Newsletter March 2024

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the French Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) law, which was the highlight of the National SSE Forum in Niort – France, that ScaleChanger attended last month. We will tell you all about it below. Next, we will talk about a support mission focusing on governance and scaling, that we conducted for ECHOBAT Network. And finally, we will address the doubts and questions around financial management, particularly in the context of scaling up: Why this should become an internal priority and what are the benefits of robust financial management for your organisation? 
😎 Enjoy your reading!
 

10 years of the SSE law

It has already been 10 years since the law on the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) was passed by the politician Benoît Hamon. This law has spurred the emergence and development of numerous positive-impact organisations thanks to a defined legal framework and institutional recognition of its players. It has also helped to facilitate access to public contracts and funding for SSE organisations, while helping to promote their role in local economic development.


Representing a key annual event for ecosystem players, the SSE Forum was held in Niort (France) at the end of January. The event was built around thematic tracks and included three major plenary sessions aimed at promoting a shared and political vision of the SSE.

In figures, the 2024 edition of the National SSE Forum represented: 

  • +2,000 participants over the three days,
  • +300 contributions / presentations,
  • 16 thematic tracks, i.e 110 workshops, conferences and round-table discussions.

The main themes addressed during the Forum were social inclusion, ecological transition, empowerment, economic models, governance, etc. Sectors of activity and subjects that we have have been working on at ScaleChanger for the last 10 years to contribute to the development of the impact of SSE organisations.  

What particularly struck us during the event was: 

  • The consensus around uniting and working together to make the values of the SSE even stronger in our societies.
  • The power of alliances between governmental and territorial public players, private entities, social entrepreneurship support organisations, social entrepreneurs, researchers and citizens to contribute to the development and scaling up of high-impact innovations,
  • The human warmth that prevailed at the Forum, with lots of sharing, new encounters, the discovery of new initiatives and meeting up with people from our network!  

These are the drivers and values that we share at ScaleChanger: Putting people at the heart of our support practices to help SSE project leaders addressing their growth challenges. And we can achieve this through collaboration with ecosystem players where we operate, to combine our expertise and work together for a fairer, more sustainable world.

Finally, the Forum emphasised the need to further promote our territories, and to strengthen cooperation between SSE players on a regional, national and international scale for sustainable transformation, particularly in anticipation of the Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF) scheduled in Bordeaux (France) in October 2025. To be continued.

Focus on ScaleChanger’s support for the ECHOBAT network

Strengthening the network’s governance, increasing the number of members, maintaining representativeness... These were the challenges faced by ECHOBAT network, a group of solidarity-based eco-construction organisations committed to environmentally friendly practices in their industry. ECHOBAT reached out to ScaleChanger to help them with a governance issue. 

Founded in 2010, ECHOBAT was originally based in the French Pays de la Loire region. The network then spred to four other areas and now has over 400 members. The network relies on collective dynamic and co-construction of its governance members to support its scaling phase. We recently provided them with support and are pleased to share a review of the activities and results from this collaboration.

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Read the article of ScaleChanger’ support to ECHOBAT Network on our website 👉 https://www.scalechanger.org/en/news/focus-on-scalechangers-support-for-the-echobat-network/

Are you facing network challenges (governance, structuring, leadership, etc.)?  Contact us 👉 contact@scalechanger.org

Other resources / going: “Expanding within your network“.

Financial management

Is financial management your hobby or, on the contrary, a pain point? In either case, this article is for you! It covers essential information on financial management: The obstacles to and benefits of robust financial management for your organisation, the importance of addressing and strengthening this dimension within your organisation, why it becomes even more important when you scale up, and how ScaleChanger can help you on this matter.

Financial management: what are we talking about?

Financial management refers to the tools and processes used to improve the financial performance of an organisation over time, whether it is profit-making or not. Financial steering provides an organisation with the necessary tools to measure activity, monitor key indicators, analyse financial performance, anticipate needs and mitigate financial, legal and statutory risks. This is therefore a powerful decision-making tool for managers.

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Read the rest of the article  👉 https://www.scalechanger.org/en/news/financial-management/



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