Social Enterprise Day is now behind us and with the Social Enterprise Bill (Public Services Bill) getting through its second reading in Parliament on Friday, SE really does look set to play a part in delivering solutions for communities in the future.
However, in Cornwall last week, Social Enterprise Day by in large passed many people by, apart from a short radio interview on BBC Cornwall that had been pre-booked and a few column inches from the press releases sent out by many of us, highlighting what our sector does.
Why was that? If SE has such a big future, and is set to deliver David Cameron’s vision, why aren’t the papers more interested?
Well I guess largely in Cornwall because there was a major flooding story to tell, which quite rightly dwarfed all other news. But even if you delve into that story you’ll find SE at the heart of the cleanup operation, particularly in the reuse sector as furniture projects like RE:SOURCE, and Charities like Home Comforts offered support to homes hit by the floods.
But that’s not it.....yes flooding took the headlines last week, but if you listen to the radio interview I did, it’s obvious that SE is misunderstood and that we still have a huge exercise to make the public understand what SE is and how it can help shape a better society.
Part of the problem is that we just don’t have the capacity to constantly ‘sell’ the concept. If you take ReZolve as an example, although we have always placed great emphasis on marketing what we do, we have only just got to the position where we can afford permanent resource to spread the word. But this is the beauty of the sector and of contracting with SE, we run a tight ship and we spend a huge amount of time attracting added value, i.e. linking up with other programmes and projects, in partnership, so the funder or commissioner gets more bang for their buck.
So we’re misunderstood and need to do more to promote what we do, whilst not losing our USP that we deliver on the ground effectively and add value.
Ever heard of Social Return on Investment? What about Social Impact Bonds? Or even Social Investment 'Asset Classes'....no? well I’m not surprised, but keep an eye on these phrases because they are growing in prominence and it’s how the SE sector is going to demonstrate its value, and if it can do that, it’s also about how it can unlock serious investment from the capital markets. It’s already happening in the UK and if you read the interview in this month’s Social Enterprise magazine with Sir Ronald Cohen, the man who brought venture capital to Europe, you’ll see that SE is unlocking enormous potential from the financial markets and if this takes off, this will represent a seismic shift in the way we do things.
Social investment is just as relevant in Cornwall as it is in the big smoke....you’ve only got to look at the Social Impact Bond example from Peterborough to see where the links could be: http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/services/index.php?page_ID=15
If you’re interested in this area then get in touch because we’re developing ideas around Social Impact Bonds and would be interested in talking to partners about how they could play a role, both private, public and community sector. Let’s lead the way from Cornwall....
However, to reign in my usual optimism, the article says, “This is no modest challenge: it would require a cultural change from capitalist consumerism to sustainability.” Surely a price worth paying.....
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