Aims and activities
Aims and questions
Aims and activities
Over the last three years, Plymouth Octopus Project (POP) has been testing and experimenting with different ways of funding an incredible ecosystem of creative responses to meet social, economic and environmental needs in Plymouth. We have taken a socially entrepreneurial approach, based around participative decision-making, open accountability, collaboration and learning. POP is funding groups of individuals, networks and collaborations.
We are proud of what we have achieved but, there is still a journey to go on.
Our goal is transformational change and to move from a culture of competition to collaboration in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector. How funding is used is a fundamental part of this change.
We are inviting other funders join in and support the next steps of this journey.
How to get involved
POP is currently looking for investment and learning partners. Ideally, funders will enter this relationship fully as a core partner, but we recognise that it might be easier to ‘test the waters'. There are possible several levels of involvement.
Transformation and learning partner: Your funds will be used to fund the costs of running the process and any of all the projects and work that is funded.
Proactive response: You will receive alerts whenever a submission is received. You can identify at this stage whether you wish to contribute to the project/collaboration independent of whether it is approved via the Plymouth rating system.
Top up: You will receive alerts when projects are approved. You can identify at this stage whether you wish to contribute to the project costs.
Theme sponsor: You can choose to attract certain types of projects by contributing funds dedicated towards a particular cause.
Read our full invitation for funders and contact Matt Bell if you would like to discuss this collaboration opportunity.
Who's involved
Who was involved
Who was involved
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation have been supporting this work from the start and recently we have welcomed Power to Change and the Blagrave Trust to work with us, expand our thinking, challenge our work and achieve our goals.
We are working with the Social Change Agency and their Accountable service to support us to maintain an effective balance between due diligence and flexible use of financial transparency.
We are working with Ratio who deliver the support for Street-to-Scale.
Learning and Resources
Reports on POP's impact and learning to date are available here.
