Do you need more money as a Charity, Voluntary organisation or Social Enterprise

Well if you are looking at ways to increase your revenue, to achieve your outputs or to be successful in bidding then Micro Coaches may be able to help. In fact I shall be one of many coaches that will soon be available through this new and exciting peer to peer support programme.

Unlocking the skills and expertise within small organisations with the aim of working towards sustainable communities. The aim of the Micro Coaches is to share the specific expertise, skills or knowledge they have about business with other small organisations, including social enterprises.

Why am I getting involved? Because I believe passionately in supporting the community and enabling organisations to generate additional surplus income, especially through creating enterprises that produce income for their social aims.

Think about it if you were able to get the general public or businesses to pay you for providing a service or product. Then taking that money and using it to support your target beneficiaries rather than always waiting months to work out if you have won the lottery of bid writing.

There is still a place for state funding, grants and lottery funding but using a mixture of funding options allows you to try and be more flexible in your service delivery. Well hopefully you will be asking for a Micro Coach in the East of England soon.

Building Communities Fund for Social Enterprises

The meeting that I talked about initially in my first post for activ people was to launch the Building Communities Fund which is to support the development of social enterprises in the eastern region. Photo: Michelle Rigby - CEO SEEE (left) , Andrew Robinson - Quirk Review (right)

It enables third sector organisations to develop a feasibility study on the viability of acquiring an asset that is currently held in private or public hands for the good of the local communities that they wish to serve.

But more importantly it enables those organisations the opportunity to utilise that asset to create a surplus or profit which will support their social aims. Whether that is to help with the care of individuals, education, business incubation. The list recipients is endless as well as the enterprises used to create the surplus.

The point is for those organisations to make a profit rather than having to rely always on Grant funding. For more information visit http://www.buildingcommunitiesfund.org/ or the SEEE website http://www.socialenterprise-east.org.uk/