We are here to help organisations to do better work and create more sustainable communities by promoting robust measurement of Social Value within day-to-day business activity.
As part of this commitment, we invited small and micro-sized B-corps or Social Value enterprises to take part in our first Social Value Accelerator programme. Launched at the end of 2022 to celebrate our B Corp status, we invited small and micro organisations making a conscious effort to positively contribute to the wellbeing and resilience of society to apply for one of four spaces on the programme.
Of all the organisations across the UK that applied, four winners were selected by members of Social Value Portal’s senior management leadership from the strategy, sales, marketing and customer success functions.
The winners were:
- We Made That
- Change Please
- Greenstream Flooring
- Oru Space
Working with Social Value Portal allows us to fulfil much bolder ambitions of serving our community.
Vibushan Thirukumar, CEO, Oru Space
Last year, we set ourselves a big, audacious goal of delivering £100 billion worth of Social Value by 2026. We can only succeed if we lead by example, and this accelerator programme provides a means of sharing our knowledge and expertise in a way that benefits some truly deserving organisations. We had some extremely impressive entries and I know that the judges chose the final four with great care. They were particularly impressed with each one’s commitment to improving lives in a number of ingenious, carefully considered and engaging ways. We are all really looking forward to working with such a talented and purpose driven group of people, who are working hard to shape a future society that will be stronger and more resilient - which is what Social Value is all about.
Guy Battle, CEO, Social Value Portal
Each winner will benefit from:
- Bespoke consultancy services from our advisory team, including strategy support and a Local Needs Analysis report for one project or bid
- Two years' free access to our platform
- Full use of the widely recognised measurement framework, the Social Value TOM System™
- Access to the Social Value Academy™ and membership training
- Data validation, clarification, and reporting
They will also receive hands-on support from the expert team at Social Value Portal in order to report both non-financial and financial data in one consistent place and use the data to tell their individual stories.
This support will help us maximise the benefit of our existing data collection efforts and could massively help our efforts to work with more first and second tiers.
Ellen Petts, MD & Founder of Greenstream Flooring CIC
The programme began with an introductory meeting between all four participants and Social Value Portal’s team, where programme milestones were identified and scheduled.
The winners
We Made That
We Made That is a research, urbanism and architecture practice working exclusively for the public sector and charities. As a Certified B Corporation, they are committed to delivering public good.
We have always strived to be a ‘good’ business, which we put to the test when we certified as a B Corp in 2020 and made a commitment to track, record and report on our social, economic and environmental impact. Participating in this programme will help us to prioritise the targets we set, structure our performance tracking, and robustly validate that we are delivering on our commitment to make better places for all. We look forward to strengthening the tools and language to communicate this impact and to bring clients and partners along with us.
Holly Lewis, Co-founding Partner, We Made That
Learn more about We Made That here.
Change Please
Change Please is a coffee company, 100% of whose profits are reinvested in providing people experiencing homelessness with paid barista training at the living wage, housing, training and onward employment opportunities.
We are so excited to be on the Social Value Accelerator Programme at Change Please. Being able to measure and demonstrate our social value is key to generating more revenue from our partners, bringing more people into our movement and lifting even more people out of homelessness.
Laurence Higgens, Director, Change Please
Learn more about Change Please here.
Greenstream Flooring
Based in Wales, this social enterprise maximises community benefit from the reuse and sale of flooring in the UK, providing it at low cost or free of charge to people in need of flooring via relationships with housing associations and community donation days.
We work with local authorities and first and second tier construction companies and have recognised that although we have produced an annual Social Impact report for the last four years, we really need to understand and incorporate the TOM System into our reporting structure. This support will help us maximise the benefit of our existing data collection efforts and could massively help our efforts to work with more first and second tiers.
Ellen Petts, Founder, Greenstream Flooring CIC
Oru Space
A provider of alternative urban spaces that bring together co-working, wellbeing and food, Oru Space attracts individuals and organisations with an interest in new ways of living and working in the urban environment, whilst combining profit with purpose.
Vibushan Thirukumar, CEO of Oru Space, feels that the programme will help Oru to build on its integrated approach to social impact, stating:
Providing more nurturing and fulfilling ways to live and work is our objective. To date we have incorporated social impact throughout the business and activities. Working with Social Value Portal allows us to fulfil much bolder ambitions of serving our community. We will be opening our second, much larger, site in Sutton in July 2023, providing space for 700 co-workers, yoga studios, a spa incorporating cold water therapies, a nursery, restaurant, rooftop bar and event space.
Vibushan Thirukumar, CEO, Oru Space
Learn more about Oru Space here.
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