12Mar 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 6 – Reinvesting resources through Social Enterprises

Poor, Uncategorized
Nick Priggis concludes this series by considering how to reinvest the profits from social enterprises. Reinvesting Profit Some of the most interesting and innovative historical enterprises that Christians have been involved with have come from the Quakers. Due to their non-conformity Quakers were prohibited from much public life and service, save for the business world. Much of their creativity and faith was therefore focused on growing businesses with Christian integrity and ethics through peer-reviewing business proposals and, where needed, lending money to invest in those businesses. The tremendous social impact of Quakers such as Cadbury and Rowntree is well documented and provides an historic model for Christian Entrepreneurs today. What is less well-known is the story of the Moravians and Basel Mission Society. Both these historic missionary movements intentionally invested in…
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07Mar 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 5 – Raising resources through Social Enterprises

Poor
Nick Priggis continues his series on Social Enterprises by looking at funding. One of the key components of a successful Social Enterprise is, to my mind, to release resources through profitability. In order to become profitable businesses often require a considerable amount of investment. How a Social Enterprise develops its financial strategy will also affect its sustainability and its ability to reinvest its profits. A Strategic Financial Plan An interesting aspect of a Social Enterprise is that it has social transformation at its heart. Whatever the legal set up for your Social Enterprise, you will be able to access grant-funding if you can demonstrate the public and charitable benefit. This type of funding provides Social Enterprises with a very low risk form of investment. However, it also depends on the…
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26Feb 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 4 – The Entrepreneurial Church

Poor
Nick Priggis continues his series on Social Enterprise by looking at the place of entrepreneurs within the local church. The church has an opportunity in these days to become an incubator for social transformation and enterprising business. There is opportunity for the church to express herself in a similar enterprising fashion due to a growing similarity with the context in which the early Quakers found themselves, that of a growing prohibition of Christians in public life. However, to be such an incubator will take creativity and faith for it to happen through and alongside the church. And perhaps it will require a new breed of church leader to facilitate its growth. Identifying entrepreneurs in the church For too long the church has been suspicious of the business entrepreneur. Instead of…
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19Feb 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 3 – Working with churches

Poor
Continuing his series on Social Enterprise Nick Priggis highlights more connections. Connection 3: Working with other churches One of the disadvantages of a small local church starting a Social Enterprise is that the skill-sets needed are not always found in a small church. But that disadvantage, as is often the way, can also be a great advantage. Having to look more widely for skills and gifts to grow our Social Enterprise has created many opportunities for partnership and connection with other churches. Our Chair of Trustees is a member of the church we have helped to plant. Our Administrator and Employment Coach comes from the church who planted us! The resources are found in the Body of Christ. They are also found in the mission itself. A recently qualified apprentice…
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15Feb 2019 by Nigel Ring

Building Churches on Estates – March 16th

Poor
I am very happy to recommend this day conference which is for those who are already planting or who are thinking of building a Church or congregation on an estate where there are high levels of social housing. Through the day there will be a number of talks, Q&A sessions and times to meet each other and network.   The Speakers include Martin Charlesworth (co-author of The Myth of the Undeserving Poor and A Church For the Poor, Nick & Christina Hoult who lead Southgate Family Church at Kings Norton, Birmingham and Jim Harper who has been working for many years in a number of ways serving the poor more recently Jim has planted a congregation on an estate in Worcester and has a vision to help plant many more.…
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13Feb 2019 by Nigel Ring

Social Enterprise 2 – Identifying talents, wooing investors

Equipping, Poor
Nick Priggis continues his series on Social Enterprise One of the joys of being part of an emerging and growing Social Enterprise is seeing how the Lord has made the connections connect. One of the identified challenges in the particular area where we live is the lack of aspiration and ambition around work and employment. Generational underemployment and a lack of academic success leave many people with a sense of despair and hopelessness. Our solution and the connectiions the Lord brought about was to address this through our Hope Initiatives vocational training programme. Connection 1: What latent gifts and untapped talents are in the church? The starting point wasn’t, for us, found in identifying the problems in our community. Rather, the Lord identified the resources in our local community church,…
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