Creative Constraints: The Art of Being Socially Enterprising
I’m not the worlds biggest fan when it comes to CHARITY. I believe that our understanding, application and practice of charity has drifted away from its original meaning.
I’m not overly a fan of BIG CHARITIES either. I feel that over time they drift away from their more activist and intimately connected roots and become… administrations. They lose the most important thing that they possessed along the way.
What a big meanie you might say! But it does come from experience.
I’m also a normal thinking human being.
I get tired of things.
I get tired of being asked for money.
I get tired of seeing awful, sentimental and unhelpful advertisements on TV.
I get tired of seeing so much money spent on brand and campaign and image and banner and print and endless purposeless tat.
I get tired of the INDUSTRY of it.
I get tired of the “don’t be unfair we’re a charity” and the big fuck you kick in the teeth that effects beneficiaries and families (human beings) when they switch their line to “making difficult business decisions”.
Make your mind up.
I get tired of having my emotions manipulated.
Don’t you?
Don’t you just wish you could have a break from it all?
Turn it all off and see what would happen?
You see I think that sometimes you have to force some things to change.
Machines don’t like it. They like to be constantly fed and oiled and endlessly repeat their previous actions. It’s the system. The industry. It’s a conveyor belt.
I have endless faith in people though.
They’re infinitely creative and adaptive when released from the confines of the machine.
You’ve just gotta give em a chance to see what they’re capable of achieving.
And you can’t deny this.
Nothing can care, like people can care.
Creative Constraints
If asked you to cook an ideal meal for two and you could spend as much as you liked and use any kitchen to prepare, present and eat this wonder — this would be an example of creative freedom.
If I asked you to prepare a meal for two from the contents of my fridge in the next 30 minutes — this would be an example of creative constraints.
Creative constraints narrow your options and force you into thinking differently.
Socially Enterprising — Creative Constraints
The term ‘socially enterprising’ suggests actions and behaviours that are; creative, social and resourceful. In this they create a form of boundary and a set of creative constraints.
To be ‘socially enterprising’ should bring people together around a social purpose and apply creativity and resourcefulness. It should contain an element of all three.
It is flexible and not prescriptive.
Think of all of the words which are related to the meanings of ‘creative’ and ‘social’ and ‘resourceful’.
Now pick any three. Big meanie indeed.
Socially Enterprising is oriented towards ‘social justice’, ‘systems change’ and ‘doing things differently’.
It isn’t a platform for charity fundraising but it is a platform that charities are able to make good use of.
It allows communities, civil society, businesses and the state to work together to effect change.
We want charities to contribute their incredible resources and skills and collaborate with local people creatively around a social purpose.
It is a different way of working and realises multiple benefits in different ways.
Saying no to ‘charity fundraising’ through the platform is a way of making it happen.
It’s another creative constraint.
Socially — Creative Constraints
Socially is the local (town, community) aspect of the Socially Enterprising platform and ecosystem.
This is far more akin to a reinvented local newspaper designed for bringing people together, strengthening community, developing place, and promoting active, healthy lives.
Here things are able to work a little differently than we are used to.
We’re trying to bring people together in as many ways as possible.
By doing so we;
- help meet the aims and objectives of charities in alternative ways
- realise multiple forms of social value instead of raising funds
- build local capacity and capabilities
- create stronger communities
- build relationships between citizens, civil society, business and the state
It is about relationships not transactions.
Being Socially Enterprising
Let’s try looking a bit closer at how this would work in practice and hopefully it will start to click into place (ha!).
The British Heart Foundation works towards reducing deaths and illnesses related to cardiovascular disease. It meets these aims through research, advocacy and education. As a charity it raises funds to perform these activities and meet its objectives.
Many people help fundraise for the BHF and running marathons is a popular way of doing this.
Socially Enterprising
Socially Enterprising encourages and enables creative collaborations between people, civil society, the state and business that are for a social or environmental purpose.
These collaborations can come in many forms and for many different purposes including; community projects, social action projects, community development, community economic development, social innovation programmes and mission oriented challenges.
The platform is intended to break through silos and release the potential that already exists at the same time as generating multiple forms of social, environmental and community accessible value.
- The BHF could become part of a social innovation collaboration that seeks to engage citizens and/or local businesses in developing new; products, services or activities which encourage active lives.
- The BHF may prepare and produce educational materials that are suitable for upskilling, confidence building, basic first aid, and development of literacies or 21st century skills. These materials could be used within collaborations where the BHF were not participants but would benefit local people, businesses or organisations in a way that still met BHF objectives.
- The BHF may produce materials which provide knowledge and expertise to citizens who are collaborating around the needs of their community. This is part of the platform Learning and Development System which utilises the knowledge, experience and skills of civil society organisations.
These are just possibilities.
They are all creative, social and resourceful.
They all help meet the aims and objectives of the BHF.
Some possibilities require involvement (time and resources) whereas other possibilities can provide their benefits from a distance.
Being — Socially
Socially is local and about people coming together.
Here we can work from a different perspective.
- We can tell the story of the work that BHF does locally and the volunteers and organisations that support them. We want all of this to become visible and for people to see and feel the society that they belong to and the lives of other people. If people want to get involved then they can easily reach out and connect through the story itself.
- If local people and/or organisations have been involved with ‘socially enterprising’ BHF collaborations (see above) we can tell that story here and even connect other additional people and organisations into the work.
- If BHF events are happening locally then they are part of the civic and community events scene that we want people to become involved with.
- If a local educational or skills programme is developed it can connect with the BHF and any materials that are suitable. This is local activity that is helped and enabled by the charity (realising social value), in return the charity also works towards its charitable objectives (education, advocacy).
Local collaborations that are ‘socially enterprising’ are able to raise start-up funds through platform crowdfunding. Projects can also seek non-financial help, support and resources from local organisations and businesses — the local place-based ecosystem.
We want people to collaborate locally and restricting financial input to start-up crowdfunding is a constraint which can help achieve this. Relationships last. Transactions don’t. There are always other platforms and ways to raise additional funds if they are necessary.
You can always reach out and ask for help from the local community.
This is a story in itself…
Did I ever tell you about the gentleman (Robin Howell) who built a community building from unwanted Argos catalogues, pensioners and schoolchildren?
Perhaps I said that wrong…?
Community stories are full of potential and possibility and people and humour.
Every community project is full of hurdles and difficulties. There is a shortage of this or a regulation which says you can’t. But if you think about it with the right mindset and with enough people then there is very often a way around it.
Another of the Robin’s community buildings needed foundations and the local community struck on the idea of everyone providing their collected empty wine bottles.
They now dance on top of these, every weekend.
The same project didn’t get half of the funds they needed from a lottery bid to build a community hall and there were also issues with permanent structures in the countryside.
So, ingeniously, they built a steel barn roof over the old structure and then built their new community hall over the old one and under the long-lasting protection of the barn.
They didn’t even have to move and they kept their events running.
They thought around the problem and within the constraints.
They did it frugally but with help and support from the whole village.
Communities when they work together have amazing problem-solving abilities.
These become stories woven into the fabric of the local communities. The people and projects as well as the outcomes and results continue to tell and weave this story long after they are completed. They say — it can be done.
Storytelling combined with social networking can bring this living, breathing story into daily existence.
Much will be revealed and it will eventually change for the better…
Active Lives and Health & Wellbeing
Socially can help promote active lives and positive health and wellbeing.
We would not promote any requests for sponsorship for running the British marathon in support of the BHS as we are not a charity fundraising platform.
Instead, we would encourage and promote local activities, events and sports programmes which got communities active, engaged and involved.
An example…
BHF could be a part of a health and wellbeing collaboration with local communities, local authorities, GP surgeries and the Clinical Commissioning Group which provided staff, resources, support and coaching.
Together this becomes a local story and activity which people can join in with and belong to. They are able to see people who look like them and talk like them doing something active and positive where they live.
If community participants in the programme decided to run a marathon to support the BHF that is something that we can promote as it is a story of togetherness. But if they want sponsorship then they need to use platforms which are built for that purpose.
We want organisations to think differently and to try different things.
It is the constraints that force this to happen.
Changing how we do things changes the results we get.
Please Note:
- We wouldn’t allow the promotion of the BHF lottery anywhere on our platforms as we are rooted to Quaker principles.
