Bright ideas to make great things happen

Posted by The Live UnLtd Team In News, Work.

The F.R.E.E. freerunners 

In this post we explained what a social venture is, so we thought we’d give you some more examples to make everything a little clearer.

Social ventures are founded on using smart ideas to change their world, and that’s why we often back people who want to run them.

Services and bright ideas

Live UnLtd has supported many projects that could be called social ventures. Some of these don’t sell a product but instead provide a service, such as HYC, which gets young people involved in learning how to run a business while offering a car wash service to the public.

Other services we’ve backed include free-running sessions, as provided by F.R.E.E. in Weston-Super-Mare, and a delivery service, Pedal Power Transport, which offers environmentally-friendly ways to deliver things (and people!) around Bristol.

Here’s Sam from Pedal Power explaining more on BBC Radio 1Xtra.

Laya Loves Inc is a cosmetics brand run by Live UnLtd Award Winner Funmilaya Aiyenuro who also holds confidence-building and cosmetic-making workshops, which had previously helped her to combat low self-esteem, to help others who are struggling with similar issues and to encourage them to set up social ventures like hers for themselves.

Laya Loves

Making One Difference

We can’t go claiming all the glory, though! Social ventures are a growing sector of the economy. Here are some more inspiring examples of successful ventures.

One Difference is one that involves the sale of products. It looks like a business – it sells household products like water and eggs – but it donates its profits to life-improving projects in developing countries.

And what you buy affects where the money goes. So if, for example, you buy their mineral water, you help projects to provide clean water in developing countries – including children’s roundabouts that are hooked up to pump water up from underground as the children play! And if you buy One Difference loo paper, you’ll be helping to fund sanitation projects. They’re offering people an opportunity to make a choice about where their money goes when they go shopping.

Voz

Voz is a fashion company that employs people in developing countries who are expert weavers and gives them a fair wage and the opportunity to learn more about designing products. They provide a connection between people in poverty who have skills and potential, and consumers looking for fashionable and ethical clothing.

TOMS

An example of a social venture you’ve probably come across already is TOMS. They’re devoted to getting shoes to children who don’t have them in developing countries.

They do this because without shoes these children are

“at risk of injury, infection and soil-transmitted diseases that most don’t have access to prevent or treat. Children who are healthy are more likely to be successful students, and access to education is a critical determinant of long-term success.”

They work on a one-for-one system, where every time someone buys a pair of shoes from them, a pair is donated to a child in need.

Social ventures come in lots of different forms, but what connects them all is they’re founded on doing good.

To put all of this in context, did you see our post offering a definition of what a social venture is? It’s here.