Insights

With pressure on other income streams growing, many charities and social enterprises are looking at how they best use their resource to deliver their mission. Many are interested in exploring enterprise or trading approaches as a way to achieve this but may lack the resources - time, capacity or specific skill sets - to make those ideas a reality.

Over the coming months via a series of blogposts, we will be catching up with various experts, who have supported mental health organisations on their trading and enterprise journeys – with the aim of giving insights for others to apply to their organisations.

The Trading Triangle Framework

  Through our role as a sector partner on the Enterprise Development Programme, we’ve supported over 50 mental health service providers to develop their trading-based income to help them support people to have better mental health and live fulfilling lives. Although there are organisations successfully operating trading and enterprise activities in the sector, it is…

Selling in the Social Sector

Selling – it’s not easy, but it’s doable! Probably the most common thing we have heard across the Enterprise Development cohort is they don’t know how to sell. This comes from both those in the early stages of their trading and enterprise but also sometimes from those who are looking to extend to new markets…

Trading activities and access to meaningful work

The social enteprise sector has a good track record of enabling employment opportunities for individuals from disadvantaged communities, with many having such a motive at the heart of their mission. As well as the obvious impact on individuals’ financial sitiatuion, the opportunity to participate in ‘meaningful work’ has a well reported positive correlation with helping…