stage that you are at (for example intial idea and vision, start up and set up through to sustainability and growth and replication) and two three specific themes that encompass your social venture (Personal, Social and Business). The toolkit has been set out as a grid, it’s worth scanning through it taking note of all of the sections as it’s not the easiest format, also many of the documents are pdf’s the content is good so don’t let this put you off.

So what does the toolkit include? Below is a list of some of the topics.

Personal: what are my motivations, what are the implications on my life, the financial and personal commitments, qualities of a social entrepreneur.

Social: defining the problem and your solution, developing your social model, defining social impact indications, setting targets and refining you social model, monitoring and evaluating your social impact, social return on investment (SROI), social impact measurement systems.

Business: strategies for operating on a shoe string, mapping out your operational needs, recruitment, leadership and management, operational systems, processes and infrastructure, managing the organisaitonal changes of replicaiton, understanding your target audience and defining your value proposition, determining the right legal structure for your social enterprise, making governance work for you, appointing board members, getting started with financial management, financial analysis, securing start up funding, stakeholder engagement and building networks, funding for long term growth.

click on the link to access the UnLtd Social Entreprenuership Toolkit or visit http://unltdworld.com/hefce

The language that many funders and support organisations use can be confusing and used in varring contexts.  This can make it difficult for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs when securing contracts and funding to deliver their work.  I came across a report put together by the The Jargonbuster Group to “Simplify the languate of planning, project management and performance improvement to increase understanding”- it basically picks out top key terms used and explains what they mean.

The Jargonbuster Group was established in the 2003 by the Community Fund who set up an advisory group to look at the language used by the sector. The group was managed by the Association of Charitable Foundations and involved   representatives from a range of organisations including:

• Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF)
• Big Lottery Fund
• Bridge House Trust
• Charities Aid Foundation (CAF)
• Charities Evaluation Services
• Charity Commission
• Community Foundation Network
• City Parochial Foundation
• Evaluation Support Scotland
• Lloyds TSB Foundations
• NACVS
• NCVO
• Wates Foundation

  The report includes terms such as:

• Activities- The Actions, tasks and work a project or ogranisation carries out to create its outputs and outcomes, and achieve its aim.
• Outcomes- The changes, benefits, learning or other effects that result from what the project or organisations makes, offers or provides.
• Soft outcomes- outcomes that are less easy to observe or measure, or which involve some form of change inside people, such as a change in attitude or a change in the way they see themselves.
• Mission- why an organisation or project exists and the broad effect that it wants to have. A summary of the overall difference it wants to make.
• Vision- the ideal state a project or organisation wants the world to be in. what te world will look like if the project or organisation is successful in achieving its mission.

It also covers: aim, baseline, benchmark, hard outcomes, impact, input, milestone, monitoring, resources, targets  and more. The report describes how the terms are used in varrying contexts by different organisations and sets out examples for how they should be used.

Though this wasn’t strictly written for social enterprises or social entrepreneurs it is a good resources for both.

click here to view The Jargonbuster Issue No 1. or go to the CAF website http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=7589 .

The Jargonbuster report was written by Kevin Ashby (Big Lottery Fund), and by Colin Nee (Charities Evaluation Services) along with others in The Jargonbuster Group. 

3. Voice 11

Voice 11 is an annual conference run by The Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC), the UK’s national body for Social Enterprise. SEC is the voice for the social enterprise sector and works to showcase the benefits of social enterprise and represent the work of it’s members to influence national policy and share good practice. SEC has run Voice since 2005 when it was set up to bring the sector together and support social enterprises in their work, Voice is the UK’s largest Social Enterprise conference. 

Who is the conference aimed at: 1500 delegates and 130 exhibitors from social enterprises, third sector and public sector organisations, private sector companies, senior cabinet ministers, MP’s and social enterprise policymakers and investors. The conference is relevant to individuals thinking of setting up a social enterprise, those social enterprises just starting up through to those social enterprises looking to grow.

Where & When will the conference take place: the conference will take place at the O2 Arena in London on 30^th March.

What is the theme: the theme of this year’s conference is on doing business helping the sector to deal with current challenges and helping it to create/ take advantage of new emerging opportunities. It’s about doing business, bringing in new business and helping to make the external business environment supportive and fertile to social enterprise.

What topics will be covered: Can social enterprise deliver public sector reform, Localism – can citizens deliver a future for our neighbourhoods?, Big society bank, how social accounts help measure social impact, Private sector meets social enterprise, supply chain networking, UnLtd Big Venture Challenge, Supporting your business and Meet the Social Enterprise Mark, Social franchising and The challenges of growing a social enterprise, CIC Association: turning a micro boom into a macro effect, Social enterprises in the Big Society and Growing through partnerships, Start-up and survive and Turning ideas into enterprise, Legal forms for social enterprise: the right choice and IT solutions, Commissioning social enterprises, Is social enterprise the future for charities?, Young Social Enterprise including Think Big with O2, Ethical Fashion, Young Enterprise panel and showcase and more.  To view the full programme go to the Social Enterprise Coalition website.

As mentioned there will also be arrange of organisations present who will be showcasing their social enterprises including: 3SC a not-for-profit partnership that unites a range of innovative organisations across civil society to bid for and deliver public service contracts, Anthony Collins Solicitors a law firm dealing with social enterprises issues, The big Lottery Fund, the online social enterprise business directory BuySe.co.uk, CAN supporting social enterprises and charities to grow, Charity Bank, ClearlySo a global marketplace for social enterprise and investment, The Co-operative, The Department of Health and lots more. To view a full list of exhibitors go to the Social Enterprise Coalition website.

Who are the speakers: there are many interesting speakers including the following,

• Claire Dove Chair of the Social Enterprise Coalition
• The Rt Hon Andrew Lansley MP – Secretary of State for Health
• Simon Devonshire – General Manager, Small and Medium Business, O2
• Hugh Biddell – Head of Charities and Public Sector, Natwest
• Arthur Potts Dawson – Chef and accidental social entrepreneur
• Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive, Social Enterprise Coalition
• Nick Hurd Office for Civil Society (OCS)
• Nigel Kershaw Big Issue Invest
• Hazel Blears, MP
• Claire Fox Institute of Ideas
• Bill Eyres O2
• Nigel Lowthrop Hillholt Farm
• Mark Walton, CIVA Waterways
• Lucy Siegle The Observer
• Simon Parker, New Local Government Network
• Mila Chambers P3
• Ceri Jones Social Enterprise Coalition
• Uday Thakkar, Red Ochre
• Craig Dearden-Phillips, Stepping Out
• Alastair Wilson, SSE
• Caroline Mason, Charity Bank
• Clive Barton, Serco
• Richard Jacobs, Yes And Training
• Lance Gardner, Open Door
• Gordon Morris, Age UK Enterprises
• Geoff Walker, Sandwell Community Caring Trust
• Fiona Blacke, National Youth Agency
• Joe Swann, My Social Innovation

For more information on the speakers click on the Speaker biographies on the Social Enterprise Coalition website

The Social Enterprise Awards: At the evening dinner the winners of The Social Enterprise Awards will be announced. The awards celebrate the most inspiring and successful social enterprises in the UK. The awards have been sponsored by CAN who will be giving a prize of £16,000 to the overall winner and 3 runners up. For more information on the awards and form information on how to attend the dinner visit the SEC website.

How can you get involved: you can follow the conference on twitter by using the tag #voice11 also by following @SE_Coalition. For an update and overview of the conference sign up to get the Social Enterprise Coalition newsletter. You will also find conference updates on the Social Enterprise Coalition facebook group.

Here’s the second post in the series giving you a brief overview of the Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship sector conferences.

2. Oxford Jam

Oxford Jam was set up in 2010 to run alongside the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The aim is to bring together social entrepreneurs to develop the social economy. Oxford Jam works on the basis of an open access policy meaning it’s really inclusive and anyone at any stage of social entrepreneurship/ enterprise can attend to share knowledge, experience, develop networks and create innovation solutions to social problems- also a key element is to enjoy yourself by the looks of things!

Who is the conference aimed at: Oxford Jam is aimed at social entrepreneurs who would like to develop networks, would like to engage in discussions and debate, looking to problem solve, share ideas for social change, engage and participate with global and UK social economy representatives.

Where & When will the conference take place: Oxford Jam takes place in Oxford at the Oxford Jam Factory , Oxford Jam runs from 30^th March-1^st April

What topics will be covered: Climate change and how our work can help us be carbon neutral, how to sell your social venture for investment, intergenerational innovation, how to use video to effectively communicate what you do,  regenerating disadvantaged neighbours through community entrepreneurs, business modelling for impact, gift economies, scaling up your social venture, students and social entrepreneurship, strategies for women’s empowerment, rare diseases and social enterprise, metrics what to do with we measure and lots more.

Who are the speakers: a whole mixture of social entrepreneurs and representatives from organisations supporting social entrepreneurs including:

• Danny Chivers, climate change researcher, activist, aurthor and performance poet
• Charmain Love, CEO of Volans, a think tank and business consultancy focused on social innovation
• Liam Black, social entrepreneur of various social enterprises including Fifteen (Jamie Olivers social venture), speak and writes on leadership, enterprise and social change
• Suzanne Biegel CEO of Investors Circle and social entrepreneur
• Mark Cheng Senior Advisor at Ashoka and Executive Director of Chelwood Capital London based corporate finance and strtategic advisory firm
• Joanna Herrmann programme Associate of the Aspen Network of Development (ANDE)
• Antonella Nortari Vischer 18 years with the International Committee of the Red Cross, Head of Public Communication, Director of Corporate Communication at Blue Orchard, board member of Geneve Roule
• Cliff Prior, social entrepreneur and Chief Executive of UnLtd (Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs), 30 years experience in working in third sector, CEO of Rethink

To read a full list of speaker biographies visit the Oxford Jam website

How can you get involved: you can take part in Oxford Jam  as a delegate, contribute to sessions or become a roaming reporter. You can keep to date with what is going on on twitter @oxfordjam (www.twitter.com/oxfordjam), #oxfordjam, on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOxfordJam, on facebook http://www.facebook.com/oxfordjam and on the Oxford Jam website.

Over the next few weeks the Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship sector will be hosting three conferences. in a series of three posts I’ll give you a brief overview of what will be covered at The Skoll World Forum, Oxford Jam and Voice 11, how you can get involved and get some of the useful information if you’re not able to attend them all (which is highly likely as they all seem to be at the same time!).

1. The Skoll World Forum On Social Entrepreneurship

The Skoll World Forum is a programme run by the Skoll Foundation in partnership with the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, Oxford University. It has been running since 2004 when it was set up to bring together a diverse group of people from across the world to stimulate new approaches to solving some of the worlds most important social issues.

Who is the conference aimed at: 800 world leaders from social, academic, finance, corporate and policy sectors

Where & When will the conference take place: the conference takes place in Oxford, UK over 3 days and nights from the 30th March- 1st April

What is the theme: the theme of this year’s conference is around large scale change- social issues are now not just relevant to an isolated group of people and they have become global issues the challenge then is find new ways to work together through developing partnerships and networks and create a supportive “ecosystem” where action can be taken.

What topics will be covered: Globalisation, Governance and Large Scale Change, Large scale change and Microfinance, Leadership for large scale change, how publicly traded companies drive large scale change, grants vs investments, engaging the next generation-poverty to prosperity, food security, working with governments to deliver high impact solutions, pioneering corporate and legal structures for social entrepreneurship, innovation in financial products, demonstrating impact and branding, women, leadership and large scale change and more.

Who are the speakers: there are many interesting speakers including the following,

• Desmond M. Tutu  Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town,
• Jeff Skoll Founder and Chairman Skoll Foundation, Participant Media, Skoll Global Threats Fund,
• Mabel van Oranje CEO, Global Elders,
• Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui Co-Founder and Managing Partner Ignia,
• Lord David Sainsbury of Turville House of Lords Parliament
• Baaba Maal, Senegalese Master Musician
• Sergio Oceransky, Co-Director, Yansa Community Interest Company
• Fadi Ghandour, Founder & CEO, Aramex
• Ngaire Woods, Director, Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford
• Andrew Kassoy, Co-Founder, B Corp
• Jeff Mendelsohn, President and Co-Founder, New Leaf Paper
• Jeremy Leggett, Founder and Chairman, Solarcentury
• Larry Brilliant, CEO, Skoll Global Threats Fund
• Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management
• John Elkington, Founding Partner and Executive Chairman, Volans
• Jonathan Lewis, Founder and Chair, Microcredit Enterprises

How can you get involved: the conference will be posting videos, blogs, articles etc from the conference you can access them on YouTube or search twitter and Flickr using the tag #skollwf and skollwf, you  can also follow the conference on twitter @skollworldforum and find blogs and video posts on the Social Edge website and on theSkoll World Forum site.  There are still some tickets for the general public to attend an afternoon, evening film screens and discussions at The New Theatre.

In this video, Dan Pink (once Al Gore’s speech writer) talks about how to use incentives in a way that helps people to perform to their potential, and helps companies to get the most from employees.

Watch the video below:

Or click on this Ted Talks link to watch Dan Pink on Motivation & Incentives

This week’s moral maze covered a debate about the role of Charities in modern society and how they fit into the big society vision, particulary looking at procurement of LA services to thirds sector organisations.

The debate covers role of civic duty, funding and resources, the reluctance of charities to hold onto services that may no longer be needed, the value of passionate altraristic communities, how professionalising charitable volunteers and regualtions has driven out volunteers, how charities differ from state provision and is there a difference?, resources available for philantrophy, chasing funding and drifting from charitable mission, passion and mission belonging to the charitable sector and no one else, the good bits of charity- innovation, driving forward change,  narrow focus on contracting out to charitable organisations etc.

The panelists: chaired by Michael Buerk with Michael Portillo, Melanie Phillips, Claire Fox and Matthew Taylor.

Witnesses: Sir Stephen Bubb, head of ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
Nick Seddon from the think-tank ‘Reform’, author of “Who Cares?: How State Funding and Political Activism Change Charity”. Mike Short, National Officer for the Community and Voluntary sector, Unison. Emma Harrison, Chairman of the FSI which supports small charities.

Listen to the programme below:

or listen to the programme on BBC iPlayer by clicking on this radio 4 Moral Maze link

What is the Localism Bill all about? I’ve picked up the main points from the plain English guide (Jan 11). The Localism Bill was published in December 2010 to shift power from central government back into the hands of individuals, communities and councils. The bill give Local Authorities (LA) more freedoms and powers t

New Freedoms and Flexibility to Local Government

Local authorities can only do what the law says the can do, this creates problems. The bill allows LA’s to do what they think is right and not be bound by legislation helping them to try new things (general power of competence). The bill will:

• Abolish the Standards Board (the central committee that makes sure councillors behave in a just way and within the law) helping to deal more effectively with complaints made against councillors conduct. Within this it will also become illegal for councillors to withhold/ misrepresent a personal interest.
• Clarify the rules on predetermination where local councillors can become active in local discussions and proper debates can take place at council meetings.
• Allow cities to decide if they want a directly elected mayor to provide visible local leadership, boost economic growth and democratic engagement.

New Rights and powers for communities

The bill recognises the need to engage with local communities in the process of decentralisation and building a better society. The bill therefore gives:

• A right to challenge to voluntary and communities groups where they can express an interest in taking over local services and help to develop new and innovative solutions to delivering public services.
• A right to bid to communities where LA will have to develop a list of assets of community value. Local communities will be able to add assets to the list that are important to them, when assets on the list come up for sale or there is a change in ownership local communities will have to be notified to be given the time to put a bid together.
• Local people the ability vote on local issues by allowing more local referendums. Local people will be able to can vote on any issue and LA will have to take the outcome into account.
• Communities the right to veto excessive council tax rises where the onus will be on LA to convince local people of  why the increases are necessary.

Reform to make the planning system clearer, more democratic and more effective

The planning system decides who can build what, when and how and as it stands there are flaws in the system. The bill will:

• Abolish regional strategies, these strategies are set by central government about where new developments take place particualry around housing local communities aren’t able to influence these decisions.
• Give communities more say by allowing them to draw up Local Neighbourhood Development Plans they will be able to say where new houses, businesses and ships should go.
• Give communities the right to build by letting them bring forward small developments where the benefits from these developments will stay within the community.
• Ensure more community consultation takes place for large planning applications through setting new requirements for developers.
• Strengthen enforcement rules to give LA powers to tackle abuses in planning system.
• Reform the community  infrastructure levy / charge that developers have to pay build houses etc. It will make it easier for LA to use the money on new and exisiting infrastructure as well as going directly into the neighbourhoods where the development takes place.
• Reform the way local plans are made and set out a duty to cooperate where LA’s and other public bodies are required to work together on planning issues.
• Abolish The Infrastructure Planning Commission (an unelected public body), allowing planning decisions that have importance nationally (like deciding train lines) to be taken by government ministers who will be publicly accountable.

Reform to ensure that decisions about housing are taken locally

social housing currently provides 8million people in England with a home at an affordable rent. Currently the rules are too tightly set by government resulting in councils unable to meet local needs. The bill will:

• Reform social housing tenure where currently tenancies are allocated on a lifetime basis. The bill will allow for more flexible arrangements for people entering social housing where social landlords can give tenancies for fixed periods.
• Reform social housing allocations where currently anyone can apply for social housing even if they do not require it this results in large waiting lists and false expectations. The bill will give LA’s the freedom to set policies about who receives social housing ensuring that houses go to the most vulnerable people in society.
• Reform homelessness legislation will allow LA’s to provide good quality private rented homes for people who find themselves homeless. As it currently stands homeless individuals are able to refuse privately rented accommodation in favour of expensive short term solutions until social housing can be found.
• Reform of council housing finance, currently rented collected from social housing is given to central government and goes into a single pot. The funds are then redistributed to LA’s for maintenance and upkeep of the houses. The bill will allow LA’s to keep the rent raised from social housing to maintain their homes and allow them to be able to predicted the income they will raise making the system more sustainable and allow LA’s to plan for the future.
• Introduce a National Homeswap Scheme, currently it is difficult for people in social housing to be geographically mobile with benefits of moving where there works goes, to be closer to family etc. The bill will allow people in social housing to be more geographical mobile and swap homes with other people in social housing across the country
• Reform social housing regulation, the bill will give social tenants greater ability to hold social landlords to account  and move to one central complaints body where tenants can make a complaint against a social landlord.

Click on this link to read The Localism Bill plan English Guide or click here to read The Localism Bill in full