Irish and Scottish Social Enterprise World meet in Donegal

It was a real privilege to be invited to a great event in Donegal hosted by Donegal Local Development Company (DLDC) and SERI (Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland).

During the event, a group of high-profile delegates from Scottish and Irish social enterprise support organisations met over two days to explore the innovative Shared Service Model (SSM) and discuss activity in the sector.

Bundoran Community Centre, No Barriers Foundation, and the Bluestack Centre Hostel were visited by the group on Day 1. These incredible organisations, who have come together to employ a shared bookkeeper via the SSM, then shared their extremely positive experiences with the model that evening at dinner over a fireside chat.


On Day 2 we had an excellent presentation and some very positive takeaways, from Robert Nicholson from the Department of Rural and Community Development on the next National Social Enterprise Policy.

Following that, there were lively round table discussions with Scottish and Irish delegates on Government support, Funding and investment models, Rural social enterprise, Social innovation and scaling, Social procurement, and Capacity-building.

The event was wrapped up by a warm speech from DLDC CEO Padraic Fingleton.

Many ideas and experiences were exchanged, and a feature of the event was the convivial and supportive nature of the exchanges (there were ample amounts of light moments!), and the confidence in future collaboration and progress.

Thank you very much to Donegal Local Development Company (DLDC) and SERI (Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (particularly John Logue for including Oakfield Trust) for their organisation of an inspirational event.