Business School

  • Would your social enterprise fail this two-number sustainability test?

    EXPERT INSIGHT: Although most social enterprises think they’re financially sustainable, most of them are not, argues Thaddaeus Hubbard. He has devised a simple sustainability test.

  • When your living room is a micro-art gallery: How South African townships are building a community-owned creative economy

    EXPERT INSIGHT: The Maboneng Township Arts Experience has flipped the extractive tourism approach to retain visitors’ spending in their host communities. It’s a generation’s work, explains Siphiwe Ngwenya.

  • Cathy Benwell, founder of A Good Thing: ‘Every donation creates a relationship’

    Good Leaders Podcast: Could every unwanted laptop, pillow or sofa spark something bigger? A Good Thing’s co-founder Cathy Benwell tells Tim West how her circular economy social business turns would-be waste into social impact.

  • Social enterprise and impact investing events in 2026 and beyond

    Ready to network, learn and get inspired? Don't book your diary without the Pioneers Post roundup of impact economy events coming soon – for social entrepreneurs, impact investors and all those working within the global impact economy.

  • Pioneers Post Business School: How to do good business, better

    The tools and insight you need to do good business, better. Get expert advice, practical insight and frontline examples on key business management topics from our network of social business practitioners and advisors. 

Collection: The Gathering

The Dan show

The ‘Dan Show’, with hosts Daniel Brewer (Resonance) and Danyal Sattar (Big Issue Invest) aimed to challenge the audience to leave Leicester with a different way of thinking or even concrete plans to start doing something differently. As Brewer said: “It’s not just about what The Gathering can do for you – it’s about what you decide to do as a result.” 

 

Post Reporters
Collection: The Gathering

Prioritising Impact: Nothing about us without us

We invest into enterprises that measure their impact – but how do we know we’ve got it right? Who owns ‘what good is’ anyway? And how can we make sure our investments leave end users more capable for their own future? This discussion explored ways to ensure the end users or beneficiaries of our investments get a say and get empowered.

Post Reporters
Collection: The Gathering

Prioritising Impact: Bracing for impact

How do we deal with failure? When an investment is not going well, how do investors make the trade-off between financial and social return? This frank discussion covered difficult choices and how we can develop shared values and best practices for an impact first approach to investment. 

Post Reporters
Collection: The Gathering

Prioritising Impact: Do I want you in my sandbox?

In this debate, two ‘teams’ took opposing (and in some cases deliberately exaggerated) positions to explore how we could resolve the tensions between investors with very different motivations and viewpoints – those focused on philanthropic (“impact first”) and commercial (“finance first”) capital. 

Post Reporters
Collection: The Gathering

Prioritising Impact: Do I want you in my sandbox?

In this debate, two ‘teams’ took opposing (and in some cases deliberately exaggerated) positions to explore how we could resolve the tensions between investors with very different motivations and viewpoints – those focused on philanthropic (“impact first”) and commercial (“finance first”) capital. 

Post Reporters
Collection: The Gathering

Connecting to the social sector: Oiling the wheels

What are we doing to ease the investment journey for investees? Though many social enterprises and charities are satisfied with their social investment application process, this session discovered that there are some unhappy customers – and explored where some social investors might be going wrong… 

Post Reporters