The value of pro bono is priceless

Back together in person with a bang!

For the last 11 years, Salterbaxter has been running Innovation Day. It’s a day of volunteering our time and skills to help 10 social enterprises overcome a variety of challenges from comms and branding to sustainability and strategy. This year, we were lucky enough to be able to host Innovation Day in person again, this time at our Turnmills offices – and what a day it was!?

The best memory I took away from Innovation Day 2022 was walking past the groups of social enterprises and their teams and feeling the sparks flying! Energy was high, people were up on their feet, collaborating and challenging us to think differently. I had the pleasure of being part of an amazing team working with social enterprise Black Leaders CIC. They work to reduce inequality for Black and other minority ethnic groups in the healthcare sector by providing support, mentoring and training to those who aspire to be, or already are, working within the industry. One of the challenges they gave us was to help them define a brand and messaging house. We went through the process of defining the key elements of their storytelling and deciding what it was that they wanted to be remembered for. The whole journey of creating this messaging was something I personally hadn’t been part of before, and it was truly inspiring!?

Working with social entrepreneurs fulfils our everyday mission

One of my favourite things about Innovation Day is the range of social entrepreneurs we get to work with every year. The enterprises?create meaningful employment?and tackle all different kinds of social and environmental areas; from inequality in healthcare, to reducing plastic waste in food shopping, to providing employability and business skills to disadvantaged communities.?Social enterprises work to create change and truly look at the source of the issue they are tackling rather than delivering short-term quick fixes.?

At Salterbaxter, we challenge businesses to deliver progress, not promises, and to always ask ‘what if?’ So we are extremely lucky to be able to apply our knowledge to these social enterprises whose ambitions fit hand in hand with our mission. The sheer breadth of issues and solutions we see each year continues to highlight the importance of social enterprises within our community, as well as the real change and progress they create through their determination, empathy, and creativity.?Did you know?Olio ?started up as a social enterprise? It’s a mobile app for food-sharing with the goal of reducing food waste. It does this by connecting people with surplus food to those who need or wish to consume that food.?More than 6 million people have the app and a staggering 58 million portions of food have been shared so far, that’s equivalent to saving over 170 million car miles from food production and shipping. Companies like these overall make a huge impact on reducing food waste, something we are faced with every day.

Brave and passionate changemakers in a challenging environment

Starting a business with limited finance and support and restricted access to networks or connections is hard enough. Pairing that with small teams with specific skillsets and obstacles to securing funding adds further challenges. Investors may view them as unprofitable or without a longstanding reputation and therefore an investment risk. Some social enterprises who work with disadvantaged communities may even face further discrimination and struggle to secure essential financial backing.?

The current instability in markets and supply chains due to covid, political shifts, war around the world and the rising cost of living poses a very real threat to social entrepreneurs and their businesses. For example, businesses that rely on relationships with European counterparts may struggle to adjust to the new red tape, or orders could be disrupted due to a covid-related lack of staff. Unfortunately, social enterprises often end up hit the hardest because of their size and financial situation. It can be harder for them to re-train staff, pay new administrative fees or employ more staff to strengthen their workforce. So it's important we support our local businesses and enterprises to get them through these particularly tough times.?

One day, big impact

Providing activation ideas and tips and tricks to perfect outreach and communications is a key part of what we do at Innovation Day. Our teams of volunteers include colleagues from many Publicis agencies who work day-in, day-out in this field and have endless knowledge to share! During the final presentation in the evening, it was great to hear that many social enterprises felt their confidence had grown after hearing from a table of strangers what a great business idea they’ve had and validating all the progress they had made so far.?One social enterprise told me it was like “breaking the tunnel vision and getting out of a rut” they had been stuck in. We ended up with some really exciting work, including the creation of an audience-specific campaign and mock social media and flyer outreach assets for social enterprise How Do I? Another team, working with Rethink Food team, co-created website map and wireframe for the enterprise, as well as a deep dive into prospective stakeholders. These are just two of the examples we can help out with at Innovation Day, and it feels good to apply our knowledge in this different and very meaningful way.

Social enterprises are changemakers, and the contributions these bring to the community are exceptional and invaluable. I can’t wait to meet 10 more incredible social enterprises at our next Innovation Day!