Five years of creating social impact wherever we work

Our guardians have created social impact worth more than £1m over the last five years.

Over the first five years of Dot Dot Dot’s existence, we have made a big difference by supporting our guardians to volunteer. As our founder Katharine Hibbert discussed in her letter, this mission is central to our work, and the time that our guardians have given to good causes speaks for itself:

Looking under the hood

As part of being a social enterprise, we have a clear social mission in our governing documents, which set out how the company must be run.
Here are our Aims and Values as set out in our articles of association, (available at Companies House):

(i) that the Company will generate social value from properties that would otherwise be vacant;

(ii) that the Company will encourage and facilitate volunteering;

(iii) that the Company shall conduct its business and operations in an ethical and fair manner; and

(iv) that the Company shall act as a social enterprise, and shall, through its business and operations, address social and environmental needs.

We believe we have honoured these aims and values in our first five years of operation:

(i) We have turned hundreds of vacant properties into homes for conscientious people who volunteer, so the buildings have become hubs of social value.
(ii) All of our guardians volunteer for at least 16 hours per month. We are increasingly introducing new people to volunteering as part of their role as Dot Dot Dot property guardians. In June 2016 15% of housed guardians had never previously volunteered.

(iii) We are continually improving our ethical and fair business practices. We are a Living Wage employer and we ensure that our relationship managers get to know their property guardians, so they can build a trusting relationship.

(iv) We have been classified as a social enterprise by the Cabinet Office, Nesta and UnLTD, and we are a member of Social Enterprise UK, the country’s trade body for social enterprise.

Why this is important

Dot Dot Dot practices what it preaches: we’ve spent our first five years creating a positive social impact. And our strong social values lead to a better property guardian service, because our approach to recruiting and managing guardians means that we’re housing reliable, responsible people who take great care of the buildings they live in.

Check back tomorrow, when we’ll be unpacking how this is the case.