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Category: Non-profit organising

Lewisham Council plans to make a profit from renters: Besson Street and beyond

Posted on 10 December, 201516 November, 2016 by preorg

Lewisham Council has finally unveiled its plan to re-develop a large empty plot of land at Besson Street, New Cross Gate, within what is sometimes known as the Kender Triangle. The plans are an interesting departure for the council, who instead of building new council housing, plans to build a Private Rented Sector (PRS) scheme of 250…

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Common Sense: a brief review

Posted on 24 March, 201424 March, 2014 by preorg

I’ve finally got around to reading Dan Hind’s Common Sense, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages on the grounds that I usually agree with his articles and The Return of the Public was at least interesting. Common Sense is a pamphlet in the tradition of the more famous Common Sense by Tom Paine. Here’s a video of…

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Transparency is hard but we should all try: a challenge for Elevate Festival

Posted on 25 October, 2013 by preorg

A few weeks ago I was asked to contribute to Elevate Festival by watching livestreams of debates, joining in on Twitter and otherwise increasing the web presence of the festival. Elevate is discussing a wide range of things I am interested so I was happy to do this, but these days I really like to…

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Foodbanks aren’t coping – and why should they?

Posted on 22 September, 201316 October, 2013 by preorg

Recently I spoke with the manager of a foodbank in South London. She didn’t offer to go on the record but I afterwards made a few notes on what she was saying: They have recently seen a big increase in people coming to them, many due to delays in benefit, the abolition of crisis loans…

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The effect of government contracting on the non-profit sector

Posted on 29 July, 20139 September, 2013 by preorg

Here is an interesting post from elsewhere on the vacuum of politics in most of the NGO sector in the UK. It suggests that part of the reason for this is that they have allowed themselves to be contracted by the state, becoming part of the outsourcing industry. http://www.independentaction.net/2013/07/16/state-of-the-voluntary-services-sector-bob-baker-writes/ However this can’t be the whole…

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Bringing anarchy to NGOs

Posted on 16 July, 2013 by preorg

Or somewhat more democratic and inclusive forms of organising anyway – this article is interesting: Carne Ross: our forms must reflect our fundamental political values I’ve thought a fair bit about the prospects for making NGOs more cooperative. Campaigning NGOs could have much more of a two way decision-making process with their donors and supporters….

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Who do business and NGO leaders regard as their peers?

Posted on 5 November, 20125 November, 2012 by preorg

I think a good way to look at the nature of boundaries between organisations is to look at communication across the boundaries. We can ask, for example, who people at the top of those organisations talk to. Who do they consider their peers? These sites are a really good resources for mapping the individuals involved…

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A successful campaign and the resourcing of ideas

Posted on 28 September, 201228 September, 2012 by preorg

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) is an organisation that campaigns for resource extraction companies to publish all royalties and other payments made in the countries in which they work. It is largely focussed on companies working in poorer countries where corruption is less subtle than we are used to and where governments often secretly negotiate…

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The failure of intentions

Posted on 3 September, 201210 September, 2012 by preorg

I’m interested in people’s intentions within organisations, in the sense that I have often found them to be irrelevant to what the orgs do. It is easy for us to be convinced that our intentions count for a lot, yet we see orgs (the World Bank for example) that neither do what they claim to…

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