Welcome to our One Degree community
Hello community members of One Degree and welcome to our second newsletter!
Yes, that dreaded word 'newsletter', which so often has us hitting 'Delete' before we even open and read. My sincere goal is to fill each edition with worthwhile reading rather than 'fill the space text'. But in order to do this, I need your feedback and your own pieces (when possible). After all, I am sure mentors and supporters want to hear from you rather than me each month!
With our introductory newsletter out of the way (October 2015 issue can be found here), this edition will include a much anticipated programme update, a mentor piece, upcoming events & campaigns and a very exciting 'final thought' I am sure you will love! And yes, it is a long newsletter this month for the second issue in a row, but you will see why!...New programme details! Please click on 'view entire message' at the end of the email as the whole newsletter may not be displaying.
I hope this newsletter will provide everything you are hoping it will, but be warned... There will be a few calls to action as well (easily found as the purple blocks), so you are not getting off that easy!
Finally, these newsletters are made possible thanks to our 'MyOneDegree' network, our One Degree Alumni Community and our newly formed 'Super-Mentors' and 'Super-Ambassadors'. Thank you everyone for your contributions.
Enjoy,
Roger Wynne-Dyke
CEO, One Degree
|
|
2016 programme news
We finally have the programme news you have been waiting for. It has taken slightly longer than we had hoped to get this information ready to share. In an effort to move One Degree forward, we did not want to simply replicate previous programmes, but grow and improve them. It was well worth the extra time it took and we are excited to update you on our next programme. Here are the details:
- Dates - 15 Saturdays: 16th January – 28th May 2016:
- January: 16th, 23rd, 30th (3 sessions)
- February: 6th (half-term 12th Feb-22nd Feb N/A) & 27th (2 sessions)
- March: 5th, 12th & 19th (half-term 25th Mar-11th Apr N/A) (3 sessions)
- April: 16th, 23rd & 30th (3 sessions)
- May: 7th/8th, 14th /15th 21st/22nd & 28th/29th (4 sessions)
- Location - Woodside High School, White Hart Ln, London N22 5QJ
- School - Woodside High School
- Student details - 60+ boys and girls
If any one is free on Thursday, 26th November to help out with the school assembly and student interviews, please contact roger@myonedegree.org.
Sign up for as many mentoring sessions as you can manage via VolunteerSpot here.
|
|
December mentor social
As part of our increased engagement pledge, the Super-Mentors and I would like to invite you to a mentor social evening in December. This is a great opportunity to hear about the upcoming programme and for new and old mentors to meet and catch -up.
Here are the details:
Date - Thursday 10th December 2015
Time - 1930 onwards
Location - Central London TBC. If you sign up below you will be notified via email of the venue. You can also look out on our social media pages here and here for updates.
Sign up for this social, along with one of our mentor training sessions, and as many mentoring sessions as you can manage via VolunteerSpot here.
|
|
January mentor training
We have some great training sessions coming up in January. New mentors and mentors who missed last year's training, please sign up to one of the below dates.
Option 1:
Date - Sunday 10th January 2016
Time - 1600 to 1830
Location - Hult International Business School
37 – 38 John Street, London, WC1N 2AT
San Francisco Classroom (Ground Floor)
Option 2:
Date - Tuesday 19th January 2016
Time - 1900 to 2130
Location - Hult International Business School
37 – 38 John Street, London, WC1N 2AT
Shanghai Classroom (Third Floor)
Depending on demand, there may be more dates again in March and September.
Sign up for one of these dates along with as many mentoring sessions as you can manage via VolunteerSpot here.
The location for both dates will be at the Hult International Business School, London Graduate Campus, 37-38 John Street, WC1N 2AT, UK
|
|
|
|
"Education is your power. You can lose your job, lose your home, the people around you can die, but no one can ever take away your education." Louise Hall returns as our English teacher on our upcoming programme. Watch Louise talk about One Degree here.
|
|
|
"Not only are we focusing on Maths and English, but the speakers that come in the afternoons help build their character."
Our Maths teacher, Rachel Nelson, will be travelling for the first half of 2016 and so will be unable to join us for the upcoming programme. We wish Rachel a fantastic trip and look forward to welcoming her back to One Degree on her return. Watch Rachel talk about One Degree here.
|
|
'Spotlight on Giving' by mentor Toby Hurlstone
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to be awarded a pretty decent sized bonus by my employer. As a keen supporter of the One Degree program, I wanted to donate a part of this to them and so I took a look with my employer at ways this might most effectively be done. Whilst we found that different solutions work better for different individuals - dependent on their financial position – in general some form of direct giving worked best.
There are two ways of doing this payroll giving and salary/bonus sacrifice. Both forms of giving see the payment made to the charity with no tax deducted from the employee. So there is no need to go through the gift aid process - making these forms of giving administratively very easy for both parties. With payroll giving, there are two minor setbacks. The first is that the agencies that collect and distribute these donations do charge small fees and may slightly delay the donation. The second is that these donations are not exempted from national insurance contributions.
With direct salary/bonus sacrifice schemes, you need to be able to persuade your employer to make your charity of choice their charity of choice. To begin with, my employer was comfortable adopting One Degree as a corporate charity purely because it saved them their national insurance cost on the bonus sacrificed (currently 13.8%). But as we discussed the charity and my willingness to support it, they became much more interested in the whole donation. They ended up adding a 50% match to my donation, so the conversation with them was well worth having.
There are several issues around tax, tax credits, personal allowances and national insurance contributions to consider when making donations directly – but I’m sure for many of you out there in the One Degree Mentor community, this is a great and cost effective way to contribute. I’d be happy to answer any questions anyone has on this subject (tobyhurlstone@gmail.com).
Further reading:
- More details on Gift Aid changes can be found here.
- A lot of larger companies will match employee donations made to registered charities like One Degree pound for pound up to a certain specified amount. Read more about Matched Giving here.
|
|
All about MyOneDegree by mentor Francoise Entzmann
A note to new and current mentors:
We have set up an exciting and interactive new mentor community called MyOneDegree. This has come about for three reasons:
- We would like to help first-time mentors meet some of our mentor community before you start their first mentoring session.
- We would like current mentors to meet up, or discuss remotely any experiences and ideas during and/or in-between programmes when possible.
- And of course we aim to give you even more of a chance to network outside of our mentoring sessions or social get-togethers!
For starters please join our MyOneDegree Google+ Group here. This is where you can get advice and ideas from fellow mentors, as well as organise a meet-up before or during programmes.
MyOneDegree is led by a handful of 'Super-Mentors', these are mentors that are giving up even more time to help One Degree through technical assistance, fundraising and the above mentioned mentor community. If you would like to be a part of the small 'Super-Mentor' group please let us know by emailing supermentors@googlegroups.com.
|
|
A message to all alumni from ambassador Artiola Berisha
I for one have been asking about our next ambassador get-together. So while we organise this, a few other past students and I thought it would be great if we could all keep in touch via One Degree student network.
This network has two aims:
- It would be tremendously beneficial for recent alumni and current students to hear stories and ask advice from the more senior alumni (like myself haha).
- An expansive network is worthwhile for everyone in that I know we would all like to help each other achieve our goals both personally and professionally.
The idea is to open up an interactive and fun community that all of our alumni can enjoy reading and participating in. Alumni are therefore invited all to send updates, news, stories, pictures, career progression, travels, anything that we can share in our own newsletter.
Steps for alumni to get involved:
- We have started a Google+ Community Group for you to join here. You can either send updates via this group or directly to me.
- This information will open up conversations and I will pick some highlights to include in our own newsletter each month.
- Ideally each issue will be hosted by a different alumni editor. Roger did the first one, I will be doing the next one and then... Who is next?
Finally, a shout out to our mentors and supporters, this is where you come in - please keep us updated of work experience & internship ideas, new start-ups, volunteering opportunities and workshops you think our past and present students would benefit from.
"Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success." Henry Ford.
|
|
|
#GivingTuesday
Since 2012, organisations all over the world have been ringing in the season of goodwill by celebrating #GivingTuesday, the charitable response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The initiative encourages people to donate their time or money for a good cause, or raise awareness about one.
Last year, #GivingTuesday came to the UK for the first time, winning the support of Hugh Jackman, Rita Ora and Tom Daley. The day was a huge success: Visa donations rose by 10%, and more than £2,500 was donated to charities every minute.
On a global scale, more than 20,000 not-for-profit organisations participated. According to one study, participating not-for-profits saw online donations increase 19.4% in December, while non-participants saw a much smaller boost of 8.4%.
This will be our first year of participating in #GivingTuesday and so we are aiming for a conservative total of £500. This year #GivingTuesday is on 1st December and is a great place for direct smaller donations (under £50), and then our Big Give Challenge following on the 4th and 5th of December is perfect for larger donations of £50 +.
If someone you know is looking to support a worthy cause on the 1st of December then please do send them our way. Donations can be made here.
|
|
Purple is the new red this Xmas!
Want to make your own Xmas crackers filled with worthwhile prizes? Office party coming up and looking for a few small gifts for your colleagues? Make a donation here and we will send you 5 One Degree wristbands per £10 donation. Few more ideas:
- 'Pay it Forward' Idea - Give two wristbands to one person and ask them to give one to someone else.
- Social Enterprise Idea - Sell a wristband for £2 and recoup your donation or raise more of One Degree.
- Or come up with your own idea that will best suit your network.
|
|
Big Give Christmas Challenge
We are delighted to let you know that The Adnan Jaffery Educational Trust, commonly known as One Degree, has been selected to participate in the annual Big Give Christmas Challenge once again.
During the Christmas Challenge we will be raising vital funds for One Degree. Last year, The Big Give Challenge 2014 helped us raise a total of £14,474.
What is the Big Give Christmas Challenge?
The Christmas Challenge is the UK’s biggest online match-funding campaign which helps UK-registered charities raise funds for their projects. The Big Give offers supporters of participating charities the chance to have their donation doubled on www.thebiggive.org.uk when the Christmas Challenge goes live on 4th and 5th December. For example, a £100 online donation made to a participating charity during the Christmas Challenge can be doubled to £200.
The match funding to double donations comes from a combination of philanthropists brought by the Big Give, called ‘Champions’, and charities' own major donors called ‘Pledgers’. We are aiming to raise £3,000 in 'Pledges' from our supporters which will unlock a potential £3,000 from our Big Give Champion to form our matching fund. This will enable us to double up to £6,000 in online donations when the campaign is live in December.
If you would like to donate, this is how can you take part?
The Christmas Challenge 2015 will be taking place from midday on 4th & 5th December 2015. Donate online on these 2 days and your donation can be doubled. Match funding is offered on a first come first served basis so we recommend getting online at midday on 4th December for the highest chance of having your donation matched.
Here is what you need to do:
- Add a reminder to your calendar including a link to the website here.
- All you need to do on the day is find us here and make your donation.
- Matching will be frozen at midnight on 4th December until midday the next day. Please note that there are restricted funds for matching which are allocated on a first come, first served basis.
If you are not able to donate, please feel free to forward these details to anyone you think may be able to. This is the one chance per year that we can DOUBLE our donations and it makes a huge difference, as you can imagine.
|
|
Give-back Friday
We need your help. Turn Black Friday into Give Back Friday!
This Friday (27th November) shops across the uk will be holding the biggest sales of the year, meaning it's the perfect time to pick up party dresses, grab gifts and take advantage of tech bargains.
Don't forget you can collect free donations for One Degree every time you shop online thanks to easyfundraising.org.uk.
There are nearly 3,000 shops on board, ready to make a free donation to us - it doesn't cost you a penny extra.
It's really simple, all you have to do is:
1. Join - Head here and sign up for free.
2. Shop - Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first, pick the retailer you want and start shopping.
3. Raise - After you've checked out, that retailer will make a donation to One Degree for no extra cost whatsoever!
Thank you for your support this Give Back Friday.
|
|
Recent partnerships & collaborations
The network we nurture is core to our ethos. This refers not only our mentor and student networks, but also partnerships and collaborations. We are looking to link up with similar charities and social enterprises that we may be able to work with in some way, or that may offer our students something we cannot. Such organisations currently include MyBnk; Alcohol Education Trust; TechMaids; US Charitable Trust; Inneri and LIFE Creations.
Do you know of an organisation that you think may work well with One Degree? If you do please contact roger@myonedegree.org.
|
|
A big thank you to Sentient Pictures
The partnerships we make are as important as the programmes we run. They allow us to spend much needed funding on other aspects of our programmes. Even though Sentient Pictures is a small start-up, Steven Cholerton provided a considerable number of hours to produce a film we are all so proud of.
If you are looking for photography or filming on one of your personal or business projects, please do consider Sentient Pictures.
Our last newsletter had the incorrect link for the team behind our 2015 film, so here is the correct link. Check out Sentient Pictures who filmed our last programme as part of their first CSR project.
In case you missed it, you can watch the film here.
|
|
|
Final thought by chairman Riaz Shah
We finish off this month's newsletter with some exciting news...
As it is now only 9 months until the One Degree Academy opens its doors, we are proud to announce that we have recruited our Founding Principal. Aidan Sadgrove will be leading our Free School through its pre-opening phase and hopefully for many years to come after we open in September 2016. For more details please have a look at the One Degree Academy website. You can also read Aidan Sadgrove's most recent blog here.
Congratulations to the One Degree Academy team!
The late founder of One Degree, Adnan Jaffery, had a dream to increase the impact One Degree could make, ideally through our own centre or school. In 2016 we will achieve our own school and we are on the way to having our own centre for the mentoring programme. The opening of our One Degree Academy will increase the impact we make by working with more students in one year than our mentoring charity has worked with in six years. An incredibly exciting opportunity. In addition to the One Degree Academy, the mentoring programme will continue to work with struggling students across London.
On the 8th January 2016 it will be the 5th year anniversary of Adnan's passing. His vision combined with the hard work of the One Degree Academy and One Degree mentoring boards has led to one of our most exciting years to come. 2016 will be a year we will think back to the steps Adnan began to make, and the strides we will continue to achieve.
|
|
|
|
|
