Mel Page at Drawing Board Productions shares her Proper Good story with us:
We first came across Proper Good when we applied for the GMCVO Social Investment Fund in June 2022, and between the date of our application and the panel assessing our application the fund had rebranded to incorporate Proper Good. We also know Simone Callaghan (Proper Good Lead) through her Goodness Collective work.
As a recipient of GMCVO Social Investment we have been connected into all the support available through Simone and Proper Good. So far we have had one to one sessions with Simone, attended a CPD day at Shrigley Hall and attended the Proper Good Business Conference in November 2023. We have also had the opportunity to pitch for funding through the “Chocolate and Change” programme. We have also been asked as an organisation to run a workshop and speak on a panel at the Flourishing Fridays events and we were chosen for the Mentor Day at the Flourish Hub.
The Proper Good Business Conference has been the most valuable, as have the one to one sessions with Simone and the Mentor Day at Flourish. The CPD day was very enjoyable, but as a tiny organisation with too much work on, it is very challenging to do this sort of activity on a regular basis. The Mentor Day with Flourish has been the best form of training, and the Proper Good Business Conference was the best opportunity to network.
I loved the Proper Good Business Conference because it felt like the first opportunity to feel like I had a place in the room and I had genuine connections with businesses that wanted to see my organisation succeed, and can help it to do so.
It is inspiring to see other social enterprises grow and develop, such as Claire from Feel Good Communities (Laughter Yoga) grow in confidence each time we meet at a session or event. The sector is really supporting her work and she is embracing every opportunity.
The sessions have definitely educated the community on what we do, what we have to offer, and how we can support the people we meet, so it means we are having increasingly more in depth conversations with our connections, and more and more businesses and organisations are seeking us out to work with instead of a commercial supplier.
Proper Good has been vital to the development and growth of our business. Thank you!
In the future we’d like to see more organisations include marketing spend in their funding applications and use us to publicise their work, so we can step away from a funded model, enabling our business to reach sustained income through revenue.
Funders should be questioning applicants if the marketing spend is not included in the application, and fundees should be strategising their marketing plan as part of their application process so that their funded work is given as much exposure as possible to further their aims and goals.
Find out more about Drawing Board Productions by visiting their website.