Spark
From EveryonesHome.org.uk
'Mission: to establish a pilot of a new breed of homeless shelter in East London with a unique business operating model.
Provides: Shelter, food, medical attention and mentoring for 10-24 people
Needs: 200k/year Shelter Cost
Means: through selling creative work donated by the public and institutional charity funding
Contents |
[edit] Spark Details
- Website: http://www.sparkchallenge.org/
- Application PDF: http://www.everyoneshome.org.uk/Spark.pdf/
Fifth Revision of Spark Application
[edit] Section A
- Mission of your organisation
EveryonesHome's mission is to raise £200k to create and launch the most cost efficient and easiest direct access shelter in London with a unique business operating model. We aim to raise the money and generate the revenue needed to keep the shelter running by selling creative works to the worldwide press that has been donated to the project by the public over the Internet, such as writing, music and photography. We are different because we ask people to charitably donate their creativity, not just the money in their pockets.
Main activities and how do work or intend to work with homeless and vulneraby housed people?
EveryonesHome will initially provide temporary housing for 10 homeless individuals at a time in Dagenham (the only area of London without a permanent shelter). It is designed to eventually scale over time to accomodate a total of 24 people using a unique "capsules" system that can be rolled out into other UK cities.
3 trained staff will be on hand 24hrs a day to run the shelter and provide quality mentoring. Priority will be given to those with minimal mental health, alcohol and drug problems, as opposed to most other shelters.
Our approach to rehabilitation is uniquely focused on personal mentoring to encourage the transition for each person to permanent housing and a viable career path. If certain individuals are beyond our capabilities we will seek assistence from local authorities and other projects.
Please describe specific project or activity and how will address the root causes of homelessness or increase peoples move into independent living
Everyones Home seeks to provide a real launching pad out of homelessness, and unlike many other schemes, is built on the raw experience of the founder having been homeless himself. 2-3 long term trained mentors will work with every individual to establish a personal 'gameplan' for each person's independence. Enabling, Empowering and Enfranchising is our philosophy in this regard.
The areas we will seek to address and plan for with each admittee include:
- Medical self-help
- Financial management
- Vocational guidance
- Basic self-development
We will actively lobby all appropriate agencies (local council, primary care trust, police etc) on a weekly schedule to provide expert support and real help whereas upon a lone approach admittees might become frustrated and 'give-up'.
Each homeless person admitted to the shelter will be put on a 6-week program to secure their training in basic literacy (reading/writing), basic numeracy, and basic computer literacy. To maintain their place in the shelter, each will be employed to work on processing submissions of writing, photography, music and video. Our brokerage business will give all 10 a permanent address, an employer (with reference) and the necessary education to apply for commercial office and other employments.
Management systems and structure to recieve, manage and be accountable for prize up to £200,000
EveryonesHome operates as a UK-based non-profit organisation with a board currently consisting of 5 trustees with diverse skills and experience that provide the team needed to deliver the project.
- Mr Jonathan Cairns (Founder)
- Ms Skirmante Gough (Founder)
- Ms Stella Fairbairn (original founder of Doubleclick)
- Mr Alex Cameron (Future 500 media consultant)
- Mr Robert Foster (Mental heath nurse)
3 permanent personnel will be chosen to live and work at the shelter:
- General manager (5 years comparable experience)
- Support Worker (2+ years experience working in a shelter or for comparable organisation)
- Administrator (Required to have 3 years + of office experience in a charity)
All are committed to a long term project of turning online creativity in charitable profit and everyoneshome.org.uk into a real success which inspires copycat projects that can "plug in" to the project and donate funds they raise externally in parallel.
Please describe how you are wishing to operate a social enterprise model with some trading activities
EveryonesHome is a non-profit organisation that aims to be self-funding and self-perpetuating through the media brokerage of CreativeEcstasy. We ask people to donate their creativity rather than their money. We use the associated intellectual property rights to license those works to customers and channel the revenues back into the shelter.
Describe how your organisation could benefit from 1) six months of mentoring from an experienced entrepreneur 2) a makeover challenge of our corporate partners
Mentoring will give the project's managers a greater depth of experience to draw from than they already have, and help to provide them with the expertise to roll out pilots of new shelters in different Uk cities.
EveryonesHome is also a hub for young and aspiring writers, musicians and photographers - all of whom can be mentored en masse and provide a pool of talent for Spark's corporate partners to hire from.
[edit] Section B
What is the business case for the enterprise or project for which you are seeking investment?
As a startup enterprise without a previous trading experience, the business case for investment is simply that without it, EveryonesHome cannot come to be. The investment is needed to start the shelter and give the business enough initial funds to start the business trading effectively to secure revenue that allows it to carry on.
What is the business model for the enterprise or project you are seeking investment for?
EveryonesHome operates using a brokerage model. People donate their intellectual property for us to license onto customers in the media to include in their publications. Anyone in the world (any individual or business) can donate their time and creative works (their writing, music, photography and/or films) so that the profits are invested in the development of the housing shelter and when successful enough, further projects.
What demonstrates that you have the capacity to deliver this proposal?
- The proven track record of a dynamic team of highly-driven people who are specialists in overcoming adverse circumstances and delivering complex projects.
- Time taken and the quality of detailed documentation already created:
- A solid, robust and credible plan.
- 6 months commitment to producing documentation and sacrificing time for the cause itself.
- Credible financial projections validated by an accountant.
- A network of websites set up to promote and capture revenue.
- Multimedia content (video etc) for promotional purposes
Provide an overview of your recent social and financial performance.
EveryonesHome is a project that has recently had its design completed and being a new enterprise does not have a performance history. We are confident that because of the quality of the people involved, and the planning undertaken, the majority of targets will be aggressively met and exceeded.
Have you clearly identified how much finance is required to deliver the enterprise or project for which you are seeking investment?
Our estimates and calculations suggest that the shelter will consume approximately £200k in costs per annum, which it will derive from intellectual property licensing, public funds and charitable donation.
A summary of the operating finance (Profit & Loss, Cash Flow) is attached here. Projections.xls
| 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 | TOTAL |
||
| Revenues | 212 | 969 | 2045 | 2045 | 2045 | 19720.00 | |
| Sales Costs | 10.6 | 48.45 | 102.25 | 102.25 | 102.25 | 986.00 | |
| Gross Profit | 201.4 | 920.55 | 1942.75 | 1942.75 | 1942.75 | 18734.00 | |
| Overheads | 21457.5 | 14957.5 | -13014.75 | -13014.75 | -13014.75 | 185990.00 | |
| Net Profit | -21256.1 | -14036.95 | -13014.75 | -13014.75 | -13014.75 | -167256.00 | |
| Bank Open | 0 | -35974.825 | -83679 | -131457 | -83679 | ||
| Cash Receipts | 97 | 699 | 2045 | 2045 | 2045 | 18430 | |
| Cash Out | 20124.35 | 15872.2 | 15926 | 15926 | 15926 | 195161 | |
| Bank Close | -20124.35 | -51847.025 | -99605 | -147383 | -99605 |
A more detailed set of financial statements are available upon request.
What other sources of finance are you approaching to support this project?
Initial conversations have been started with the following:
- UK Arts Council grant schemes (which one?)
- Governmental agencies (e.g. London Development Agency)
- National lottery and other grants (which others?)
- Public donation over the Internet
- Online advertisng revenue (Google AdSense)
- Media sponsors through relevant advertising revenue
- Co-branded content
- Strategic alliances and partners
- Fundraising through musicians and audial ecstacy
What potential does the endeavour have to scale up?
We believe that our sustainable shelter model is an effective "template" that will be able to be rolled out into other UK cities, and can be refined from running a real-life pilot. These shelters should be viewed as "units" that can be replicated at will provided the circumstances permit, and house up blocks of up to 24 people at once in each building with running costs of £200k per year.
As submissions of intellectual property are taken over the Internet, we are able to solicit donations of writing, music, photography and film from all over the world. Our costs are generally around the processing of those submissions - bandwidth, storage, publishing and automation.
what materials could you produce if requested, to support the claims made above?
- CVs for all trustees and management
- Library of promotional materials (documents, websites, videos etc)
- Detailed 3-year financial projections (spreadsheet format)
- Testimonials and statements of support from significant people
- A network of existing websites receiving donations
- Examples of existing projects that demonstrate the viability of the model
[edit] Section C
What are your main sources of income, currently?
As a startup enterprise, EveryonesHome is entirely dependent on individual private financial donation and negligible revenues from online advertising, therefore being grossly underfunded and currently unable to meet its ambitions without more significant support. We intend to derive income from brokering the sale of creative work donated to us to be sold on to media outlets.
How much of your income is generated through trading activity today? Please state the % of your total income that comes from traded activities and its value in money (£)
Being an early-stage venture, EveryonesHome is not trading and does not currently have a source of immediate income. With the right funding and enough awareness, we will be able to start soliciting the larger volumes of donated material needed to become a self-sustaining enterprise.
How much money is the organisation currently borrowing, if any? (£)
We do not currently have any debt and are not borrowing any private or public funds.
Based on your response to B5, how much funding would you ideally raise in the next 12 months?
Our projections indicate that EveryonesHome will incur costs of 200k per year to operate effectively to house a maximum of 24 individuals. Our investment schedule is based on raising this amount to run the shelter for its first year, and each consecutive year thereafter.
What would you use this funding for?
- Rent/commercial lease of a building in Dagenham
- Modest salaries for 3 permanent personnel
- Contribution towards mentoring staff costs (travel, food etc)
- Payment of quarterly utility bills (water, gas, electricity, insurance, telecoms etc)
- Provision of food and drink (3 meals per day)
- Office administration and paperwork
- Modest marketing and PR for future fundraising
How would you use £200,000 if you were to win the main Spark prize?
The prize money would be allocated immediately for covering ongoing overheads incurred for the first 12 months of running the shelter, documented in our financial projections.
Our immediate priorities are:
- to find and acquire the right building
- to hire 3 x permanent personnel
- to create working relationships with the necessary local authorities (medical, council etc)
- selecting 10 x homeless individuals to admit to the shelter
The prize money would be scheduled for:
- Payment of 12 x month's rent to building landlord
- Hiring and permanent monthly BACS salary of 3 shelter supervisors
- Setup and payment of 4 x quarterly utility bills by direct debit (water, gas, electricity, insurance, telecoms etc)
- Establishing a small on-site office with necessary furnishings (chairs, printer etc) to conduct our brokerage business
- 12 x monthly reimbursements of mentoring personnel expenses
- Provision of 1150 meals over 365 days
- Covering costs of the next round of fundraising (travel etc)
- Buying cheap local advertising, circulating press releases, arranging press coverage and generating word-of-mouth web traffic.
If there is a difference between the amount you require, and the maximum you might likely win through this programme, how would you cover the difference?
Through our contingency planning we have identified that should we receive less than 60% of the total funding prize (120k), we believe we would be able to raise the remaining 40% (60k) over 12-14 weeks through a combination of private donation solicited from high net worth individuals, public funding, and commercial revenue derived from our media brokerage service.
Would you be interested in, and able to afford, loan finance if it was on competitive terms?
No. We have no plans to finance EveryonesHome using debt at any time in the immediate future.
What is your approximate bank balance today?
We are not willing to share that confidential information at this stage.
Are you prepared to participate in a programme that involves production of case studies, showcasing of participating social enterprises, and partnership activities with private business?
Yes. We would welcome the opportunity to be involved in any endeavour that promotes awareness of social enterprise projects and allows us to further the development of EveryonesHome.
Please provide any additional information that is directly relevant to the selection criteria, but which you have not provided above.
Our management team contains individuals with a personal experience of homelessness and the difficulty in escaping it. There is no sense like common sense and no experience like being defeated and alone for yourself. We use the experience from the worst of our pasts to produce a better future. We don't need a day course to understand how it feels to be homeless.
