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Cath Harris runs One World Women, a social enterprise connecting experienced business women with ambitious female entrepreneurs from developing countries.

Cath experienced burnout after growing her first business which she sold in 2016. On a holiday to the Gambia she met Ida Cham, an ' extraordinary woman' who runs her own cooking school and makes micro-loans to help women run their own businesses. That conversation and the gaps in support Ida outlined to Cath, became the spark for One World Women.

Its programmes take place in-country and online, catalysing real impact for all and unlocking entrepreneurship. What changes for participants as a result? Cath explains.

Entrepreneurs have differing resources available to manage their businesses in different places and it's important for mentors to understand this context; Cath gives examples. The programmes have needed to adapt this year and Cath explains how. And she describes who becomes mentors and why.

What Cath originally thought would be a simple idea when she launched One World Women has become much bigger. She covers its ambitious plans to scale for the long-term and how its programmes will create opportunities for women the world over to flourish and help their communities grow.

What next?

• One World Women CIC on LinkedIn. Also here on Twitter and Facebook
• 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

Embedding social impact into your supply chain is much wider than just 'buying from social enterprises.' 

It's possible to unlock enormous and complementary social, environmental and economic impacts  through social procurement and Heidi describes how, with examples, in this episode.

We go into depth about what to think about, how to start, and how to measure supplier-generated impact. There are numerous baby steps you can take, which Heidi describes. And we look at emerging areas of social impact such as the climate impact of technology and cloud-computing.

This practical episode is essential listening for social entrepreneurs wanting to support and encourage suppliers to create social impact.

Also in this episode:

• the implications of social value becoming a 'requirement' rather than a 'consideration' in central government contracts
• how to avoid being 'tender-fodder' and exploited by larger contractors for the impact you can deliver
• why over-prescriptive commissioning can destroy innovation
• a hard-won lesson learned

Heidi's new book explains everything you need to know about impact measurement and management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Get your copy first! Pre-order one of the limited number of hardback versions 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

Tina Chen is the founder and chief tea officer at HumaniTea which sells ready-to-drink cold tea latte drinks made with natural and ethically-sourced ingredients.

HumaniTea is a social enterprise and commits 5% of profits to support wellbeing and sustainability initiatives. Tina was originally inspired by the Taiwanese bubble tea concept and the British tea drinking culture while studying her MBA at Imperial College London.

She tells Heidi about HumaniTea's journey from idea to brand to a need to rebrand because of trade mark opposition. Then, agains the odds, Tina ran a successful crowdfunding campaign securing over £13,100 from over 100 backers earlier in 2020.

Tina also covers how she's found suppliers and sourced her ingredients,  HumaniTea's wellbeing and sustainability fund and getting her products to market. Support from Cambridge Social Ventures and from Heidi herself has been invaluable too and Tina describes why.

What next?

• HumaniTea
• 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

We've run through the five stages of the LEAN social impact approach in earlier episodes. Three themes are common to every stage: being impact-led, communication, and embedding impact.

A social enterprise with an impact-led strategy is led by the impact it wants to create. This means being your purpose, rather than having a purpose.

Why bother? Many organisations get bogged down in a cycle of continuing to exist – which means chasing funding and contracts to continue delivering the same services and keeping their employees in jobs.  This approach doesn’t always address whether the real mission is being delivered properly, or at all.

An impact led strategy is not a short-term approach. It flips much traditional business planning on its head, and asks how you can create the most impact for the people you work with (or for the environment). Heidi explains more.

When it comes to communicating impact, there are nine essential questions to address – otherwise you risk miscommunication or excluding people. Heidi has great ideas for communication channels and outputs for different stakeholders.

When impact is truly embedded, everyone in your organisation knows what impact you’re trying to create, why you’re measuring it, and is confident about how they contribute to creating it  Heidi talks through the macro and micro elements of this, from culture to everyday actions.

The five stages of Heidi's LEAN social impact approach are Define, Plan, Measure, Analyse and Learn, and it's important to progress through each stage before moving to the next.

Heidi's new book explains everything you need to know about impact measurement and management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Get your copy first! Pre-order one of the limited number of hardback versions 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

There's a lot of anger about asking questions or fear of being 'cancelled' nowadays. Yet how are you going to educate an 11 or 15 year old about their human rights if they can't or don't ask searching questions?

Sandy AbdelRahman is the co-founder of Skaped, a platform which encourages young people to engage with their human rights through the creative arts including drama, writing and more.  An activist since the age of 19, Sandy describes why art is such an effective tool for engagement and why it's vital our young people are taught to question everything.

She also covers the pros and cons of creating its impact as a charity or social enterprise, how talking about lived and personal experiences helps young people to open up,  how Black Lives Matter impacts on Skaped's work, and addressing discrimination and expectations.

Timings:

• 1:00 What is Skaped and how does it run in practice?
• 2:31 Skaped's sessions are fun, creative and don't use impenetrable legal language
• 3:00 Sandy's background and how it gave her the idea for Skaped
• 4:35 Why art is so effective
• 5:09 Skaped is registering as a charity and Sandy describes this process
• 7:15 Its programmes include gender equality and cancelling culture, delivered online and available globally
• 10:00 Young people do care
• 12:45 Will Skaped extend the age-range of people it works with?
• 13:55 How Black Lives Matter impacts on the work Skaped does
• 15:50 Activism and campaigning: priorities and dealing with loneliness
• 18:15 What's been the hardest part of Sandy's journey?
• 20:50 Finding out more about Skaped's work

What next?

• Skaped
• 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

Stage five of the LEAN social impact approach is LEARN. Heidi explains how this is when your organisation makes improvements, based on data, to maximise your impact.

Heidi uses another real-life example, this time a community hub. Segmenting and being more specific about their "wellbeing" outcomes improved their impact and gave them more detailed evidence, more precise data and a more powerful story.

This episode also covers SROI – social return on investment. People either love or hate SROI and Heidi runs through the pros and cons of assigning financial values to your impact and  specific circumstances in which it is particularly worthwhile.

The "LEARN" stage is typically done annually or perhaps every six months. If you take an impact-led approach to running your organisation then looking at your impact is a fundamental part of your business planning approach.

The five stages of Heidi's LEAN social impact approach are Define, Plan, Measure, Analyse and Learn, and it's important to progress through each stage before moving to the next.

Heidi's new book explains everything you need to know about impact measurement and management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Get your copy first! Pre-order one of the limited number of hardback versions 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

Genia Mineeva is a former journalist who moved from covering politics and international affairs to communicating impact and campaigning.

She went on to launch BEEN London after getting angry about waste which doesn’t get recycled.

In this episode Genia talks about creating fantastic and high quality handbags entirely from waste; the circular economy; her biggest challenges and achievements to date and some exciting future developments for BEEN London.

When Genia was told "we would recycle more if someone was buying the materials" the gauntlet was thrown. She researched, studied sustainability, tested and wouldn't give up (even when it was hard as a startup to get potential partners to reply to her emails).

Her products look the same (or much nicer!) than ordinary products; perform just as well – and have a real, measurable impact on the fashion industry by proving that waste can become beautiful, inside and out.

Listen to learn more about the fascinating processes turning tannery (leather) waste,  recycled plastic bottles and cotton into material for bags. BEEN London also uses a vegan leather made from apple peels and one made from pineapple leaves.

Genia isn't shy to express her opinion on carbon offsetting, the idea that 'growth is good', the conflict between making products and sustainability, and effective impact measurement.

Collaboration and thoughtfulness about every aspect of the carbon footprint is central to BEEN London, as Genia describes, showing how waste can become beautiful bags, laptop cases and accessories which look amazing and solve a problem.

What next?

• BEEN London
• 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

The fourth stage of the LEAN social impact approach is 'Analyse.' Heidi explains how effective analysis enabled a housing association with range of projects to capture better data, understand more about what worked best, and make changes to improve their impacts.

The five stages of Heidi's LEAN social impact approach are Define, Plan, Measure, Analyse and Learn, and it's important to progress through each stage before moving to the next. If you do, the Analyse stage provides immediate and valuable feedback which can reshape your planning and measurement too.

Heidi explains how the housing association tweaked questions used in data capture and ultimately shifted priorities for its project budget thanks to the 'Analyse' stage. This boosted its impact.

She explores the difference between the Analyse and the Learn stages, describes what can go wrong when it comes to impact analysis and how to avoid this, and has an update about progress with her new book – and a health update too.

Heidi's new book explains everything you need to know about impact measurement and management and how to implement it in your organisation.

Get your copy first! Pre-order one of the limited number of hardback versions 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

Abbie Morris is co-founder and CEO of Compare Ethics, a platform which connects conscious shoppers with brands which are ethical and sustainable, rather than brands pretending to be.

She launched Compare Ethics because of her own lack of trust at many brands' claims and her frustration about greenwashing and purpose-washing.

Compare Ethics measures claims about sustainability, environmental impact and other frequently-championed areas of responsible business.

It assesses each claim against 10 categories including products' supply chains, resource-use, workers' rights and even the circular economy, and calls out false claims.

In this episode Abbie explains how Compare Ethics' assessment and verification process works; its approach to data; how it measures its own impact and its campaigning plans and ambitions.

Timings:

• 0 - 1:00 Introduction
• 1:00 What is Compare Ethics and why Abbie launched it
• 3:01 How does its verification product work and some of the categories it maps
• 4:00 How the categories are weighted and what it means if a brand scores well
• 6:52 Are consumers influencing brands to make these changes? What about the 'David Attenborough effect'?
• 8:01 Sometimes Abbie is shocked when data or evidence isn't available – but this can become an opportunity to improve and build value
• 10:05 One of Abbie’s biggest highs (so far) in Compare Ethics' journey was being selected for Google's female founders programme
• 11:16 How Compare Ethics measures its own impact
• 12:17 A question Heidi always asks when helping to develop a Theory of Change
• 13:28 How Compare Ethics assesses brands’ supply chains and approach to modern-day slavery
• 15:34 Campaigning work and plans
• 18:30 Abbie's key advice for consumers

What next?

• Compare Ethics
• 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.

Send us a text

When are your prime opportunities to capture data? In part three of The Impact Diaries, Heidi Fisher describes her approach to measuring your impact – the central stage of the LEAN social impact approach.

If you've planned effectively then measuring your impact is easy, she says – but if you haven't this is where everything goes wrong.

Heidi describes how a client sought to measure six key outcomes – having both defined and planned well. This organisation provides multiple services for adults with physical or learning difficulties.

She explains how her 'brick wall' philosophy means impact measurement is embedded into everything an organisation does – and what that looks like in reality for this organisation.

She covers how using the 'Impact Pitch' makes you focus on the crucial questions to ask to capture your impact.

And she describes three common ways in which measuring and capturing your impact can go wrong and how to avoid them.

• 1:00 Quick recap: why you must complete stages one and two before you start measuring
• 1:40 Heidi worked with a client running adult day care centres and home help for adults with physical or learning difficulties and providing a range of diverse services
• 2:15 What was the biggest issue for this client in terms of measurement? How did the organisation address this?
• 3:00 This client's stakeholders and key outcomes
• 5:04 Heidi's approach to physical measurement
• 5:50 The Brick Wall Philosophy, how it applies to this specific organisation, and enables staff members to measure the right things
• 8:00 What is the Impact Pitch?
• 9:57 Aside from skipping the planning stage, what are the most common mistakes made in the 'Measure' stage? Heidi explains how to avoid these pitfalls
• 12:04 How this process helped this particular organisation and its stakeholders
• 13:50 The five stages of Heidi's LEAN social impact approach are Define, Plan, Measure, Analyse and Learn

Heidi's new book, out in Autumn 2020, shares everything she knows about impact measurement and management – and how to implement it in your organisation.

Get your copy first! Pre-order one of the limited number of hardback versions 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

Support the show

Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.

I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.

I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.

You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.