2 in 3 people think rebrands and London offices are a waste of charities’ money

A new study from research consultancy nfpSynergy reveals that 69% of people think that London-based offices and rebrands are either a ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ wasteful use of the donations received by charities. 

The nationally representative poll of 1,000 adults also revealed, more positively, that over half of people deem advertising something worthy for charities to spend money on and 61% feel the same about developing a website. The report is available for download here.

Top 10 UK hotspots for community activism announced

New research released by the Community Shares Unit and Co-operatives UK reveals that Oxfordshire tops the list of the ten areas where communities are most likely to buy and take ownership of local assets such as pubs, shops, football clubs and wind farms. 

In Oxfordshire 9,000 people have raised £5m through ten community share issues, including a telecommunications co-operative and a cluster of energy schemes, community-owned pubs and local food initiatives. Click here for more info.

Taiwan introduces new social entrepreneur incubator

A social entrepreneur incubation platform that is based on the UK’s UnLtd model, has been launched this week in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s central government hope that the incubator will considerably boost local social entrepreneurship development, which is something they have marked as a priority.

Musician adds star quality to social enterprise educational project

Jamiroquai guitarist, Rob Harris, offered his support to the University of Nottingham’s ‘Create Your Future’ social enterprise event for Year 12 pupils from across Northamptonshire this week. The musician judged the pupils’ business proposals that were designed to solve a social issue. 

Sharon Irwin, manager of Nottingham University’s Enterprise Club, said: “Create Your Future is an excellent way to show students the value of social enterprise and how they can run their own business, while making a positive change to society.”

Up to $1m for a community tackling Australia's biggest social challenges

In Australia, a group of funders and partners have announced the launch of The Search, a national initiative that is building a resource pool of up to $1m for an Australian community that will come together to tackle some of the nation’s biggest challenges. 

The chosen community will receive the financial resources and support over three years. Some of the issues it is hoped the funding will deal with include entrenched unemployment and homelessness. 

Social entrepreneur embarks on trek from Canada to Mexico

Jordan Phoenix, author, speaker and social entrepreneur, has set off on an epic trek on foot that will see him journey from Vancouver, Canada, to Tijuana, Mexico, in order to engage with people who are passionate about rebuilding their communities and to spark the creation of grassroots projects.

He will visit multiple foundations and nonprofits in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tijuana to ignite an international, unified grassroots movement to counter poverty. Click here to find out more. 

Tech-savy social enterprise is the choice of angels

Third Space Learning has been announced as the UK Social Impact Investment of the year, as voted for by the UK business angels association in partnership with Nesta.

Tom Hooper, founder of Third Space Learning, explained to Pioneers Post how his social enterprise works: “We employ maths graduates around the world, using technology to connect them to children in schools across the UK to provide extra one-to-one support for children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.” 

Boost for Centre for Arab American Philanthropy 

The Centre for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) secured $380,00 in funding from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation grant yesterday.

The grant will allow the CAAP to continue working on its mission of empowering Arab Americans, by supporting projects by organisations such as Safe Harbor for Women and others that serve low-income women and their families.

Car manufacturer leading the pack in CSR

Hyundai has been recognized at the International Corporate Social Responsibility awards for its Future initiative, which helps young people prepare for today’s competitive job market, and for its work with charities Street League and Crisis.

Impact measurement in action

Skipton Building Society have released new data in an easy-to-read graphic to demonstrate the social impact their community funding campaign, Grassroots Giving, has achieved. 

You can access the graphic here.