Help for smaller charities

Many of the most vibrant and important organisations seeking change operate with very small budgets or staff numbers, and can find it difficult to access the help and support open to larger orgainsations. Also, smaller not-for-profit organisations can face quite specific challenges and issues that larger consultancy organisations do not cater for - such as a lack of people to actually implement the plans or recommendations that a consultancy exercise comes up with.

We're therefore launching a new imprint of ChangeStar - called ChangeStar Jnr - which provides a range of services and support to address the specific challenges and issues that really matter to smaller not-for-profit organisations, and at a price that is realistic for them.

For many smaller organisations, the decision to use this type of service, and even to develop a strategic plan in the first place, can be a difficult one to make. It is easy to find reasons not to do it – for example, the organisation may feel it cannot afford to spend money on planning when it has other priorities. This short outline shows how important good planning is, no matter how small your organisation is. Quite simply, if you don’t plan, you’re very unlikely to achieve your aims.

Clone towns revisited

Recently, the New Economics Foundation (nef) published a follow up to their influential 2005 'Clone Town Britain' report. The updated report has surveyed Britain again and found that 41 per cent of UK towns are clone towns and a further 23 per cent are on the verge of becoming clone towns.

The original report explored how our local towns and commuities had been affected by the growing dominance of major chains on the high street, and this follow-up continues the theme, whilst also exploring how the economic downturn has affected this situation. This is important stuff as it affects the quality of our lives and communities directly. The report provides a few ideas on how we can start to make things better. Also see the 'How to connect' section of the Life Squared resource base for other ideas.

Check out the new report here.

Freedom debunked

'Freedom' is often held up as an unequivocal good in our modern individualistic society, and many people (and politicians) justify their actions or views on the basis of this. The short paper available I wrote for ChangeStar here explores the idea of freedom and our desire for it. It reaches what I hope is a reasonably common sense conclusion:

"Each person’s claim to freedom brings competing claims from others and we should be sure to weigh these up carefully before we jump to defend anyone’s claim for ‘freedom’."

Big Society can’t happen in a Consumer Society

Whatever you may think of the coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ idea (and I have my reservations), it needs a certain type of population to make it happen – one that is politically engaged, community-minded and willing to give up time for the greater good. I hate to say it, but this doesn’t sound like modern society – where isolation, materialism and the pursuit of self interest seem to be greater priorities than compassionate collectivism for many people.

One of the reasons for this excessively self-oriented mindset is our dominant culture of consumerism, which can have a significant influence on us and affect the way we engage with the world around us. For example, studies (such as Greenberg and Brand, 1993; Shrum et al., 2005) show that increased exposure to commercial marketing is associated with increased levels of materialism in people. This can lead people to build their identities around extrinsic values (such as money, fame, and popularity) and stifle their concern for external issues such as poverty, suffering, discrimination and environmental challenges.

So, before we can realistically seek a truly progressive vision of society – whether that is indeed the Big Society or something else entirely – we will need to examine, and address, the social influences that militate against people’s participation, and this includes our culture of consumerism.

For more thoughts on consumerism, download ‘The problem with consumerism’ from Life².