On Thursday 18 August, MIDAS and its sister organisation, the Business Growth Hub, hosted a round table to discuss the increasingly important theme of Social Value, and how to build better relationships and develop strategic partnerships in Greater Manchester between the private sector and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE).

Social Value is the overarching term used to describe the net value (both financial and non-financial) your organisation brings to society through its day-to-day activities and operations. The event, which was hosted by Matt Richardson, Social Value Lead for the Growth Company and Nicola Whyley Strategic Account Manager for MIDAS, brought together a number of businesses in both sectors to gain insights around how to drive meaningful engagement between both parties, particularly around sustainable partnerships.

This covered themes such as challenges both parties are experiencing in relation to establishing initial engagement, identifying needs and developing a value-proposition, creating a business pitch, relationship management, and finally, impact reporting and tools that can be used to support relationships and demonstrate the success of the partnership.

Nicola Whyley, MIDAS Strategic Account Manager said,

“Over the past few months, we’ve seen an increase in the number of enquiries from large businesses we support as part of our strategic account management programme, who are looking to engage with the local community and give back, and don’t always know where to begin. We decided to host a roundtable to hear directly from them on what they really need and how we can best support them going forward”

The event was hailed as a great success and the social value team, which includes Matt and Stuart Vaughan, who leads on Third Sector Development, are now looking at next steps as they collate the extensive range of views and insights.

Matt Richardson, Social Value Lead for the Growth Company said, 

“It's clear that organisations have the desire to connect and build alongside other sectors. How that happens is certainly something the Growth Company and others can support with and we continue to engage with sectors and respective communities to improve our service offering to do just that”

For further details and how we might be able to support contact us here.