Trustworthy social enterprises essential to combat greenwashing and pinkwashing

Six winners shared €45,000 in prize money and they were:

• The Shona Project, which supports girls aged 11-plus as they navigate the bullying, low self-esteem, and anxiety that have become far too prevalent a feature of the adolescent experience.

• The Football Cooperative, whose recreational football brings adults together while promoting healthy ageing, positive mental health and community belonging.

• Sensational Kids, which provides timely and affordable therapeutic supports for children with additional needs.

• ClareCare co-ordinates and provides services for elderly people in Co. Clare.

• The Together Academy runs culinary training as part of a two-year employability programme.

• Saoirse – Ethnic Hands on Deck is committed to the economic empowerment of migrant women in Cork.

Changing Ireland spoke to Philip O’Donnell from the Irish Local Development Network (ILDN) at the awards, the overall aim of which was to promote and reward good practice in the monitoring and measurement of social impact.

4 reasons to measure

Philip works as the ILDN’s research, policy, and rural affairs officer, and he explained why monitoring and measuring impact has become so important:

“Firstly, social enterprises operate in an increasingly competitive environment. Whether they rely predominantly on grant funding or on traded income, invariably there isn’t enough money to go around, and they need to be able to illustrate the organisation’s social impact,” he said.

“Secondly, in a world of greenwashing, pinkwashing, etc., the public need to know that they’re not being hoodwinked by hollow claims. The level of trust in individual social enterprises is generally strong, because these social enterprises tend to be firmly grounded in their communities. However, it is important for the image of the sector as a whole that there is an evidence base to show they are achieving real results.

“Thirdly, social enterprises themselves need to know whether their strategies are working or not.

“Lastly, measuring social impact is a challenge for social enterprises. A survey in Scotland showed it to be the issue of single greatest concern for social enterprises there, and we regularly hear Irish social enterprises voice similar concerns. We hope that this competition will help to demystify measuring social impact, and show that there is no single ‘right’ way to measure or monitor impact,” he added.

LDCs will be with you coming up to the deadline

Martina Earley, chair of the ILDN, told awardees in Tullamore: “We are fortunate to have so many social enterprises in Ireland and we must support you in every way we can.”

She said that social enterprises rely on “vital” support from each of the 49 Local Development Companies (LDCs) that the ILDN represents.

“LDCs are the ones who will be with you coming up to 12 o’clock when you’re trying to get a funding application in,” she remarked.
Martina congratulated the winners: “They provided a compelling account of the collective impact of our social enterprise sector.”
Una Lowry, CEO of Dublin South City Partnership, also spoke.

“Measuring is a luxury for most social enterprises, as they’re sometimes just so busy keeping the doors open. You’ve to be an expert in HR, management, all while running a business, and a lot of them can’t afford the time for measuring social impact,” she explained.
Una was delighted therefore with the level of interest in the awards – there were 62 applications.

“Dormant Accounts Funding from the Department of Rural and Community Development (DRCD) enabled us to run the competition and publish the toolkit,” she added.

The toolkit is available on the ILDN’s website: www.ildn.ie  or just click the image below.

Rob Nicholson gives heads up on new social enterprise policy

The Football Co-op gives a €17.60 social return on every €1 invested

Measuring social impact: Learn from those who won €45k