Author: Nick Booth

#fundbrum – how do you find funding opportunities in Birmingham?

A group of people sitting round a table - photo taken through a green tinged window
Futureshift information flow hack which created #fundbrum – picture Tessy Britton

Last week I ran an hour long mini hack at the Futureshift festival on the flow of information in Birmingham.  A fine group of people sat down together and started by sharing what information they needed but was not available or easily available.

The information problems thrown up from the group fell into three main areas:

  • Democratic and power information – who’s making decisions, how they’re making them, what their interests are, how do we connect with who’s in charge and many others.
  • Very local information – what’s going on where I live?  what businesses are there – how can I know.
  • Funding for arts or community activity – why do I hear about pots of money after they’ve gone?

We were looking – as you do in a hack – for things that we could do.

So what did you come up with?

 

One simple idea from the funding group was #fundbrum – a simple hashtag to share any funding information which might be useful for people in Birmingham.  I’ve been using it a bit:

and

and Alexandria Robinson-Sutherland (a Birmingham artist) who helped come up with the idea …

https://twitter.com/AlexxandriaRS/status/462246867951452161

It could of course be #fundstoke or #fundbristol.

That’s not a bad idea, can I help?

 

Please. Just use it.  If you see some source of income that might help Birmingham community and vol orgs – or artists or inventors –  share a link to it on twitter and use #fundbrum  Maybe write a quick post on facebook or a blog to say that’s what you’re doing.

Let’s see if it helps.

 

 

 

#futureshift notes – Joel Blake on grassroots change.

Joel_Blake__joelblakeAGP__on_Twitter

Joel Blake is a CSR specialist. (well there’s more to him than that.

  • When will being socially responsible and profitable be the norm?
  • There’s a revolution where people are no longer sitting there and taking the crap that came their way.
  • Many corporates have seen CSR as a brand exercise –
  • The corporates that will survive will be the ones that are adaptable.
  • Social Impact is not just about great projects – it is about personal responsibility from people within business.  It should be intrinsic to growth plans for a business.
  • Philanthropy/charity is dead.  No longer ok to just give money away –  instead you need to know what imapct it will have.
  • CSR can be seen as a tool for growth – the thing that allows a business to be sustainable for the future. Unless you business has an impact on the people you serve your business is limited.
  • Measure the social return from csr in terms of the value of the business.
  • The next generation of CEO’s will be someone who’s got clarity of vision. It needs to be tangible.
  • Watch your language –  be careful not to say things that demoralise you. Say positive things for yourself. Ignore other people’s stereotypes.
  • Embrace fear –  it’s means there’s something I need to do. Lack of fear opens up the door for innovation.
  • Embrace change. Be willing to burn bridges – including people or ideas.
  • Nothing replaces hard work.

#futureshift notes – Pam Warhurst, incredible edible.

Incredible Edible – if you eat you in (reminds me of the New Optimists Food futures here in Birmingham

RSA_-_The_Big_Idea__the_power_of_small_actions_on_a_community

I missed the beginning so here are some lighter notes.

  • This is not community development – it’s the will to live life differently.
  • We don’t need strategy documents we create propaganda gardens – not guerilla gardens, too aggressive.
  • Do people a favour – don’t ask permission. After we started a garden the council later mowed the lawn and put a bench in.
  • People gradually change the way they work.  Kids would pick cabbages and herbs – they started to sue the gardens first.   They found that people made food from the veg picked from someone’s garden and came back to give them the finished food – a bowl of soup or whatever.
  • Don’t tell us to eat five a day – instead surround every public building with edible plants.
  • Gradually changes behaviour.
  • Scouts created incredible edible badge.
  • Policing – vandalism down because people don’t vandalise food – community relationships improved because a police officer with veg is disarming.
  • If people help themselves to entire bed of potatoes they only do it because they need it – plant more potatoes.
  • The only thing we asked of the job centre could we plug our drill into your electricity – they said no.
  • 57% of local residents are now growing food.
  • We have created vegetable tourism.
  • People can make a better world of the people in power get out of the way.  We set up a farm (without planning permission!).  and http://incredibleaquagarden.co.uk/
  • Stop being a victim and find a simple way to communicate.
  • People building initiative which used food as a universal langiage.
  • To gte involved go here.  http://incredibleediblenetwork.org.uk/
  • Believe in the power of small actions.

 

#futureshift festival notes: Megan Deal.

Tomorrow_Today

Megan Deal

Megan talks about the raneg fo places she has lived in – including declining cities.  now working in the Brewery district in Cincinatti.

She designs labs and tools to strengthen cities. Labs are places and tools are programmes. We advance talent and showcase place – building around people and places.

Examples.

Pie Lab – food as a catalyst to bring people in a respond to conversations with projects.

Next developing a philanthropic lab.

A moment of clarity – we realised we were lacking inspiration – bored with boardrooms.  We needed to go out and see what was happening.   Connect people together and also learn common problems and solutions.

Chasing Innovation lead to lots of interviews and ideas.  Here are some:

Glasshouse Collective, Chattanooga.   A neighbourhood collective.  Run by two young women.  Marketing and design background. Bought a building looking at improving physical spaces. Annual budget $250k

  • they only work in a one mile corridor.  that focus makes sense.
  • rallying local people and working with existing projects.
  • compensating your connectors if what thing they do.
  • they aim to turn artists into entrepreneurs
  • they says it’s important to make friends with your mayor.

Big Car Indianapolis – Mid western city. Suburban lab – sits in a mall parking lot in and old tyre servicue centre. A group of artists.

  • Invite community to be co creators.
  • start small and stay small.
  • don’t be a fire station – don’t react all the time.  Don’t be the place that responds to every idea.

D:hive Detroit. A store that helps connect people to opportuntiies- is an “air traffic controller” – directing people.

  • be welcoming
  • be a connector
  • has a finite timeline – will close within threes years. Can add a sense of urgency to your work.

Themes and trends

  • They often have a chief visionary – one or two people at the maximum.  They often come from diverse backgrounds. are entrepreneurial.
  • Teams are often credited. They have key roles,  curator (develops programme), connector (intentionally building relationships)   Manager – makes things happen, communicator makes sure the right messages.  When projects start one or two people do this.
  • They have a core mission and those that succeed tend to focus on that.
  • They nurture talent
  • They have a patron or a number of sources of revenue.  Grants or a product.
  • They share their story widely.

Barriers?

  • Two many roles for the people who get things started
  • Documenting and sharing can be a challnge
  • finding money to operate and experiment
  • share story succinctly is a problem (to focussed on measuring)
  • sharing impact.

Hown to help?

  • Build project SWAT teams
  • Toolkits to package up projetcs
  • Knowledge exchange for visionaries – form different cities and countries
  • Scale investment over time – grant grows as project grows.

Lessons

  • Use English  –  speak in concrete terms, what are you doing?
  • Think on paper.  Write things down on one sheet of paper.
  • You can do anything but not everything.  Be proactive not reactive.  Say no – it’s ok.
  • Flirt with failure – it helps the whole process.
  • The lone ranger is dead – find a buddy.  You can do more with a partner. Two people makes things better
  • Simplify:  the way you communicate and talk about your work
  • Compensate connectors.
  • Investing in place starts with investing in people.

Finally…

  • What do we have
  • where do we want to go
  • how can we get there?

 

  • What am I good at?
  • what do I care about?
  • is there a need?
  • will someone pay for it?