Welcome to the first Spark Ignition email
Thank-you for signing up to follow the progress of the project and to hear more about how to grow a great social enterprise. There’s just six days to go until we narrow the 85 applicants to 15 Spark finalists on March 10.
In this update read more about the next stages of the project, including important dates to put in your diary; we profile the project’s partners; and we introduce Eastside Consulting’s ‘10 steps to a successful social enterprise’ list, which we will discuss over the coming months.
If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to email me on info@sparkchallenge.org.
Regards Richard Litchfield and the Spark team.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The top 15 Spark applicants will be announced March 10 and each will embark on an eight-month journey to increase their skills, capacity and impact on homelessness using social enterprise.
Throughout March, April and May each social enterprise will work with Eastside Consulting to develop their pitch and prepare for a 'Dragons' Den' style pitch event on Thursday, May 29.
Visit www.sparkchallenge.org for a full overview of the Spark programme.
10 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Eastside Consulting shares its advice on the 10 steps you should take to build a successful social enterprise (below and in full on the Spark website). Over the next few months, we will discuss them each in more detail in these update emails.
- Get your mission statement right
- Understand your market
- Know your numbers
- Assemble a skilled management team
- Tell the world
- Innovate
- Plan your delivery
- Seek experienced advisors
- Choose the right legal structure
- Enjoy
SPARK PARTNERS
Spark has been developed by Communities and Local Government and three social enterprise champions - TREES Group, Big Issue Invest (part of The Big Issue group) and Eastside Consulting. It aims to build and inspire social enterprise to prevent and tackle homelessness.
Spark is the first partnership of its kind between the public, the private and the third sectors for homelessness. We welcome PricewaterhouseCoopers and Places for People as corporate partners. Read more about the seed of the Spark idea.
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| March 11 - Investment readiness workshop 1. Fifteen Spark finalists will meet for the first time to begin to prepare their pitch for the Spark ‘Dragons’ Den’ panel in May. (Highpoint Conference Centre, Leicester, 9.30-17.00). |
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| May 14 - Investment readiness workshop 2. After nine weeks of preparation, the fifteen Spark finalists will meet again to perfect their pitch. (Venue TBC, 9.30-17.00). |
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| May 29 - Spark ‘Dragons’ Den’ event. Fifteen Spark finalists will vie for a prize fund of £500,000 and thousands of pounds of in-kind support from the project’s partners. (Venue and times TBC). |
Partners     |
Corporate partners |
