Cass Business School Centre for Charity Effectiveness 10 Year Celebration

by Kateeba | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog

Cass Business School Centre for Charity Effectiveness 10 Year Celebration

Grow Movement London spent time at the British Museum last week with the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness, celebrating their 10 year anniversary. Cass CCE was formed to transform the non-profit sector through carrying out world class research, developing talent through teaching postgraduate courses and programmes and enhancing the performance of the sector through consultancy support and knowledge exchange.

Professor Ian Bruce, Cass CCE’s founding Director, says: “In 10 years Cass CCE has become the go to place for leadership development and consultancy services in the non-profit sector. Our mission then and now is to drive transformation in the sector and enable outstanding leadership.”

Grow Movement Chairman Mark Neild, CEO Claire Jenkins attended with a Cass Business School MBA alumni, Serena Mehta.

Running a partner trial with FINCA Uganda and Chance for Change Malawi

During 2015 Grow Movement has embarked on two new partner pilots. As Grow Movement seeks to expand in both its existing countries and beyond it is important to look at increasing our networks of future entrepreneurs.

Chairman Mark Neild with Grow VC Serena

The Grow Movement London team recently attended the 30 year celebration of FINCA at the Houses of Parliament meeting with the Uganda CEO, Julius Omoding. FINCA is a global, non-profit financial institution serving 1.8 million of the lowest income clients in 23 Countries. It is aimed at creating employment, raising family incomes and reducing poverty by providing the financially excluded with banking services. In early January Grow Movement embarked on a trial with 10 FINCA clients in Uganda. Clients are slowly being matched with their volunteers during Jan to March 2015.

The Grow Movement London team also met with Greg Barton and Louis Parkinson from Chance for Change, a Scottish organisation that runs a 6 month programme working with youth who have experienced a challenging start in life in Malawi. To date, five clients have been matched at the end of 2014 and are off to a great start being supported by VCs in the UK and Australia. Five more clients who only speak the local language Chichewa will be embarking on Grow’s first ever translation trial. Using only experienced Grow VCs the 12 sessions will be delivered via Skype with a Chance for Change case worker translating. Offering translation via Skype will no doubt be a challenge. Nonetheless with so many clients that are currently unable to access our services it is important to determine if we can make an impact, watch this space!

Monday, 2 February 2015

Worshipful Company of Management Consultants Charity Evening

by Kateeba | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog

Worshipful Company of Management Consultants Charity Evening

The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants celebrated their annual support for Charity last week at Skinners Hall. Each year over £1M of pro bono consultancy is provided to its charitable causes; focusing on improving social outcomes. They work closely with the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness and have even visited Grow’s partner organisation, Enterprise Uganda as part of their work with Youth Business International (YBI).

Working Chance is a UK based charity supporting women with criminal convictions into sustainable jobs. The Head of Operations, Cait Winters spoke about the benefits of their relationship with their pro-bono consultant from The Worshipful Company. The review and advice had significantly impacted their strategy, branding and the role their Board of Trustees played in the organisation. It was clear that both the charity and the consultant had benefited immensely from the experience.

To date Grow Movement has two volunteer consultants who have joined the programme from the Worshipful Company; one based in Poland and the other in Australia both working with clients via Skype and mobile to Malawi. During 2015, Grow Movement hopes to strengthen the number of volunteers that it has coming from the Worshipful Company.

Monday, 2 February 2015

Working with the Open University Business School MBA Alumni

by Kateeba | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog

Working with the Open University Business School MBA Alumni

Grow Movement visited the Open University Business School in January to discuss volunteering opportunities for their MBA Alumni. Grow Movement has a recruitment target of 600 volunteers for June 2015. With the OU having over 23,000 MBA alumni, it is a great place to start! Grow’s Scotland Country Manager, Jeremy Roebuck earned his MBA from the OU so was keen to collaborate with them and set up the meeting.

Since meeting with Jacqui Thomasen, the Senior Manager for External Engagement the OU has advertised the opportunity on their Careers Service website, LinkedIn Page and twitter account.

Grow Movement is looking forwards to welcoming more Open University MBA Alumni to the volunteering team.

Regents University International Partners Conference
Grow Movement had the honour of being invited to talk at Regents University’s International Partners Conference in January with a panel of guests from IBM, LinkedIn and Career Volunteer. The panel focused on the value of an ‘International Education for Employers’. IBM spoke about the importance of cross cultural communication within the work place and how an international education enables this. Linkedin spoke about the need to ensure that this is reflected on linked in profiles so that employers can see this.

Both Career Volunteer and Grow Movement spoke about the benefits of volunteering to build a professional skills base which is attractive to employers. Volunteering with Grow Movement improves cross cultural communication, coaching, and cross technology communication. Essential skills within the work force today. Grow Movement has had 5 volunteers from Regents Alumni work with micro entrepreneurs across Uganda and Malawi.

Monday, 2 February 2015

Building Grow Movement in Scotland

by Kateeba | Feb 2, 2015 | Blog

During 2015 Grow Movement plans to build on the unique relationship that exists between Malawi and Scotland by increasing our presence within the business and volunteering community. Jeremy Roebuck, Scotland Country Manager attended the Scotland Malawi Partnership meeting in early January, held in the magnificent Nelson Mandela Room at Edinburgh’s City Chambers. In attendance were representatives from the Scottish government and a number of agencies with an interest in promoting Scotland’s historic links with Malawi. A number of interesting contacts were made including one potential Grow Movement volunteer with an expertise in promoting tourism. All delegates expressed sadness when updated on the latest news following the recent flooding. At the next meeting delegates will discuss the creation of links and systems to help businesses in Malawi export to Scotland with a specific focus on Coffee.

Monday, 2 February 2015