Seedbed
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what is seedbed?
Seedbed provides cutting-edge support, affordable loans and early stage equity designed for social ventures.
While Seedbed is an ongoing programme, we are no longing accepting new applications to the scheme.
history
Seedbed was one of ten projects in the UK funded by the Cabinet Office-backed Social Incubator Fund and was the only project of its kind in the South West at the time of inception.
The programme has been running since 2014 in cooperation with the Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs. It has helped a wide range of socially-conscious businesses, giving them the tools and resources to strengthen their business models, increase financial sustainability, service growing markets and successfully compete for tenders and contracts.
Each social venture recruited to the scheme has benefited from an £8,500 support package and had access to a £750,000 loan fund, providing tens of thousands of pounds in social finance loans and helping them to grow, create sustainable jobs and contribute to the local economy and community.
about the programme
Seedbed delivers a range tailor-made activities to help social ventures to grow.
One-to-one sessions with business coaches; small and large group activities; a variety of workshops; masterclasses; business review panels and more: all resources designed to help social ventures reach the next level.
The programme is delivered in two distinct stages, and includes:
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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.
Coaching
Everyone on the programme is assigned a skilled business coach for personal advice and guidance, coaching and information, support and contacts.
Workshops
Using a ‘learning by doing’ methodology, the whole group will come together to explore topics with our experts in interactive sessions. These are professionals, able to make complex business and development topics relevant and applicable. Participants also hear from other social entrepreneurs, who share their wealth of knowledge and experience. These are highly interactive sessions offering insights and advice from people who are further along in their entrepreneurial journey. In addition, we explore the knowledge and experience from within the group. Uncovering the wealth and capacity of everyone in the cohort and learning from each other is a hugely valuable aspect of the learning experience of Seedbed.
Action Learning Sets
Our Action Learning Sets are professionally facilitated. Using specific questioning techniques with other members of the group, you can find a way forward and set actions to complete for the next meeting. ALS sessions are offered only to those participants who feel the sets would be of benefit.
One-to-one
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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.
Business Review Panels
Participants will be joined by a panel of entrepreneurs, business leaders and experts, who provide in-depth feedback and reflections on their venture’s business model and growth strategy.
Masterclasses
Using the principles that emerge from our witness and expert sessions, our masterclasses provide the opportunity to deepen participants’ understanding of the qualities and ingredients that help them drive their business from good to great!
Online Resources
To help ventures ready to apply to the Seedbed Funds specialist support with preparing for and completing the applications was offered as necessary. (Please note: we are no longer accepting applications to the programme.)
Following each workshop and masterclass participants have access to presentations, resources and useful links.
Cohorts
A wonderful mix of social ventures have passed through the Seedbed growth programme.
Read more about their ideas, services and products below.
year 1
Battling On CIC
www.battling-on.com
Battling On CIC
www.battling-on.com
Bread and Roses Community Arts Hub CIC
www.breadandrosespub.com
Community Energy Plus
www.cep.org.uk
Dontsendmeacard.com
www.dontsendmeacard.com
Eat That Frog CIC
www.eatthatfrog.org
Exeter Community Initiatives
www.eci.org.uk
Family Advice Support Team CIC
www.familyadvicesupportteam.org.uk.
Grocycle
grocycle.com
Grow Bristol
www.growbristol.co.uk
Helen Clare Yoga
www.helenclareyoga.com
My Care Directory
www.mycaredirectory.co.uk
One Million Steps
www.millionsteps.com
Plymouth Energy Community
www.plymouthenergycommunity.com
Soundart Radio
www.soundartradio.org.uk
South West Family Support (SWFS)
www.swfamilysupport.org.uk
SurfHouse St Ives
The Tanglewood Project
These learning opportunities are delivered alongside an implicit agenda of; personal development, self-awareness and peer support, through facilitating; nature connection, teaching traditional rural skills and curriculum linked programmes.
www.tanglewoodproject.co.uk
Unique Voice CIC
www.uniquevoice.org
Wild Country TV
year 2
Battling On CIC
www.battling-on.com
Almond Thief Bakery
www.thealmondthief.com
Authentis Vocational Support LLP
www.authentis.co.uk
Bunch and Blossom
www.thecuttinggardencompany.co.uk
Counsellors South West CIC
www.counsellorssouthwest.org
ETE Live Learning
www.ETElivelearning.org
Hestia Care at Home CIC
www.hestiacareathome.co.uk
IfEveryoneCares CIC
www.ifeveryonecares.org
Inspire Cornwall CIC
www.inspirecornwallcic.org.uk
Living Memories
www.living-memories.net
MBS Farming Ltd
Moving Conflicts
www.movingconflicts.org
Nature Workshops
www.natureworkshops.co.uk
North East Dartmoor Care
www.nedcare.org
Powerwood Project CIC
www.powerwood.org.uk
RJWorking CIC
www.rjworking.co.uk
South West Intervention Services
www.southwestinterventionservices.com
The Bristol Fish Project
www.bristolfish.org
The Family Law Panel
www.thefamilylawpanel.org
The Kings Arms
www.thekingsarmsmeva.com
The Ocean Corner
www.theoceancorner.org
Weheartfamily
www.thebshirt.clothing
Case Studies
Discover how we have helped others to grow and thrive, through a series of interview with social ventures who graduated from the Seedbed programme.
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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.
Family Advice Support Team (FAST) CIC – James Highet, Managing Director
Background
Family Advice Support Team (FAST) CIC is a social venture that offers bespoke support to meet families’ needs. They are three professionals with years of experience working in children’s services who look to share their skills in managing family challenges including behaviour support, routines, respite and more.
The founders, having spent six years working within the constraints of the Local Authority, wanted to start our own service without the constraints of government structure to work flexibly with families and partners.
Why did you join Seedbed?
“We wanted to draw upon the skills and experiences of people who had made their social venture a success. Seedbed enables both facilitators and delegates to socialise together throughout the programme.”
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
“Seedbed has helped us to gain the confidence we needed in running a business. However, more importantly, it has provided tools to help measure that we’re on the right track and that will support our decisions going forward. We would certainly recommend Seedbed to others in the future.”
What are your next steps?
“We have seen the demand for our services increase exponentially since we started. To maintain our high level of service for families, we need to recruit more staff to help us manage the current rate of referrals and we’re also looking to expand into other areas of the county.
“We are currently in the final stages of completing a lease on new, larger premises, where we intend to provide much needed support to community.”
Would you recommend Seedbed to other ventures?
“Yes, we would recommend Seedbed to other ventures.”
Dontsendmeacard.com – Alex Furness
Background
Dontsendmeacard.com allows people to send an e-card on special occasions and donate the cost of sending the card to a cause that they care about. They invited charity partners on-board, from whom users can donate to directly via the website. The core of their concept is to make better use of the millions of pounds that are spent on greeting cards annually.
Why did you join Seedbed?
“The reason behind joining Seedbed was to accelerate the business at a faster rate than we could do alone. There are a number of paths that can be taken and having this kind of support helps clarify which routes will be beneficial. It’s also a great opportunity to meet with other businesses who have been or are currently in the same position.”
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
“Seedbed has helped us to present and discuss what we are working on behind the scenes with likeminded businesses. This has helped in terms of feedback but also to have a range of input on how to further progress the venture. As an example, we are now looking for corporate partners, as it was established that large companies could utilise our system for an employee engagement initiative, which came about through Seedbed coaching and workshops.”
What are your next steps?
“We are about to launch our third iteration of the website in the run up to Christmas. The next steps will involve offering our e-card service alongside our charity partners to invite their supporters to send out Christmas e-cards, so they can give to a cause they care about.
“The focus will be on the lead up to Christmas and then we are planning to offer a solution for other occasions in 2016. Hopefully this will lead to a ‘viral engine of growth’ – asking senders of our e-cards to ask their friends to do the same, creating a follow-on effect.”
Would you recommend Seedbed to other ventures?
“Yes we would, especially if you may struggle to commit time to other accelerator programmes. The schedule fits in with operating a business and they are a pleasure to work with.”
Plymouth Learning Partnership
Background
The Plymouth Learning Partnership (formerly Plymouth Association of Primary Head Teachers (PAPH), after being in existence for 15 years, was at an exciting point in its development in 2012. Having formalised its legal status and becoming a Co-operative CIC in 2011, it is now well placed to take advantage of its social enterprise status and make the most of the opportunities through changes to education and the funding that can be accessed through new channels.
Their aim is to protect education budgets by ensuring best value for money, whilst using the profits we generate for the purposes of education. Their vision is to help to achieve the best possible education for children by ensuring that the needs and entitlements of those children are secured.
Why did you join Seedbed?
“We have grown significantly since 2012, both in terms of staff and turnover. We decided to join the Seedbed programme to ensure that our organisation is fit for purpose and ready to take on whatever the future holds.”
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
“Seedbed has enabled us to really look at what we are doing and how we work. It is also a great opportunity to learn from the experience of others.”
What are your next steps?
“The next steps are to update the business plan and associated budgets, ensuring the organisation positions itself for future success.”
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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.
Eat That Frog CIC
Background
Eat That Frog is about motivation. In the words of Mark Twain, “Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day” – apply this to life and consider all those hard tasks as frogs, once completed or “eaten” then everything else seems easy. Eat That Frog works with people of all ages facing barriers in their life, enabling them to overcome or cope with these. At the heart of their work is a belief in a good work ethic, for which they focus their effort in helping people to gain and sustain paid employment.
Why did you join Seedbed?
“In order to further our social venture, we were looking for a programme that offered a mix of support and loans to help us progress. We were looking for a programme that would help us to focus our business plan and set a direction in which to take our social venture forward. We were also incredibly interested in finding out about different funding options.”
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
“Seedbed has helped us to set out exactly what we needed to do to grow and achieve our goals. The support programme helped us to realise our unique selling points which in turned helped us to create a business proposal to grow our venture.
“Since then, we’ve grown rapidly with the launch of a new ethical recruitment agency and have opened four new centres and recruited 12 new members of staff.”
What are your next steps?
“Next steps for Eat That Frog is to continue our relationship with Seedbed and their partner, SWIG.”
What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?
“It’s a great opportunity for social ventures. If you used everything available from Seedbed, it will help you with important parts of your business.”
Unique Voice CIC
Background
Unique Voice CIC is a growing social venture who use drama and the arts as a medium to make a positive social impact. To do this, they create initiatives that enable people to learn, develop and grow in all aspects of their educational and emotional development whether that is through classroom-based learning or community campaigns.
To date, Unique Voice CIC has helped over 50,000 young people across schools and communities.
Why did you join Seedbed?
“We chose to apply to support our growth and development. We believed it was time to cultivate our business and replicate our success in other geographical areas. Seedbed would help us to consolidate our business, working towards a robust infrastructure that would support our growth.”
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
“Seedbed has helped to unlock a gateway for us to achieve our expansion and plans for growth. It’s also provided the necessary funds to grow our company alongside excellent business support and advice throughout our plans to expand.
“The loan from Seedbed means that we can grow and expand, working towards our goal of helping 100,000 young people in the area over the next three years, which is a challenging yet rewarding path.”
What are your next steps?
“Our next step is to expand our workforce to support our plans for expansion, solidify our business plan and support our growth.”
What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?
“No one knows your business better than you, however, advice and support from those dedicated to enhancing social ventures will only make your business stronger and more prepared for future growth.”
Grow Bristol
Background
Grow Bristol CIC is a new urban farming venture developing and demonstrating innovative and sustainable ways of growing food in the city for the benefit of all its inhabitants and the wider world. They are bringing together techniques of vertical farming, controlled-environment agriculture and aquaponics to realise integrated vegetable and fish production in city spaces not normally suited to agriculture.
Why did you join Seedbed?
We had been involved previously in the School of Social Entrepreneurs with a start-up level programme. However, we need to scale up and grow our business. Seedbed looked like a good opportunity to take on our first loan finance.
How has Seedbed helped your venture?
We felt it was important to have a loan aspect alongside support. The workshops were a huge benefit and the business coach helped us to get a business plan set up before we applied for a loan. The time spent creating a business plan proved invaluable. We certainly felt more secure and comfortable knowing there was a plan in place.
What are your next steps?
The loan aspect of the Seedbed programme helped us to complete our capital investment. Since Seedbed, we’ve been trading with positive results and plan to successfully scale up our business over the next few months. We are also striving to finish our growing system to get into a wider market.
What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?
Social ventures looking to join Seedbed should assess if they are ready for the loan process. The great thing is that you know before applying through the application process that you’re either ready for the programme or you need to wait. The great thing is that there is no commitment. They help as much as you need.
partners
Contact us
Please note that we are no longer accepting applications to the Seedbed programme.
For general enquiries, please contact trust@dartington.org.