Making a Mark Competition

At a special award reception at our annual conference on 8th June 2016, we announced the winner of our Making a Mark competition, celebrating the vast and diverse social benefits created by Social Enterprise Mark holders. The competition highlighted examples of how accredited social enterprises are creating considerable social impact within their local communities and in wider society.

L-R: Laura Burns (LWTC), Mark Sharman (Help&Care), Mark Cotton FRSA, Mona Karraoui (GEO), Gareth Hart (Iridescent Ideas)

L-R: Laura Burns (LWTC), Mark Sharman (Help&Care), Mark Cotton FRSA, Mona Karraoui (GEO), Gareth Hart (Iridescent Ideas)

Following a public vote and a separate vote by the independent Certification Panel (both accounting for 50% of the final result), we were delighted to announce Dorset-based charity Help & Care as the winner, with Mid-Wales community transport organisation Llanwrtyd Wells Community Transport named as runner up.

Mark Cotton FRSA presented the award to Mark Sharman, CEO of Help & Care and presented certificates to Llanwrtyd Wells and finalists Golf Environment Organization and Iridescent Ideas.

We shortlisted 7 finalists from our network of 200+ Social Enterprise Mark holders, based on three broad criteria:

  • how well organisations have summarised their social inputs – by providing clear illustrations of activities delivered, the beneficiaries and intended benefits;
  • how far organisations have quantified their social outputs – levels of service “productivity” e.g. numbers of people helped, breadth of coverage, financial investment dedicated to social commitments;
  • how clearly organisations have assessed and provided measures of their social outcomes – the actual differences they have made (e.g. the benefits actually realised and reported by people, evident community improvements, levels of progress in addressing social issues etc.).

We also gave close consideration to whether Mark Holders have articulated how ongoing income and annual profits have been specifically invested in enhancing social impact, beyond core expenditure necessary to the delivery of their services. In other words, how they have added social value above and beyond their main business expectations – this can include subsidised or free services they have provided, which may have represented potential income generation activity and therefore represent a cost to the business, i.e. pro-bono work.