‘Charities Unlocked: Realising the Commercial & Social Value of Charitable Assets’ explores the commercial enterprise opportunities available to charitable organisations. The report is based on interviews with the senior leadership of 50 UK charities with a combined annual income of just under £500m as well as sector research into the scope and diversity of current revenue-generating activity. The report explores how charities can utilise the assets they already have and the things they are best at in order to drive commercial revenue – whether such activities be mission-aligned and contributing to social aims or mission-independent and driving unrestricted income to sustain and grow charitable activities.
Research
TSIC Fuse: The Future of Business
‘TSIC Fuse: The Future of Business’ introduces the first, open-source methodology developed by TSIC to re-engineer businesses to deliver social change through applying their core assets. The report provides an overview of evolving trends in corporate social responsibility and the current gap between aspirations and attainment within corporate social action programmes. Based on original research and polling, the report provides a snapshot of current thinking, opportunities and innovative examples of corporate social action platforms. It then introduces TSIC’s flagship service, TSIC Fuse, to help businesses realise their unique potential to drive social innovation through applying their business talents.
Financing Social Enterprises in the UK
For many social entrepreneurs sourcing the finance to fund the start up and scaling of a social enterprise can often prove the largest hurdle of all. Although there is a growing pool of funding available to finance socially-driven businesses, organisations often find themselves stuck in start-up stage due to the dearth of investors beyond seed capital stage and before the enterprise is able to establish a multi-year track record. TSIC’s 2011 report on social finance in the UK gives an overview of the sector, current funding pools and the opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs to work together to drive the growth of the enterprise, both financially and with experienced investors contributing their own expertise.
The Growing Power of Ethical Consumers
TSIC’s 2010 report on ethical consumerism examined the growing opportunities for companies to attract new customers through the creation of a more socially aware brand. The brief looks at organisations who have successfully achieved the alignment of their business strengths with a social ethos and the wishes of their consumers and those who have been guilty of “ethic-washing”.
Financing Revenue Generation in the Third Sector
In recent years the number of charities looking at ways to generate revenue in a more traditionally businesslike manner has increased dramatically, yet many organisations have been hesitant to approach their donors with the proposition to fund these activities. TSIC’s 2010 poll found that the majority of donors would be ‘more likely’ or ‘much more likely’ if solicited to give a gift that contributed to the charity becoming more sustainable. This report details the findings and opportunities taken from the evidence of this poll and shows that donors are often more motivated towards charities taking a proactive stance towards their financial independence.
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