Bookdonors had a visit from Samantha Cameron on the 27th April.  Samantha came specifically from the Conservative Party's Social Impact Office as part of her fact-finding research about different social enterprises across the country.  She was accompanied by John Lamont, MSP.

You can read her impressions of Bookdonors at: 'The Blue Blog'

Also check out the short video of Samantha's visit below.

IN THE NATIONAL TOP 5

The 2010 Scottish Borders Business Excellence Awards were held at the Scottish Borders Campus at Netherdale in Galashiels on the 19 March.  The event was all about celebrating the achievements of businesses in the Scottish Borders.

Bookdonor’s were selected to be one of the finalists for the Employer of the Year category and received two tickets to attend the event.  Lawrie and Shiona McRae who is a member of our team went along and enjoyed the celebration and a lovely meal.  

Unfortunately we did not win first place but it was an honour just to be selected as a finalist for the award.  The award was won by a very worthy business called Cherrytrees Children’s Nurseries.

 

 

FUTURE JOBS FUND

Bookdonors were awarded the Future Jobs Fund placements at the start of January 2010 which gives us support to employ 15 people for 6 months.  We have already taken on 8 people over the last few months with another 7 starting with us in the near future.  

The fund was announced in the 2009 Budget and the money is to be spent between October 2009 and March 2011. The fund is run by the Department of Work and Pensions in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government, with input from Jobcentre Plus Regional Government Offices.

The fund aims to create 170,000 additional jobs, primarily aimed at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for nearly a year to deliver real benefits to communities. From early 2010, everyone in between the ages of 18 and 24 who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job, work experience, or training lasting at least 6 months.

 

SCOTTISH DIVERSITY AWARDS 2009 CATEGORY WINNER

The Scottish Business Diversity Awards 2009 was held on Thursday 26 November in the Glasgow Science Centre.  Bookdonors won the award for best Social Enterprise/Social Firms Category.  This award category recognises good practice and innovation in creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged people within this sector.

 

LARAC CELEBRATION  AWARDS 2009

Bookdonors and the Scottish Borders Council (SBC) won the Best Partnership Award from the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) and had their joint working highlighted as best practice.

 VISITORS FROM EIRE

We had two fact-finders from Eire visiting at the beginning of August to learn how we had set up and operate Bookdonors.   Sue Targett and Olive Fives are interested in developing a similar enterprise in Ireland.   They were very impressed and are now keen to establish possibly in collaboration with ourselves.

 

 

 IN THE NATIONAL TOP 2 AGAIN!
Bookdonors is at No.2 again in the SE100 index for ‘Fastest Growing in Employment & Training’.

Since the national Social Enterprise magazine and the Royal Bank of Scotland launched its SE100 Index earlier this year, Bookdonors has already been placed at No. 2 for the ‘Fastest Growing Community Interest Company’ and No. 1 for ‘Fastest Growth in Retail & Fair Trade’ in Great Britain.

All great news for a social enterprise based in the south of Scotland which now collects from charities, community organisations, local authority & educational libraries from all over Great Britain.

We still disagree with the way the Index includes grants within its definition of ‘turnover’! We prefer on only including the income we generate from our own sales & services.

We also don’t achieve its maximum score for our ‘Social Impacts’ as we don’t spend a few hundred pounds each year to have our record keeping & Annual Report independently assessed by a ‘social auditor’. We believe this scrutiny is undertaken by the Government’s CIC Regulator for registered Community Interest Companies and by the Charities Commission in England & Wales or OSCR in Scotland for registered Charities. Together with making our Annual Reports & Accounts publicly available on our web-site, we believe we are spending this money a bit more sensibly!

More information about the SE100 Index is at http://www.se100.co.uk/

 

 

Bookdonors - An Official 'Social Firm'

Earlier in April, we were visited by the national organisation, Social Firms Scotland, as part of its assessment process for our membership application.

Our application was approved and we are now amongst the first to be awarded this status. 

For further information about Social Firms please click on the link. 

http://www.socialfirms.org.uk/home/home.asp

Bookdonors has given it's book supplying charities & not-for-profit organisations more than £18.600 for January to March 2009.

This brings our overall total since we started in October 2005 to over £95,960!

 

Borders Diversity Awards

Bookdonors was the overall winner of the Borders Diversity Award 2008. Lawrie Hayworth was presented with an award for Bookdonors at the Careers Scotland office in Galashiels.

This commendation has been awarded in order to acknowledge Bookdonors' participation in promoting inclusion and equality and welcoming diversity into the workplace.