Social Business International

Social Business International

Project: E3M Local Alchemy Events with Bold Commissioners
City: London  Grant: £40,000

Social Business International (SBI) designs activities and programmes to support the growth of social enterprise. Its core initiative E3M is a knowledge community that supports and connects leaders from successful UK social enterprises that trade in public service markets with “Bold Commissioners” who work for public authorities and are responsible for services.

SBI propose to carry out three E3M Local Alchemy events: intensive 24 hour events that bring together social enterprise leaders, bold public commissioners, and social investors with a range of local representatives to explore new ways of providing public services. Each event involves engaging with a local authority to identify key issues or challenge areas that will be explored with the buy-in of senior leaders from local government. New business ideas could be funded by the local host, or other funders and investors that choose to participate.

The intent is to develop a bottom-up approach to generate new ideas and solutions that can help develop services which cost less and deliver better outcomes; stimulate local, inclusive, economic growth; and empower and engage local citizens in solving problems. The ultimate goal is to use a collective impact approach to develop social change initiatives that operate at scale to tackle local challenges.