Gov not funding social change, ever again..?

There were a series of tweets a few days ago from @gethynwilliams that i wanted to pull together and reflect on.

Its basically the stark outline (probably quite rightly) of a world of social change that operates without any government intervention. At all. For all the talk of ideology driving political funding decisions blaming austerity politics we may simply, and irreversibly have returned to the third sector operating wholly outside of government.

I wonder how many people currently working in the third sector would be surprised by it.???

1. a very difficult time for so many VCS people facing redundancy right now. complete reinvention needed - personally and organizationally.

2. particularly feel for those working in infrastructure - orgs need very bold new business models. fear may already be too late for some.

3. 1 thing certain - lobbying harder for state cash is pointless. we one of many competing for ever-shrinking cake. this evident for some time.

4. my advice - give up on government entirely. not sustainable, whoever is in power. orgs and staff need to be radical.

5. most VCS business plans based on assumption government can lead and fund social change - that's no longer true

6. @gethynwilliams ...And the challenge now is for the sector to do it itself, rather than ask central gov to ask local gov to purchase better
   — Jake Eliot (@housingJake) March 25, 2013

7. @housingjake thanks - and true - and still no guarantee of survival, but at least energies can go into something other than fire-fighting...

   @caseymorrison it's a nice idea. personally haven't seen much evidence it will work. 'investors' want high rates of return. you?
   

@gethynwilliams Completely agree. hollowing out businesses that can be done cheaper by private sector. but i'm an optimist & £ still exists.
— Casey Morrison (@caseymorrison) March 25, 2013

8. @ana_brankovic true that. plenty of folk came into the sector on a specific understanding of how things worked. now it's a new game...

9. @gethynwilliams All orgs claiming a social purpose have a duty wider than their own delivery role: to push for change to Govt, public, etc.
   — Mike Wild (@MikeWildMacc) March 25, 2013

Thoughts..?

Insight data on 21 century volunteering.. (presentation)

Insight data on 21 century volunteering - from a national trust conference last year..

1. we way we interact with everything has changed, but the way we help people link with causes hasn't
2. how we use our leisure time has moved beyond consumption
3. if we use platforms and devices for social media we can now connect millions more people

In summary there is a huge audience for something we're terming social leisure. (50,000 people applied to be volunteers for the 2014 Glasgow commonwealth games and as many predicted for Le Tour in Yorkshire.)

The organisation that meets this need will win the prize. The race is on. 

Ok Computer from elliottofhook

Micro-volunteering - some practical examples.. (presentation)

Micro-volunteering - some practical examples.. (A presentation i gave at the national trust conference last year)

Basically i think microvolunteering is one of those things that has massive potential if we think about it in a different way. There are lots of platforms, lots of small ideas but nothing that allows small chunks of time for people to do something useful, and feel part of a cause.

This was my attempt to outline some ideas of things we could do on nationaltrust properties, but would probably be applicable for any non profit..

It Only Takes a Minute from elliottofhook