Webinar Recording ‘Understanding Social Enterprise’: How can TTOs/KEs plug into existing third sector infrastructure and make the most out of social venture opportunities without starting from scratch?
In this webinar exploring the social enterprise sector we started off with a useful overview of what defines ‘social enterprise’ before moving on to key principles and great examples of the opportunities that come from these legal structures and processes, from Nichola McAvoy at Social Enterprise UK. Then we moved on to an example of direct, localised support from Marina Pritchard talking about existing programmes of social enterprise training delivered by Allia, a ready-to-go system which can be replicated in any area and may be the answer for a large number of TTOs and Academics ready to start their journey into building a social venture. We finished with Jeremy Pannell who talked about longer term support for established impact-focussed ventures looking for planning, funding and scaling support from a bank-for-good Triodos.
Our CoP discussion in this section looked at gaps in technical TTO/KE knowledge. Community Interest Companies and ‘Mission’ accreditation were the most popular organisation types according to our members in terms of training needs, and technical knowledge was seen as the biggest gap to building these ventures (more than funding or institutional culture). However, funders were seen as the most important outside stakeholder to link with to improve social venture building in HEIs.
Make sure you are a part of our CoP to get help from peers in finding the most effective social enterprise partners in your area or project focus. Including SE developers, trainers and funders.
- Social Enterprise UK’s guide: How to Start a Social Enterprise: https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/get-involved/start-a-social-enterprise/
- GOV.UK’s CIC Guides: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-regulator-of-community-interest-companies
- UN Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
- B-Lab (B-Corp) network: https://bcorporation.net/en-us/movement/about-b-lab/
- The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)’s support pages: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/our-services/support-small-charities-voluntary-organisations/
- Good Finance: https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/