Volunteers in the Community

The introduction of the Community Interest Companies (CIC) was intended to provide a way for people to get involved in social enterprise projects  intended to benefit local communities.  A CIC can be setup and grow safe in the knowledge that what is built for the benefit of the local community will remain in that community.

There is one other factor that distinguishes a CIC from most other organisations. That is the need for people within a community to get involved in the projects.  Most people would not volunteer to help a company which has it’s shareholders as it’s primary focus!

But a CIC is different. Volunteers can get involved and help knowing that what they create is for the benefit of their community.

We need volunteers in our local communities. The charities have always needed people to help and the Community Interest Companies will not succeed without people from the community getting involved.

Explosion Entertainments is a CIC with a difference. We provide a way for volunteers from local communities throughout the UK to help their local charitable causes with their fundraising.

We have entertainers of all levels of skills and talents registering on our website making themselves available to help on a voluntary basis. Yes they get  publicity for themselves, yes they get a chance to perform in public (all aspiring entertainers need that), but the primary purpose is to help the charitable cause so that it can benefit the local community.

I must add that Explosion Entertainments does not charge anyone for registering, or using entertainers from the website, or anything. We ourselves are volunteers and our primary  purpose is to help charitable causes. What we are building is not for ourselves but for the community.

All local communities need volunteers! Find a cause that you are interested in or who need your particular skills and expertise. Offer to help, a few hours a month is better than nothing.

Be  a volunteer. Your community needs you!

The Need to be Known

The work of a charity or charitable organisation of any sort is normally easy for the organisation to establish, after all they have set up the organisation to achieve a known purpose!

The same does not apply to other people knowing about the existence of the charitable organisation itself, even though the majority of charitable causes are totally dependent on receiving funding to allow them to operate.  That funding can come from government sources or from the lottery etc. which avoids the problem that charitable organisations have in being known by the public.

But being known by the public and receiving donations from the public is the lifeblood of the majority of charitable organisations. One way to be known by the community is to hold events within the community that raise the profile of the organisation and help to attract donations from the public.

Jumble sales, asking for money in the high street, getting donations from local businesses etc are all traditional ways of collecting money. However the dawn of the internet age is challenging these traditional approaches to fundraising. If a member of the public wants to know about local charitable organisations they can now simply type a few key words into a search engine and they have the information that they want.

Does that mean that a charitable cause that doesn’t have a website is going to be even more disadvantaged in their attempts to be known in their local community? I suspect that the answer is going to be Yes. People are not going to look further than the internet if they find an organisation that they feel is appropriate. 

But having a website may not do anything at all for an organisation if that website is not being properly promoted on the internet and does not get listed when people search the internet.

Of course the website will be useful if people want to know about a particular organisation and they know how to display the website! It is essential that the website is properly promoted on the search engines so that a member of the public can type in the keywords that they think are appropriate.

So keeping a website up to date and ensuring that the content is appropriate and ensuring that appropriate keywords return their website becomes an essential ongoing task for all organisations.

Explosion Entertainments and website hosting for charities

Explosion Hosting is intended to provide Charitable Causes and Entertainers with low cost website hosting.
Both Linux and Windows platforms are supported.All options such as scripting, databases, traffic management packages etc are available at extra cost.

Charitable causes can qualify for free hosting.

Explosion Hosting can also provide websites for both charitable causes and Entertainers at low cost. Again some charitable causes will qualify for a free website.

Explosion Entertainments was setup to provide a totally free service to match Charitable Causes with entertainers willing to help on a voluntarty basis.

We have extended this concept to helping charities with their website hosting and also their websites. A smaller charity can often not be able to afford a website, or know what to do!. By providing free (or low cost) hosting we are helping them to use their funds for their charitable cause.

Many Entertainers need a website to help promote them. This helps them to get work and earn money. If they are willing to help charities then we are willing to provide low cost hosting to them!

Explosion Entertainments promotes the charitable causes and the Entertainers on the search engines. A website is an important part of that promotion

What is a social enterprise?

“A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are   principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.”
from ‘ Social Enterprise – a strategy for success’

See http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/faq.shtml for more information

Overall, five per cent of all businesses and six per cent of employers were social enterprises
(Government’s Annual Small Business Survey 2005)

Is a Community Interest Company a social enterprise?

Yes. A Community Interest Company is a new type of company, designed to be a social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good.

CICs will be easy to set up, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community.

CICs are a form of limited company that has specific features that ensures that it operates for the benefit of the community. For example one feature is an ‘asset lock’ that ensures that the assets of a CIC can only be used for the community.

List of Community Interest Companies

http://www.cicregulator.gov.uk/coSearch/companyList.shtml

Can I setup a CIC?

Why not? You have to have a purpose that is acceptable to the CIC Regulator (did I say that all CICs are directly responsible to a regulator?).

As long as your purpose is to benefit communities then you are probably OK. No political organisations though!

A CIC has a number of different features.
• You can pay salaries to employees.
• There is an ‘asset lock’ to protect the assets of the CIC
• CIC is a limited company with no shares
• Equity Finance through suitably capped investor shares (although I cannot tell you what that means!)
• Individual directors can be paid

Please take professional advice on whether a CIC is a suitable structure for your organisation!

fund raising and sponsorship

You may know that Explosion operates entirely free of charge. No one gets paid for working for Explosion either!
So fundraising and sponsorship are important to pay the bills.

It is not easy to get funding, we don’t quite fit into any of the funding criteria. The main one that seems to affect us is that Explosion operates, via the website, throughout the UK. Most groups with available funds have them for their local area. They don’t want to give them to a group that doesn’t focus on their local area!!
Sponsorship hasn’t happened yet either, not is a large way that is. You would have thought that sponsorship to a group that could reach into every local community in the whole of the UK would have a queue of people wanting to help!
To be fair to the sponsorship concept we have not really started looking for sponsorship yet. We don’t quite know what to do and how to do it!

We would appreciate help in these areas if anyone feels that they can help.

Calling all entertainers, models and helpers

There is a new web directory out there for all entertainers and for anyone who has anything to do ith the entertainment business.
It is free to register, they don’t even want is a reciprocal link back to your website, unless you want to add one yourself!

Try it,    http://www.ukentertainersdirectory.co.uk

Explosion Entertainments and the Harlow Show

The Harlow Town Show
Sunday 2^nd September 2007

Explosion Entertainments provided an entertainer for the Chairman’s Marquee

Graham Gee

Electric Acoustic Guitar player and singer  Graham brought his wife Audrey

The mayors of the surrounding councils attended.

  

 

         

A Social Enterprise approach to helping local communities

Explosion Entertainments is a Social Enterprise that Connects Entertainers with Charitable and Good Causes throughout the UK.

Their primary purpose is to help charities and not-for-profit organisations with their fundraising events. In achieving this they give Entertainers a unique opportunity to advertise their skills and talents by performing before an audience on a voluntary basis.

Charitable organisations, including charitable event organisers, can register for free and search their directory of entertainers to find suitable people to help them.

We all know how difficult it is to “raise a Charity’s profile” without people willing to give their time and effort. Explosion Entertainments can help by promoting Charities and advertising their aims and ambitions.

We also know how difficult it is to “get yourself known” as a performer in the entertainment industry.

Explosion Entertainments gives those Entertainers who register (for free), the opportunity to promote themselves and their skills. Entertainers can upload images and sound tracks. It is a perfect opportunity for an entertainer to showcase their talents. All Explosion Entertainments asks is that they will help charities with their fund-raising by performing for them as volunteers.

There is a saying – “you help me and I will help you”. It is not just a saying – it is true.

EXplosion Entertainments clearly lay out a new explosive way to get your self known by helping others.