Scottish social enterprises provide over 100,000 jobs

There are now more than 5,000 social enterprises providing 112,400 jobs in Scotland, reveals new research commissioned by a group of public and social enterprise organisations. Of these social enterprises 22% are located in the Highlands and Islands, and 26% in the Glasgow and Edinburgh region. The census also finds that over 200 social enterprises are formed on average each year in the region and 60% of them have a woman as their most senior employee. 

Speaking on behalf of the project steering group, Rachael McCormack of Highlands and Islands Enterprise said: “This excellent report confirms the scale and vital contribution of social enterprise to society and to the economy in the Highlands and Islands and to Scotland as a whole.”

To download the Social Enteprise in Scotland: Census 2015, click here.

Mainstream investors are facing up to their responsibilities globally

A new survey by the CFA Institute has found that 73% of investment professionals worldwide now take into account environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues during the investment process. Of the 1,325 CFA Institute members who responded, 78% of those in the Asia-Pacific region said they considered ESG issues in comparison to 59% in the Americas region. 

While this is a positive sign in the move towards responsible investment becoming the norm, the research also shows that fewer respondents (57%) integrate ESG into the whole investment process, with ESG analysis just being used at certain stages for example exclusionary screening.

New $1m fund aims to boost New Zealand’s social enterprise future

A new fund has been launched to provide young people in New Zealand with the training, business support and seed funding needed to set up their own social enterprise. Guy Ryan, the founding CEO of Inspiring Stories, aims to collect NZ$1m in donations to establish the endowment, which will be called the Future Fund. 

In the past Inspiring Stories’ work has included creating Festival for the Future, an annual event that brings together hundreds of young people all thirsty for social change in Auckland, and the first accelerator programme focussed on young social entrepreneurs in New Zealand. The Future Fund will provide promising young social entrepreneurs with scholarships to the accelerator programme in order to help them address a social issue in their community through business. 

Youth focused charities receive £8m funding in the UK

Impetus-PEF – The Private Equity Foundation has announced England’s largest ever venture philanthropy funding package, which equates to nearly £8m of leveraged funding and will be used to support three London-based charities working with disadvantaged young people.

Action Tutoring will receive more than £2m over three years to support its work recruiting, training and supervising high quality volunteers to tutor pupils in partner schools. The aim is to make the benefits of tutoring more widely available to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Resurgo, which runs personalised coaching programmes to help young people find appropriate jobs, will receive almost £3.5m over three years and The Access Project, which was set up to increase the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that enrol at selective universities, will receive just under £2.5m over three years.

Social enterprise backs aspiring rockstars in Scotland

A new £100,000 recording studio has opened in Glasgow to cultivate local talent, whilst running initiatives that aim to break down social and cultural barriers among young people. Tollcross Recordings is a social enterprise with state of the art recording equipment that will use profits from studio hire to run “music workshops, songwriting classes and free tuition in guitar, bass, drums and DJing” for young people experiencing difficult “situations at home, family breakdowns, bereavement and bullying”.

33 lions rescued from South American circuses

An international animal rights group is to airlife 33 lions from 10 circuses in Peru and Colombia in a rescue mission that will see the animals placed in huge natural enclosures at Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in South Africa. Animal Defenders International report that “almost all of the rescued lions have been mutilated to remove their claws, one has lost an eye, another is almost blind, and many have smashed and broken teeth because of their circus life”. 

Following the death of Cecil – one of Zimbabwe’s most well-known lions which was killed by American trophy hunter Walter Palmer over the summer – it is a relief to receive some good news from the feline world.

Photo credit: Paul Bica