our first open innovation skills sharing evening ..

Learning to knit whilst fundraising for Age UK Bromley & Greenwich

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Guest blog by Kim Day  from Age UK

Over the past 18 months, Age UK has been part of the Nesta Open Innovation Programme working to develop our first Open Innovation product. Along the way it has been a journey of trials and tribulations. We have challenged our way of thinking. We have had to relook at our initial ideas and go back to the drawing board on more than one occasion.

Through all of this we have worked hard with our Open Innovation Coach Kim and Nesta’s Alice Casey to explore different options. We have also developed partnerships with Ecomodo and Age UK Bromley and Greenwich to create our Age UK Bromley and Greenwich Wealth of Experience circle. From all this hard work and amazing partnerships we were able to host our first Open Innovation skills sharing evening!

Last Thursday one of our Age UK volunteers taught two supporters to knit for the first time. The evening was hosted in a local restaurant where food and drink was shared. Our new knitters were quite excited to learn came armed with lots of patterns, needles and wool. Their ambition and excitement almost got the better of them and was agreed we would start with a simple cat blanket and simpler jumper. The group have agreed to meet our Age UK volunteer over the course of the next few weeks to help the projects progress.

The Age UK supporters were thrilled to be part of the Age UK Bromley and Greenwich Wealth of Experience knowing that while they are learning to knit they are also able to help an older person. They found out about the programme through the Ecomodo site and are looking forward to try other skills sharing activities. They are also eager to become volunteers to help an older person in their community either through the skills sharing platform or their local Age UK.

This is the first of many Open Innovation skills sharing projects that we hope to showcase over the next few months.

congratulations to us !

We’re absolutely delighted to announce that Ecomodo has been selected as one of the recipients of the Innovation in Giving Fund. Launched in September 2011 by Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society and supported by The Cabinet Office and NESTA, the £10million Innovation in Giving Fund aims to find and back innovative ideas for increasing volunteering and charitable giving. Over 430 applications for funding were received and 62 were shortlisted to pitch their ideas to a selection panel between December 2011 and March 2012.

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said: ‘We want to connect more people with the power to make a positive difference.  Through this Fund we want to back brilliant new ideas that can help make that happen.’

Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive of NESTA, says:  ‘We are at a tipping point where new technologies are providing exciting new platforms to radically change the way we give, volunteer and share.’

For us at Ecomodo, we see this as a fantastic opportunity to take a giant leap forward to improve and evolve our platform for lending and borrowing. We have been awarded £50,000 to increase growth and engagement through a number of activities including: enhancement and development of our service experience; building new ways to connect to and use Ecomodo; and support for the exploration and co-creation of new initiatives focused around specific channels.

More information on the Cabinet Office’s Innovation in Giving Fund, managed by Nesta.

Watch our pitch to NESTA on Vimeo

building trust between strangers ..

This week saw the second of Nesta’s events around Collaborative Consumption focused on “how to build trust between strangers“. Alongside Rachel Botsman a whole host of people were invited to talk including our very own Meriel Lenfestey. Watch the video’s here.