The leading provider of social value measurement, monitoring and strategic consultancy, Social Value Portal, has named the four small and micro organisations or social enterprises selected to take part in its first Social Value Accelerator programme, without cost, for two years.

Launched at the end of 2022 to celebrate the firm being awarded B Corp status, small and micro organisations making a conscious effort to positively contribute to the wellbeing and resilience of society were encouraged to apply for one of four spaces on the programme.

More than 20 organisations across the UK applied, with the four winners being selected by a panel made up of members of Social Value Portal’s senior management team who work across; strategy, sales, marketing and customer success.

The four winners, who are due to start the programme this month are:

• We Made That – Research, urbanism and architecture practice who work exclusively for the public sector and charities and, as a Certified B Corporation, are committed to delivering public good.
• Change Please – Coffee company where 100% of its profits are reinvested in providing people experiencing homelessness with paid barista training at the living wage, housing, training and onward employment opportunities.
• Greenstream Flooring – Based in Wales, a social enterprise that maximises community benefit from the reuse and sale of flooring in the UK, providing it at low cost or free to people in need of flooring via relationships with housing associations and community donation days.
• Oru Space – Provider of alternative urban spaces that bring together co-working, wellbeing and food, attracting individuals and organisations with an interest in new ways of living and working in the urban environment whilst combining profit with purpose.

Each winner will benefit from; bespoke consultancy services from the Advisory team (including strategy support and a Local Needs Analysis report for one project or bid), two year’s free access to the Portal, full use of the widely recognised measurement framework, the Social Value TOM system (Themes, Outcomes and Measures), access to the Social Value Academy and membership training as well as data validation, clarification and reporting.

They will also receive hands-on support from the expert team at Social Value Portal in order to report both non-financial and financial data in one consistent place and use the data to tell their individual stories.

Guy Battle, CEO, Social Value Portal, said:

“Last year, we set ourselves a big, audacious goal of delivering £100 billion worth of social value by 2025. We can only succeed if we lead by example, and this Accelerator programme provides a means of sharing our knowledge and expertise in a way that benefits some truly deserving organisations.

“We had some extremely impressive entries for our first Accelerator programme and I know that the judges chose the final four with great care. They were particularly impressed with each one’s commitment to improving lives in a number of ingenious, carefully considered and engaging ways.

“We are all really looking forward to working with such a talented and purpose driven group of people who are working hard to shape a future society that will be stronger and more resilient – which is what Social Value is all about.”

Ellen Petts, MD & Founder of Greenstream Flooring CIC said:

“We work with local authorities and first and second tier construction companies and have recognised that although we have produced an annual Social Impact report for the last four years, we really need to understand and incorporate the TOM System into our reporting structure.

“This support will help us maximise the benefit of our existing data collection efforts and could massively help our efforts to work with more first and second tiers.

Holly Lewis, Co-founding Partner, We Made That, added:

“We have always strived to be a ‘good’ business, which we put to the test when we certified as a B Corp in 2020 and made a commitment to track, record and report on our social, economic and environmental impact.

“Participating in this programme will help us to prioritise the targets we set, structure our performance tracking, and robustly validate that we are delivering on our commitment to make better places for all. We look forward to strengthening the tools and language to communicate this impact and to bring clients and partners along with us.”

Laurence Higgens, Director, Change Please added:

“We are so excited to be on the Social Value Accelerator Programme at Change Please. Being able to measure and demonstrate our social value is key to generating more revenue from our partners, bringing more people into our movement and lifting even more people out of homelessness.”

Vibushan Thirukumar, CEO, Oru Space feels that the programme will help Oru to build on its integrated approach to social impact, stating:

“Providing more nurturing and fulfilling ways to live and work is our objective. To date we have incorporated social impact throughout the business and activities. Working with Social Value Portal allows us to fulfil much bolder ambitions of serving our community.

“We will be opening our second, much larger, site in Sutton in July 2023, providing space for 700 coworkers, yoga studios, a spa incorporating cold water therapies, a nursery, restaurant, rooftop bar and event space”

The programme began with an introductory meeting between all four participants and Social Value Portal’s team on 20 February 2023, where programme milestones were identified and scheduled.