Make An Impact Podcast

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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.

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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.

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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 Fan Mail

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.

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It's disappointing if an important cause is let down by a poor product. Bryn Frere-Smith's coffee contributes to addressing terrible issues – but he’s emphatic it must taste amazing too.

Bryn is founder of Blue Bear Coffee which uses its profits and profile to support organisations fighting human trafficking and caring for survivors.

After leaving the Metropolitan Police he worked in 'close protection' for some of the richest people in the world. But he needed to find his purpose. This took him to 12 challenging months with the International Justice Mission, an organisation fighting modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

We can't all be charity workers supporting survivors of horrific exploitation. But we can contribute through every day purchases, and Bryn's experience led ultimately to launching Blue Bear, the trading name of The Justice Business Community Interest Company.

Why coffee? It's a product notorious for poor treatment of its supply chain. Blue Bear also works to support growers and farmers. Bryn explains how.

Also in this interview: what's the worst thing anyone could say to Heidi?

ADVISORY: This interview includes content about working with survivors of exploitation and abuse which some listeners may find distressing.

Timings:

• 0 - 1:00 Introduction
• 1:00 Bryn’s background and why he left the Metropolitan Police Service
• 2:15 Running Norfolk’s least successful security company then becoming a bodyguard 'for the 0.1%'
• 3:15 Feeling lost and looking for a purpose
• 3:45 What is the International Justice Mission?
• 4:22 Off to the Dominican Republic for a particularly difficult project investigating the sexual exploitation of children
• 6:00 A six-year old girl's horrifying experiences and her teddy-bear tale led Bryn to start a teddy-bear fund
• 10:00 Keeping the momentum and launching Blue Bear, now two years old in September 2020
• 12:00 Why coffee? Bryn wanted to demonstrate it was possible to run a coffee business which doesn't exploit people
• 15:07 How Blue Bear is sold
• 16:30 Breaking the disparity between good cause and pants product
• 17:45 A confession and the worst thing Blake could ever say to Heidi…
• 18:41 Heidi finds a solution
• 19:34 Why and how Bryn plans to scale-up Blue Bear
• 21:00 Other organisations addressing human slavery and trafficking
• 22:11 How to buy Blue Bear coffee

What next?

• The International Justice Mission
• Blue Bear Coffee
• Bryn’s own Justice and Coffee podcast
• 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 Fan Mail

Stage two of the LEAN social impact approach is planning. If you miss this stage you risk measuring the wrong things in the wrong way, a mistake many social enterprises make.

Heidi explains how an organisation which works with young people with Special Educational Needs planned what to measure – and how to do so effectively.

Many organisations fall back on the easy option of questionnaires to capture data, instead of adopting a flexible approach. Surveys and questionnaires aren't always fit for purpose and would not have worked in this case. 

Heidi describes several flexible and interactive ways to capture data. These powerful and effective ideas could work for your social enterprise too.

She explains what this client planned to measure and how they did it – plus why it is vital to focus on measuring a small number of key outcomes.

In The Impact Diaries Heidi gives real-life examples of the five stage LEAN social impact approach in action.

"Once you've defined your ultimate goal it's crucial NOT to jump straight to stage three, when you start measuring." Find out how to plan most effectively in this episode.

Timings:

• 0 - 1:15 Introduction
• 1:15 The organisation featured in this episode works with young people with special educational needs to provide them with employability skills and work experience
• 1:55 Why surveys would not be appropriate or effective in this situation
• 2:30 Heidi explains several ways to capture data at workshops and events (physical and virtual)
• 9:11 Are people ever self-conscious about participating in these activities?
• 11:40 Planning helps to capture evidence – what happened next with Heidi's client working with young people?
• 15:45 Heidi explains how planning is fundamental to effective impact measurement and is distinct from the measurement stage
• 17:20 Other crucial elements of the planning stage of the LEAN social impact approach and why it's important to focus tightly

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.

Send us Fan Mail

Denise Brown launched 4YoungMinds in October 2018. Over several years as a youth worker for The Prince's Trust she had witnessed just how much young people struggle with mental health and well-being, no matter what their background.

How does social media influence young people's mental health and what are its pros and cons? What positives have come out of Black Lives Matter? And how does her own experience of anxiety help Denise relate to people she now supports?

In this episode, Denise covers why she launched 4YoungMinds, its multiple and varied streams of activities and how it works with young people.

She addresses the distinction between the increase in awareness that people experience issues affecting their mental health and well-being, and the availability of programmes to address mental ill-health and support wellbeing. Early intervention is key, she explains, and 4 Young Minds doesn't only support young people – it offers support and programmes for teachers, parents, carers and educators too.

And Denise is frank about her own experiences "struggling with anxiety since the age of 14 and learning tools and techniques to manage it." 

The episode also covers self-awareness, "retraining the brain", the pros and cons of social media, anti-racist education and Denise's plans for 4YoungMinds for the future.

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 Fan Mail

What would your ultimate goal be if you were trying to maximise your impact? Would it be different to your current goal?

In The Impact Diaries Heidi gives real-life examples of the five stage LEAN social impact approach in action.

Its first stage is "define" and in this episode Heidi covers work with a health and social care organisation, three key questions board members can use to be creative about the future, and how the define stage is crucial for boards to identify impact goals, appropriate outcomes and activities.

If there are tensions between what your social enterprise wants to achieve and what it's been commissioned to achieve, you need to listen to this episode.

"Very often boards will be approaching their strategy from the basics of business planning where you start with what you currently do and add to it incrementally. Taking an impact-led approach is very different."

• 0 - 1:00 Introduction,
• 1:00 Heidi's role was to work with the Board to develop a three-year strategy, with an outline strategy for 10 years
• 2:20 Conflicts often occur in health and social care organisations between meeting numbers rather than achieving impact on people's lives. How Heidi started to enable this organisation, its CEO and board to address this and move towards an impact-led strategy.
• 5:59 What if different board members have different ideas of an organisation's mission?
• 6:41 How this exercise supports the LEAN Impact approach.
• 7:12 Three questions Heidi uses to help people think about what their ultimate goal is.
• 10:15 Did the health and care organisation in this example redefine or reframe their ultimate goal? Why?
• 11:51 Once you have your ultimate goal what's next?
• 13:37 After identifying outcomes, how to identify and map activities. 
• 15:45 The "Define" stage can be hard. Some advice for sole founders.
• 16:44 What if this stage uncovers difficulties and tensions?
• 19:00 What happened next with the health and social care organisation?

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.

Send us Fan Mail

Manny Ebokosia is a multi-genre and multilingual recording artist, songwriter, and the founder of music business social enterprise, True Cadence.

You can't push a natural born leader into working for someone else, he says. So True Cadence provides learning, mentoring and artistic development to young people from under-resourced communities.

Manny launched True Cadence when he realised plenty of programmes gave young people access to recording and music-making facilities – but there was little access to music-specific business skills development.

He tells Heidi how music was his own escape when growing up, but to really make it, people need to know how the industry works and develop those sector-specific entrepreneurial skills. That's where True Cadence can help.

Through its tailored music business training and engagement activities True Cadence supports people one note at a time.

Everyone connects to music differently, says Manny, and developing music business skills  has numerous positive outcomes for young people – for their mental health, self-worth, confidence and ability to contribute to the economy.

And the social enterprise has adapted to address 2020's lockdown restrictions. Its "Kidz Create" programme has helped children to virtually create and record songs during Covid-19.

Manny also describes how True Cadence seeks to grow its impact, why he sees Heidi as the "queen of impact" and his other future plans in this, the first episode of season three of the Make An Impact podcast – which will feature interviews with a range of young social entrepreneurs.

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 Fan Mail

It's a disgusting and expensive mess. Fly tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish and a costly scourge. Local authorities dealt with over a million incidents of fly tipping in England alone last year.

But Elliott Lancaster is on a clean-up mission. Utter Rubbish is a social enterprise he created while studying at Keele University (he gained a first-class degree in accounting and finance and is now taking a PhD there).

Elliott set up Utter Rubbish to communicate more effectively about what can and can't be recycled. He wanted to address the problem of contamination within waste materials which could and should be recycled. And during his research he twigged on to just how much fly tipping occurs.

Now, Elliott's app – which is already being piloted by a local authority – helps councils save money while they address the issue of fly tipping.

Elliott describes how the app works, how Utter Rubbish seeks to change perceptions and behaviour, its impact, and its plans to scale nationally in this episode of the Making an Impact Podcast.

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.