So the Summer may feel almost over but the fantastic Summer start-up, Hackney Pirates, is only just getting in to its stride… Three weeks in and with only one week to go (plus the big end of scheme celebration) it’s clear to us that our piratical adventure is needing to continue.
Hackney Pirates started as the brain child of a few of us in early Summer. We wanted to replicate the great work that 826 Valencia does in the States in supporting kids to realise their potential through one-to-one support focused on creativity and literacy in unconventional learning environments.
So we did just that. We talked up our ideas a lot – to the point that we didn’t think we’d be able to deliver. We got stuck in to raising some funding – but the funding came a little later than anticipated and we thought we’d start the scheme with no more than two pennies to rub together. We promoted it to kids – but the kids were slow to show, at least initially, and we thought we’d have to shut up shop before we even got started…
But it has been a rip-roaring success!!! And despite the testing times and break-neck speed of developments the last three weeks have proven that there is a place in the world for Hackney Pirates. Next step, after we’ve made it through the final week and cooked up a storm at the celebratory barbeque (on the 26th – do come if you’ve been involved) is to hunker down and raise the funds to roll out in the first school term of the new school year.
Watch this space – the Hackney Pirates are abroad!!!
This Sunday my friend Sarah Dodds would have been 40 years old. If I stop for a moment I can hear her in full paradoxical throttle, railing against the aging process while reveling in the instantly acquired sagely wisdom of making it past two score years….
Unfortunately Sarah is no longer with us and we don’t get exposed to the wonder of her abilities to hold contradictory world views in the same opinion.
We do, however, get to continue wonderful and contradictory conversations via the memorial fund that has been set up in her memory. It is no conciliation for losing Sarah, but I guess it keeps me (and quite a few other people) off the streets…
The Sarah Dodds Enterprise Accelerator (SDEA) matches early stage social initiatives with high-quality MBA graduate calibre individuals for internships that focus on capacity-building and investment readiness. The purpose of these matchings are two-fold:
To prepare the social initiative for scale – moving them towards sustainability, success and greatly increased impact, and
To inspire and educate MBAs, influencing their career choices and further ‘mainstreaming’ social and environmental change into the MBA process.
This year we have two fantastic interns, Geetika and Katie, and two great projects Bootstrap and MyBnk. Geetika is working with Bootstrap (who provide managed workspace in Dalston) to devise a business plan to, literally, lift the roof off their building and create a new floor of workspace for charities and cultural industries businesses as well as a roof park). Katie is working with MyBnk (who provide financial literacy training for young people) to develop their strategy for expansion, initially across the UK and then further afield.
So it’s developing into an action packed Summer for all of us involved with Sarah’s Fund. It’s a lot of fun and sometimes pretty challenging content. We are running dinners for all those involved and interested every Monday evening throughout the Summer, so please get in touch if you’d like to come along and join us.
It’s bitter-sweet that the result of losing a great friend results in so many good things happening and connections being made. And I know that no-one involved will take offense when i say I’d rather have my friend back than be running this crazy-arsed internship scheme…!
It’s been a fun filled and furiously active couple of weeks. The product of which is Hackney Pirates now has its’s own home. www.hackneypirates.org. Check it out.
Hackney Pirates has been inspired by the Pirate Supply Shop located at 826 Valencia in San Francisco and is being driven forward by a group of passionate folk interested in helping teachers and children get excited about literacy and creativity.
We have local schools engaged, a growing list of volunteers signed up, a FANTASTIC and very famous patron who will shortly be announced and the search is on for a project coordinator (it’s a paid position – check it out here if you are interested)
Even better you can stop messing around on your computer and come down to the Dalston Roof Park this summer, volunteer and get involved in brand new and completely fantastic summer activities with kids. Hope to see you there…
My last post was calling out for a Pirate Coordinator for a pilot summer literacy scheme planned for the Dalston Roof Park this summer.
This time, ahead of the Ashwin Street – Street Party today, we are putting the call out for volunteer pirates: swashbuckling literacy adventurers who are up for sparing a few hours a month over the summer to test what we think is a fantastic approach to supporting kids to excel and find their inner pirate / adventurer / astronaut / time traveler….
As part of the Sarah Dodds summer internship programme I’m helping Bootstrap, the Development Trust in Dalston, add to its pop-up garden with a summer literacy scheme we are code-naming Hackney Pirates. And right now we are recruiting an intern to kick start the intiative. Here’s the advert…
Internship with a start-up social enterprise: Hackney Pirates Inc (Working Title)
We are looking for an exceptionally organised, entrepreneurial and creative intern with with a passion for working with children to run a summer pilot project for a start-up social enterprise in Dalston, Hackney. Our plan is to develop a drop-in literacy centre where pupils receive one-to-one attention in an unconventional learning environment, based on the successful 826 Valencia model developed by Dave Eggers in San Francisco (please view this link):
We are a small steering group of social entrepreneurs committed to launching this project. Over the summer we will be running a pilot project to test out the model, in advance of applying for funding in the autumn. The planning for the pilot is at an early stage and the intern will have significant influence over the direction and content of the project. A small cohort of young people and volunteers will be taking part in the pilot, provisionally planned as daily sessions from 3-5pm.
The intern will need to be flexible, full of ideas, and able to work independently. The intern will receive support and guidance from the core team, but will be leading on the actual running of the pilot as other team members work full time. The intern will have a critical role in helping develop the pilot at this exciting stage. It is a perfect position for budding social entrepreneurs and those seeking experience in start-up enterprises. An exaggerated interest in pirates, superheroes, detectives etc is a plus.
For more details and to apply, please send a CV and an application letter to: catriona(dot)l(dotmaclay(at)googlemail(dot)com. Candidates should feel free to contact us with questions about the project.
Length of internship: From right now until then end of the summer holidays
OxfordJam is in full flow – the space for the welcoming dinner is being created around me as I type. Apparently it’s been a good first day. I hardly noticed – it’s been a fast and furious few days! Check out the website to keep track of what’s coming up – and what’s going down!
Plus, earlier today the Guardian newspaper published a piece by me following up on my challenge to the UK social economy support sector as to whether we really are in service to the rest of the world. You can read the piece here. It’s a little provocative, intentionally so, and is already drawing some interesting feedback just a few hours after publication!
I’ve been involved with the Sarah Dodds Enterprise Accelerator (SDEA) since it’s inception, shortly after the untimely death of my good friend Sarah.
The overarching aim of this fund is to contribute to the development of inspirational initiatives and individuals that Sarah would have committed time and resources to. The aim of the SDEA is to match early stage social initiatives with high-quality MBA graduate calibre individuals for internships that will focus on capacity-building and investment readiness.
This year marks a change in direction for SDEA. We will be allocating packages of circa £10,000 to up to two ventures this year. We anticipate this will be used for a combination of intern placement costs and investment. This marks a change of tack for the SDEA this year. We are seeking organisations who will actively reciprocate in the future should the engagements lead to success. In practice this will mean contributing ongoing financing and human resources to support future engagements with early stage high potential social enterprises. We want to shape SDEA as a blended social venture capital and gift economy vehicle and we’ll only be investing and working with organisations that really get this vision and want to come on board for the ride.
See the website for details of the application procedure – for both projects and for interns. The deadline this year is May 1st.
Last year was a rich and varied set of engagements between the projects we supported and the interns we placed – and a huge amount of fun. Here’s hoping for a similar summer of fantastic engagements. And here’s to Sarah for her continuing inspiration and impact in this world!
This is an old post but it’s giving me the chance to figure out how to embed videos using this stuff called html. Who’d have thought it? Kudos to Amanda Jones from Red Button Design for putting up with me…
Part of the process of going independent is questioning exactly what one does that’s of value to the world. Another part is understanding how it is the world views you, how best to present yourself and what it is that you are offering. Six months into being independent I’m beginning to find answers to these questions, or at least way-markers along the path.
My thinking is crystalising around the term “Impact Innovation”. Let me explain more…
Until recently I’ve often described what I do as “swerve-ball strategy consulting” or the provision of common sense in a world where it’s not so common to find any more. While at Ashoka I refined my tools and abilities to work across pretty much any field in the social economy and any region of the world, providing all manner of strategy consulting services. I use a lot of the approaches you’ll find organisations like IDEO or WhatIf?! using in the commercial sphere. I focus on subject matter you’ll find charities and social enterprises such as The Young Foundation or Ashoka working on. However, one of the key differences between these organisations and what I do is financial. The individuals and organisations I work with are generally small and lean but ambitious. They receive huge value from my providing innovation services but they aren’t in a position to pay. Foundations in general have yet to wake up to the potential of innovation in the third sector. In addition their output and success based evaluation frameworks don’t take kindly to funding activities that, by their very nature, have high attrition rates.
There’s clearly a gap in the market. Small third sector organisations are often, by their start-up nature, innovative. Large organisations, should they want to, have the resources to allocate to blue sky thinking, research and development, innovation, whatever you want to call it. But what about small and medium sized organisations delivering exceptionally but running on tight budgets and invariably challenged by the perpetual core-to-project funding balancing act? My experience is there is a phenomenal need for innovation services but little or no finance to draw upon to resource this activity. In the same way that there is a missing middle between micro-finance and mainstream finance, there is a missing middle between micro-innovation and large scale systems innovation. It is the provision of services into this missing middle that I am calling Impact Innovation.
So if I am right then there is a need. But can this need be met? Can Impact Innovation pay it’s way in the world?
I’m proposing a new, or perhaps age old, business model initially as a way of paying the mortgage and continuing to do what I love, perhaps over time to be adopted by other Impact Innovators so they too can pay their way in the world. It’s based on two principles:
The cover your arse principle. In homage to Permaculture I realise I need to build a cashflow that derives from multiple sources and thereby build resilience into my financial situation:
As well as all the pro bono I do I’m consulting for third sector and occasionally private sector organisations, for day rates
I hope to secure my first retainer for a US based environmental organisation very soon
I’m on a contingent fee arrangement with an organisation I’m helping fundraise and capacity build
I’m proposing to the organisations I do in-depth pro bono with that they tithe a tiny portion of their future turnover to ensure Impact Innovation conversations continue, with them and with other up and coming organisations
It looks like I’ll be earning income through events production over the next few years
And finally I’m dreaming of reinstigating a paid version of the supper club I used to run in 2007 and 2008 as an occasional forum for discussion.
The rule of the Gift Economy. Underpinning all of the above, or rather driving down the level of income I require from the above, I would like to conduct my work as much as possible through the Gift Economy. So instead of striving for those big pay days I increasingly look to realise those days, weeks and months of big value…
Impact Innovation as a concept is in no way proprietorial. It’ll be a term only worthy of use if others pick it up and run with it. To this end, and to stress test how I’m thinking of moving forward career wise, I would welcome a full and frank discussion with anyone interested in any of the above.
I’m having this blog moved on to my own hosting, there may be some errors and dropped links during this time but hopefully everything will be back to normal within 24 hours.
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