Degrees of Opportunity
Led by Anne-Marie Waugh The genesis of this idea was a gathering held in Stockholm for projects supported by a leading Swedish philanthropist, which included UnLtd India and MyBnk, both projects created by CIVA, and two projects incubated and supported by UnLtd India, Arpan (child abuse) and OSCAR (sport for education and leadership). At the gathering were 6 Swedish organisations working with young people to engage them in creating more positive futures for themselves, with some emphasis on engaging...
View ProjectClimate Action: Race to Zero
Led by Michael Norton Climate Action: Race to Zero is a collaborative partnership which aims to engage young people in climate action under three heads: Understand Better; Speak Up and Speak Out; Do Something Now. The aim of bringing together this collaboration is to give greater visibility to the potential of young people to address climate issues, to enhance what each of the partners is doing, and to generate new projects which can be made to take place. The...
View ProjectStates of Mind
Led by Bea Herbert States of Mind was initiated through a half-day workshop in July 2017 which brought together mental health professionals, teachers, social innovators and young people to explore possible ways of promoting wellbeing to young people in schools, and especially reaching out to young people of secondary school age. The pathway that was agreed was to engage young people in schools and colleges to promote awareness amongst the student body and to develop and implement their own...
View ProjectAn Even Better Arbourthorne
Led by Michael Norton The idea emerged from a conversation in April 2018 with an individual who had collected a wide range of items to be shipped up to Sheffield and donated to parents at a school whose catchment area was one of the poorest communities in the UK. Instead of donation to people in need, could we find a way of addressing the problem of poverty by providing skills, confidence and opportunities to local people as well as...
View ProjectThe Chancery Lane Project
Led by Ben Metz CIVA is the fiscal sponsor for, and incubator of, The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP). The project’s aim is to rewire contracts and laws so they are aligned with climate related considerations. It is a critical moment for climate action. Contract law can provide a significant contribution to this action. Contracts govern much of human activity but currently pay little consideration to the impact they have on the climate. Including the right climate clauses in contracts...
View ProjectMake My Mark
Visit the Make My Mark website here. Our Make My Mark programme came out of a conversation between two of our trustees about how social mobility in the UK today has decreased compared to 30 or 40 years ago. As the Social Mobility Commission put it, “Britain has a deep social mobility problem. For this generation of young people it is getting worse not better. Low levels of social mobility are impeding the progress of not only the poorest...
View ProjectDonor Advised Funds
CIVA holds charitable funds for a number of donors for distribution to projects, people and initiatives as requested by those providing the funds or by a group of people acting as trustees for these funds. CIVA provides all the administration, including ensuring that the funds are being used for a charitable purpose. CIVA encourages the creative use of these funds within their terms of reference, and from time to time will provide ideas or make suggestions for possible...
View Projecthealthpitch: a Davina’s Fund project
Led by Camilla Vickers We influence thinking and practice on the roles that creative arts can play in mental health and emotional wellbeing. We inspire conversation and galvanise action at every step. Our unconventional use of opera in musical theatre to tell our stories has been unique and successful. We bridge the disconnect between the creative and healthcare worlds and help to persuade forward thinking leaders and stakeholders to take notice of how creative engagement can help mental and...
View ProjectNew Projects
CIVA develops new projects which address current social and environmental issues in innovative ways with the aim of: Creating ventures which are able to continue on a sustainable basis. Or… Influencing thinking, public policy and action These are some of our new projects which are in an early stage of development: Urban Food Growing Feeding the world accounts for around one-third of global CO2 emissions, and as we move towards net zero, we will need to redesign how we...
View ProjectCIVA:Invests
In 2016, CIVA received an endowment from an anonymous philanthropic source to create a social investment fund which would make loans to early-stage social enterprises to assist them with scaling up their work to a point where they were able to attract investment from more traditional social impact investors. Our approach is to invest early, providing affordable loan finance, whilst playing an active role in helping our investees toward success. We put impact first and recycle loan repayments into...
View ProjectSocial Enterprise in China
Social enterprise is becoming a hot topic in China; the model of blending the creation of social impact with a business approach may become an important way in which the social needs of Chinese citizens is met, whether it is the elderly, the handicapped, the victims of disaster, the health and wellbeing of the population, the environment and the problems of pollution that are being addressed. In 2013, CIVA organised a conference in Shanghai on social franchising and a...
View ProjectEnlightened Agriculture
The food and farming sector offers great opportunities for social enterprises. And smaller scale environmentally sensitive approaches could bring a range of benefits including fresher foods with shorter food chains, less carbon, more jobs. The Lottery and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation have been big funders of projects in this sector, and we want to help the sorts of projects that they have been funding beyond the start-up stage, by providing advice on funding and investment and helping them towards investment...
View ProjectPast Programmes
Over its lifetime CIVA has incubated a myriad of different programmes. A selection of these is presented below: YOUTH IN ACTION Young people have an important role today as active citizens, and tomorrow as leaders of social change. Over a number of years CIVA encouraged and supported young people to get active in their communities and incubated the following organisations: Changemakers: young people leading change Changemakers pioneered a “young person-led approach” which is now seen generally as good practice...
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