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Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Nicola Banks Of ‘One World Together’ Is Helping To Change Our World

…Some days, boy do I wish that we had a blueprint for the road ahead. That we knew just what the road would look like with its bends and twists and some estimated timings for the different stages with built in petrol stops to revive our engines on this long and difficult road. Uncertainty is hard, especially when you’re risk averse. Risk-averseness might not be something we associate with an entrepreneur, but I would say it does come within a social entrepreneur’s DNA — because it’s not a risk of failure you’re scared of, but the risk of failing to meet your social impact and the fact that this may deter others from pursuing an impactful future. I don’t have a solution for that. Some days we lean in and embrace uncertainty, other times we simply talk each other through it. So far, taking one step at a time is working for us. They might feel small, but actually I think they are gigantic in terms of progress in new directions and inspiring changes…

As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicola Banks. Nicola is Co-founder and Chief Steward at One World Together, an innovative social enterprise that has pioneered an alternative funding model that shifts money and power directly to communities and organisations. Nicola runs One World Together alongside being a Professor at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

It’s been a long and unexpected road! In my day job I’m a Professor at the University of Manchester. Setting up a social enterprise was never in my career plans. But after a decade of researching the challenges that development charities face in getting money directly to communities — despite the best intentions of some brilliant minds and organisations — I realised we needed something completely different to all get behind. Together with my co-Founder Chibwe Masabo Henry we set up One World Together.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?

One very normal Friday I was sitting at my computer and alerted to a message in my spam folder. I went to delete it, before doing a double and a triple take when it appeared to be a letter from musician and producer Brian Eno’s new charitable foundation, which he set up to invest in organisations working on the urgent task of creating a viable future. I did a bit of research before opening it, thinking that this was far too good to be true. But I’m happy to say that it was the ‘real deal.’ Brian had chosen One World Together as one of a handful of organisations to make a sizeable donation to. This feels like a huge next step in our journey. Always check your spam folder!

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I don’t think I’ve made any ‘funny’ mistakes, sadly. I think laughter can be a good way of coping and that we must always learn lessons from our mistakes. But we definitely had some harsh financial lessons from more than one service provider, in which a ballpark figure of project costs was so far off the end cost that it wasn’t even comparable. In one case that led to a somewhat sunk initial cost for preliminary work and the end of that relationship. In the other we met in the middle and remained ‘friends’.

Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?

It’s communities that are on the frontline of the fight against poverty and inequality, whether that’s here in the UK or globally. It is communities themselves that know the problems they face, who are worst impacted by these problems in the community, and what would be relevant and appropriate solutions to them. Yet we’ve designed a funding system that works in the completely opposite way, funding large and professional organisations to solve other peoples’ lived experiences and expecting things to somehow improve and stay that way. This professionalised response also funds ‘projects’ not community infrastructure — so if circumstances change in the community there is zero flexibility for them to pivot to meet new challenges or take advantage of new opportunities. When we break it down like that, many people might say, ‘but that makes no sense, isn’t there another way?’ But so far there hasn’t been an alternative. And that’s what we’re building at One World Together. We get more funds, on better terms to incredible community organisations in Kenya, the UK and Zambia to help them respond in crisis and thrive into the future.

Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?

We see communities as the vehicle of change. It is strong communities and community organisations that can support their members in crisis, can invest in long-term strategies and can provide the foundations for improvements over time. But the system isn’t set up to support strong communities and poverty can erode community infrastructure — trusting them to know what is best.

Our predictable and flexible funding has had incredible impacts on building and supporting communities even at this early stage in our journey. Our partners have together experienced catastrophic flooding, famine and cost of living crises. Our funding has enabled them to support community members quickly and with dignity, from a cost of living grant fund in Manchester to providing short-term rent and clothing to young Kenyans who lost everything in recent floods. And when they are not facing crisis our funds enable community organisations to think and invest strategically. To bring mental health support to vulnerable young people in Kenya, to increase salaries and retain football coaches that young people are comfortable with in Zambia, to investing in advocacy around social housing in Manchester where there are 17,000 households on the wait list.

And one last thing, which rarely makes it into concepts of impact, but is in fact priceless, is what this type of funding means to communities. All our partners emphasise that it isn’t just our finance that is so meaningful. But that the trust we extend to them in recognising that they are the experts in supporting communities and designing solutions is invaluable, providing dignity, respect and strong hopes for a better future.

Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?

What is so unique about what One World Together proposes is that we can’t wait for bigger funding or political systems to respond to a funding crisis that doesn’t work for communities. That by coming together we can build a system that works, that is driven by the right values and that doesn’t cost the world. Small donations at scale can change the world — and we’re here to help make that happen. We believe the real change-makers aren’t the policymakers, the politicians, the big businesses, or the rich and powerful. We are the change-makers. Each and every one of us. Finding creative ways to bring us all together to solve big and sticky problems — that’s what we’re all about at One World Together.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

One World Together is a values-driven social enterprise. We didn’t want to set up ‘another’ charity or organisation that was unable to meet its social impact because of its organisational form or because of pressures within the broader system. We designed our entire model around what it would take to meet our values. What would it take to put communities first in delivering better funding, to remove ourselves from the funding crisis of the sector and to build knowledge and understanding among the public about how what we’re doing is so different — and so powerful. Inspiring others with these big ideas is definitely one form of leadership. But doing things differently is just one — and one early — phase in a leadership journey. For me the leadership becomes about staying true to your vision, values and mission. Everything comes back to this and every decision needs to be based around these. And that’s even — perhaps especially — when the decisions get difficult and your values can be pushed out of the decision-making process. Putting them first when the times get tough — that’s true leadership.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1 . End goals are often just beginnings

One major milestone for us was our beautiful launch of One World Together at the University of Manchester. Our Youth Board introduced our four brilliant community partners and together we outlined our hopes, our dreams and our vision for a more equitable and community-centered future. It was joyful! But it did not take long for me to be hit like a truck when we realised quite how long and challenging a journey we had ahead of us. Our focus on the launch as an end goal meant we hadn’t processed the fact that this was just the beginning.

2 . Don’t let “the noise” overcome your purpose

An idea, a vision, a dream is one thing. But I completely underestimated quite how much ‘stuff’ there is to do in getting started, let alone in reaching, that vision. With a long and rich history working for international development charities, my co-Chief Steward Chibwe discusses powerfully the challenges that they face in truly doing what they set out to do. There are so many functional responsibilities — so much noise — that pulls you away from the most important stuff, the good things that you set out to do. One World Together works with its partners to try to cancel out that noise. But I realised quite quickly that we were not immune to it ourselves. Consciously circling back to our values reminds us not to let this overcome our purpose.

3 . It’s a team effort, all of it

There is a tendency to think about leadership and about ‘heroes’ in ways that single individuals out. And yet One World Together, its successes and its future, are all a deeply collective effort. Myself and my Co-Founder Chibwe share our leadership roles as Co-Chief Stewards — but we see the real heroism being displayed by our Youth Board and Students’ Union Society for their passion and commitment to our movement, by our members, who join us because they share our vision for a community-centered future and by our partners, for being the incredible actors that are actually changing things for their communities on the ground. The magic happens when we all come together around shared goals, that’s why it was so important to have that incredibly powerful word in our name.

4 . The social impact space is so generous

One thing I have found incredible is the generosity of other social impact heroes. The willingness to share their wisdom, their experience, their successes, and the challenges they have faced. Maybe we’re all cognisant of the challenges and differences of working in the social impact space. Maybe it’s because we love hearing the inspiring stories and doing whatever we can to support other people and organisations doing brilliant things. Maybe it’s because we like to pass on the generosity that we’ve had from others. Whatever the reason, it has had huge value, not just in advice but also in motivation and reassurance that yes, it’s okay to aim high. Knowing that earlier on would have been priceless, so I was less scared to reach out.

5 . It’s okay not to have a map of your journey. Take one step at a time.

Some days, boy do I wish that we had a blueprint for the road ahead. That we knew just what the road would look like with its bends and twists and some estimated timings for the different stages with built in petrol stops to revive our engines on this long and difficult road. Uncertainty is hard, especially when you’re risk averse. Risk-averseness might not be something we associate with an entrepreneur, but I would say it does come within a social entrepreneur’s DNA — because it’s not a risk of failure you’re scared of, but the risk of failing to meet your social impact and the fact that this may deter others from pursuing an impactful future. I don’t have a solution for that. Some days we lean in and embrace uncertainty, other times we simply talk each other through it. So far, taking one step at a time is working for us. They might feel small, but actually I think they are gigantic in terms of progress in new directions and inspiring changes.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

One of the daunting things about One World Together is that this is exactly what we’re trying to build. A movement that brings all of us together to catalyse a community-centred future. The funding system doesn’t work for communities, it prioritises large and professional organisations who don’t necessarily know what communities want and who definitely can’t respond quickly to them in crisis. And while these organisations aren’t willing or able to change significantly, we ourselves can make the difference just by coming together. It’s not our financial power that’s going to change the world, but our collective solidarity to do things differently, and fairly. We truly believe that you don’t have to give the world, to change the world. We just need to give better, directly to communities.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

At One World Together we always come back to Margaret Meade’s aspirational words:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

We can be overcome — crippled — by self-doubt. Who are we to think that we can achieve something quite so huge? But together we can — and the beauty of One World Together is that we are no longer a small group of thoughtful committed citizens aspiring to change the world. With each new member we are growing that group and realising that change. And that’s powerful!

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

I have just been introduced to Ece Temelkuran’s work in the most beautiful of ways. Her book Together: A Manifesto Against the Heartless World is a masterpiece in recognising the power of hope over despair and the role that we can all play in building new and beautiful worlds that overcome the dark. These new worlds require a new heart to triumph in this quest. This resonates so much with what we’re doing at One World Together, bringing everyday people together at scale to challenge a system based on inequality and disempowerment and build a new collective heart rooted in solidarity in justice. If only I had her beautiful words to explain it so powerfully!

How can our readers further follow your work online?

The best place to deep dive into all things One World Together is to become a member and come and join us on our bespoke online community space. You can meet our partners, learn the power of what we’re doing, connect and share with our other Global Citizens, and most importantly become a critical part of our wave of change. Sign up to our mailing list on our website and come and follow us on our socials: Facebook, Instagram and Linked In.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!


Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Nicola Banks Of ‘One World Together’ Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.