Bath Spa University and 3SG have set up the Bath Social Impact Network (BSIN) to fill a gap identified for businesses and individuals working in social, community and environmental impact areas in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES).
Whether you’re a social enterprise, B Corp, CIC, co-op, or interested in the work of these types of organisations, we’re here to support you on your journey.
If you want to meet and connect with like-minded and purpose-driven individuals and businesses then this network is for you. You’ll also have the opportunity to attend sessions specially tailored to help grow and develop the social economy. We aim to bring together those working for good in the BaNES region, making us stronger together.
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Our series of free workshops help you to sharpen your business plan, understand what types of investment are available for your organisation and help you to increase the impact your organisation is making. You’ll also have access to a free mentor who can help you get investment-ready, refine your social investment ideas and source investment opportunities.
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We’ll be running sessions specially tailored for businesses and individuals working in social, community and environmental impact areas in BaNES. Whether you already work in these areas, are looking to grow or set up a new impact organisation or looking for one to partner with, you’re more than welcome to join us at one of our events.
Join us for Bath Social Impact Network's April in-person networking event. We'll be hearing from some of our amazing members and the journeys they've been on in setting up their organisations. We'll be hearing from Rebecca Cross from Pulse on Prosperity Working Together CIC, Iain Bruce from Brew Crew and Rob Lewis from Bath Community Kitchen.
You'll also have opportunities for great conversations with your fellow members.
Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.
Join us for Bath Social Impact Network's June in person networking event. 3SG will be joining us to tell us more about Social Economy West and the exciting opportunities it offers.
You'll also have opportunities for great conversations with your fellow members.
Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.
We were joined by Nichola McAvoy from Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), the biggest network of social enterprises in the UK. Nichola spoke to us about the work SEUK do under their strapline of "Creating an environment for Social Enterprises to thrive."
Attendees heard about the exciting role they're playing on the national stage and the role your organisation can play in working together to influence policy.
Nichola also updated us on SEUK's Social Enterprise Place scheme, which recognises hot spots of Social Enterprise activity.
Annie Constable from Good Finance joined us to discuss what you need to know about social investment and how to know if it's right for your organisation. Attendees also looked at case studies of organisations that are thriving due to social investment.
We were joined by Hilary Sudbury, Co-operative and Social Enterprise Adviser, and Oliver Haltaway, who explored what community shares are, how they can be used across sectors, key features of community shares and more.
We were joined by Cool Ventures, who helped to demystify the process of marketing a social enterprise. Attendees also explored how to create connections with people that can help them and their ventures.
We were thrilled to celebrate the first anniversary of Bath Social Impact Network at Newark Works.
We heard from Isobel Michael and Claire Wynne Hughes about Giving Circles and the current funding landscape of BaNES. Attendees then had the chance to network and discuss how they could contribute to the ever-changing funding landscape.
We welcomed Cool Ventures and members of the network to The Studio, to explore the basics of getting to grips with business finances, including discussion about how to price, budget and check their plans will be financially viable.
Our festive networking event was a chilled evening with home baked goods and great conversation. Attendees relaxed and reminisced on how the year had gone for us all.
We welcomed Cool Ventures to this event, who spoke to our attendees about how they can fund their social enterprises and gave them tools to create a business plan on a page.
When starting on your social impact journey, deciding what type of organisation you should be can be challenging. Different types of social impact organisations have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Julian Blake from Stone King spoke to our attendees about what options are available to them.
We welcomed Cool Ventures to this event, who spoke to our attendees about your to get clear about their ideas for a social enterprise and how to measure their organisations social impact.
Our November virtual networking event welcomed Julian Blake from Stone King, who spoke about Place Based Community Partnerships.
Our members had a chance to then network with each other and ask Julian any questions they had about Community Partnerships.
Helen Gaffney from Achates joined us to talk all about crowdfunding.
We explored examples of how organisations have developed and delivered successful crowdfunding campaigns, the successes and challenges they've faced and what they've learned along the way.
We were very excited to host the launch and first sessions of our new Social Investment Program at Locksbrook Campus.
We welcomed speakers from Good Finance, Cool Ventures, Stone King LLC and Triodos Bank who spoke about Social Investment, how to grow your social impact, how to set up a Social Impact organisation and the funding opportunities available in Bath and North East Somerset.
Our September networking event was a great success.
We explored how members of our network can collaborate in the future and how we want to work together as a network over the next year.
Our June virtual networking event was a great success.
Lucy Findlay MBE, founding Managing Director of Social Enterprise Mark CIC, spoke about Social Enterprise Accreditation and Steve Watters, Head of Impact at Paradigm Norton, spoke about reporting on social impact and pursuing the highest ethical standards as a company.
We were thrilled to welcome our members to Newark Works on a beautiful sunny evening for our second in person networking event.
We had talks from Alice Le Page, from the Cleveland Pools Trust, who spoke about their incredible crowdfunding campaign, Rich Dawes from Komedia Bath who explained Komedia's journey to becoming a Community Benefit Society and Ryan Munn from Bristol and Bath Regional Capital.
With over 30 people in attendance, the first virtual networking session of BSIN was a huge success.
Talks from Daisy from The Community Farm Chew Magna and Marianne from Dorothy House's social enterprise arm Ubiety brought lots of wonderful questions from our members.
There was a great positive attitude in our networking sessions and an excitement about the possibilities the network opens up to the sector.
We're already looking forward to our next event on 16 May.
We welcomed over 50 people from a wide range of organisations, all interested in meeting others within the social impact space. The event started some great conversations about social impact work and how we can collaborate going forward.
Andy Salmon spoke about the work Bath Spa University has been doing and their Social Enterprise Gold Mark achievement, and Becky Brookes introduced 3SG, their work and their expertise in networking. Hannah Whiting spoke about the plans for the network and opportunities for members to help build and grow the network.
By joining the network you’ll belong to a group of like-minded members who are keen to work together to grow and learn from each other.
Opportunities will include:
If you join us at the start of our journey, you’ll have the opportunity to help us build and grow the network. We’re interested to know what you’d like from the network and how we can make it work best for our members.
Bath Spa University and 3SG have set up the Bath Social Impact Network in partnership. Bath Spa University is a Gold Mark Social Enterprise and brings to the network its expertise in social enterprise, social value and entrepreneurship. Bath Spa will be running the in-person events.
3SG is an independent membership network supporting the charity, social enterprise, faith and voluntary sector operating in Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES). To the network, they bring their expertise in managing other networks in the region and will be running the online events.
