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Make An Impact Podcast
Heidi Fisher
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Finance and credit play a big part in our lives. Removing or preventing access to them is hugely disruptive, as today's guest explains.
Without fit-for-purpose finance on fair terms, businesses and social enterprises can't grow, create jobs or deliver vital frontline services, and millions of households are prey for loan sharks.
Community development finance institutions (CDFIs) address the damaging lack of appropriate finance faced by many people, businesses and social enterprises. Responsible Finance represents CDFIs, and CEO Theodora Hadjimichael describes the uneven financial landscape in the UK, and:
- how her members work to get the right finance to under-served businesses and financially excluded people
- why Responsible Finance is like a 'coach' for its members
- mapping policy work to direct results, whether that's influencing Government, securing investment, working with partners and changing lives for 70,000 people every year
- how Responsible Finance measures its own and the sector's impact
- her own journey to becoming CEO of the organisation.
What next?
- Responsible Finance's website is www.responsiblefinance.org.uk
- Its latest impact report is at https://responsiblefinance.org.uk/2022/05/changing-lives
- Its members are listed in full and with geographical and sector-specific (eg social enterprise, business, personal) filters at www.findingfinance.org.uk
- More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk
We have never faced such scrutiny of our bodies, or been under as much pressure to conform to a narrow definition of 'beauty.'
Ldn Dares Drama Company supports people with low confidence, self-esteem and body image issues through performing arts.
The social enterprise works with commissioners in mental health. It helps people develop and understand their self worth, build confidence and more, and has been nominated for the Innovation in Healthcare Lammy Award.
Founder and CEO Ursula struggled herself for a period with her own mental health and talks us through what its 'dares' involve, how it measures and manages its impact, and how its varied progammes help people grow in confidence and self worth and create community value.
What's an immersive treasure hunt? How do challenges and performance build confidence, self acceptance and behaviour change? How is Ldn Dares led by participants in some of its sessions? What sort of changes does that lead to? And how does it translate its impact in terms in building participants' confidence in its programmes, workshops and sessions into their day-to-day lives? Listen to find out.
Links:
- Ldn Dares – https://www.ldndares.co.uk/ and its Impact report https://www.ldndares.co.uk/impact
- More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk
When serial technology entrepreneur Bashir Khairy had a lightening bolt realisation of the cumulative effects of our shopping habits, he overhauled his lifestyle.
But there was a problem. Bashir and his family couldn't find enough sustainable products in one place. "There were fundamental questions about how we vote with our money," he says, and directed his focus to creating a marketplace featuring ethical products from conscious merchants.
The Green Wallet app is now in use UK-Europe wide making it easy for social entrepreneurs to access conscious customers. Bashir and his team of tech enthusiasts have also launched a payment processing gateway, and plant a tree every time they process a payment. With 35 billion transactions processed online in the UK alone last year, that could be a lot of trees.
Bashir, founder and CEO at Green Wallet, is a former officer with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and ran a substantial portfolio at BT Wholesale. Heidi was so impressed with Green Wallet's services (and its forthcoming launch of ethical banking services, something she is asked about frequently) that Make an Impact and Green Wallet launched an exciting partnership this month. In this episode Heidi quizzes Bashir about:
• How Green Wallet came to be
• Bashir has committed to planting a billion trees – that sounds like a lot! How will they get there, and are Bashir and team really planting that many?
• Is planting a tree the only solution, and does it accurately reflect the carbon involved in a transaction?
• The biggest highs and lows in the business so far
• How the team recruited its tech experts
• The new partnership and how Make an Impact podcast listeners can benefit and enable hundreds of trees to be planted every year – what a fantastic way of harnessing technology for good.
What next?
• For more information visit www.greenwallet.com/paymentprocessing Use the code IMPACT to enable 10 trees to be planted on registration and a halved commission fee for the first 6 months if you sell in the Green Wallet marketplace.
• More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk
Karis Gill was already a serial entrepreneur when she discovered social enterprise. She figured gifts are a wonderful way to introduce people to what she, like Heidi, believes is the future of business.
Social Stories Club, a social enterprise Karis co-founded, offers gifts (wonderful products which make a difference) accompanied by engaging, powerful stories.
Karis describes how it maps and manages its impacts; how it uses stories; and how she and her team decide what products to include.
The business gives opportunities to people with barriers to employment and is going from strength to strength – but how did it weather the storms of the pandemic, an enormous fall in orders from corporate clients, and a cardboard packaging shortage? Karis explains and tells us the story of Social Stories Club.
Links:
- Social Stories Club.
- More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk
Does your work create social change and are you an extraordinary business leader? If so, you could apply for the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize, which offers a £10,000 cash award to up to four winners for their personal and professional development alongside expert mentoring support.
It's an exciting opportunity to accelerate your impact and today's guest Nicole Helwig explains more about the Prize, its purpose and impact, how to apply, and gives a vital piece of advice if you're thinking of applying.
Nicole took up her role as Programme Director, Cambridge Social Ventures in the middle of the pandemic. What was that like, and how does Cambridge Social Ventures measure its impact? What programmes and support does it offer social innovators and impactful business leaders and how have these evolved? How did Nicole and colleagues ensure the "moments when the magic happens" weren't lost?
Nicole also explains how she become involved with social enterprise, why she wanted to lead Cambridge Social Ventures, and reflects on social enterprise ecosystems and innovation with an international perspective (Nicole was brought up in Newfoundland).
From ballet to business for social change, via Canada, South East Asia and Cambridge: Nicole is a fascinating guest for season 5's first episode.
Links:
- Cambridge Social Ventures – https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/social-innovation/cambridge-social-ventures/
- More details about the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize – the application deadline is Friday 8 April 2022 https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/centres/social-innovation/cambridge-social-innovation-prize/
- More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk

Social Enterprise is Power with Tippa Naphtali
Make An Impact Podcast
07/27/21 • 46 min
Dave Linton is the first ever guest to be invited onto the Make an Impact podcast for a follow-up interview. He launched Madlug in 2015 as he was heartbroken to learn that most children in care transport their worldly belongings in bin bags. Madlug’s 'Buy one, give one' approach addresses this.
But what’s happened since Dave was last on the show? Masses, it turns out, and Dave describes Madlug’s resilience in the face of a social media hack, the decisions it made to deal with Covid, the value and importance of a great board, the importance of trusting your gut and how he and his crew responded to an astonishing phone call from IKEA.
Dave also gives his KEY advice to help social entrepreneurs find your niche and avoid mission drift. It’s a powerful tale of a social enterprise which started with just £480 and is making an astonishing impact.
What next?
- Madlug's website
- Heidi's new book shares everything she knows about impact measurement and management – and how to implement it in your organisation. Order your copy of Impact First – The Social Entrepreneur's Guide to Measuring, Managing and Growing Your Impact at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk/my-book-impact-first
There are three key things ethical businesses must do when it comes to their marketing, according to Jane Shaw. Listen on to find out.
Conscious customers can be incredibly vocal, so if an ethical business can build a community which loves and believes in their product or service it can be a huge asset.
Jane describes the practical steps ethical businesses can take; how she helps entrepreneurs to bottle their "why" and her own routemap to make marketing affordable and effective for small, purpose-led businesses.
A former journalist and PR, Jane also runs The Happy Families Plan , giving families the tools to stop surviving and start thriving.
What next?
- Find free practical guides and Jane's affordable marketing courses at EthicalBusinessMarketing.com
- The Happy Families Plan
- Jane is on LinkedIn here
- Heidi's new book shares everything she knows about impact measurement and management – and how to implement it in your organisation. Order your copy of Impact First – The Social Entrepreneur's Guide to Measuring, Managing and Growing Your Impact at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk/my-book-impact-first
There are six million dads in the UK and when Dan Flanagan's own father passed away he re-evaluated his own life. "It can be lonely to be a dad but men don't like to talk about that."
The consequences are profound and tragic. Isolation, loneliness, mental ill-health. For some men, suicide – horrifyingly, 96 men under 45 are lost to suicide each week in the UK. And the emotional availability of fathers has both an immediate and long-lasting impact on children.
A few years ago Dan started blogging about fathers and parenting and – to his great surprise – his posts became hugely popular. They resonated with many men who were frustrated they couldn't share their feelings with others, suffering in silence, or struggling with stereotyping.
He launched Dad La Soul, a "revolutionary grassroots movement that uses art, tech, music and play to battle social isolation and loneliness." The more we can do to get dads talking the better, he says.
Dad La Soul is a not-for-profit community interest company. It's now globally recognised, has been mentioned in the UK's parliament and featured in numerous media articles.
Its impact report has unlocked numerous opportunities for the social enterprise, and been recognised as an exemplary piece of storytelling and impact communication.
Dan tells Heidi how he came to launch and develop Dad La Soul and build communities where dads support each other.
He describes how it has worked with many organisations, from football clubs to social housing providers to local authorities to big brands – but it's also turned down numerous partnerships if they weren't right.
And he covers how he shook up impact reporting by necessity.
What next?
- Dad La Soul website: www.dadlasoul.com
- Dad La Soul impact report
- More about Heidi's work at https://www.makeanimpactcic.co.uk