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Thinking about starting a business ‘for good?’ Here are 5 essentials to get right.

By Rod Claycomb, co-founder of All Good VenturesBill Gates was once a guest on David Letterman’s Netflix show, My Next Guest.  One of the dialogues from that episode stuck with me.  Letterman was trying to impress Bill Gates with his clever thoughts about what sort of businesses Bill should invest in.  Needless to say, they were awful – albeit funny - ideas.  After a few wild suggestions, Bill politely nods and says: “Having the idea is the easy part.”Why did that sti...

November 2022 newsletter update on Impact Partners

Click the link to view our newsletter highlighting our Impact partners updates, our new mentors and a happy Christmas message from our founders, Rod and Heather. ...

Christmas Gift ideas with a huge social benefit

Time for Christmas shopping.  Support our ventures by purchasing some ethically and socially responsible gifts from them.  We’ve also included a few other favourites of ours below in the list.  All Good Ventures:  African artisan products: Sawubona,  Ridi Trading,   Menstrual cups: Moraka menstrual cups  Candles: The Good Karma Company,   Donations that change people’s lives: Seeds and Stories, Strength and Stem UK,   Funding medica...

Making sales, leasing new land and securing sponsorships: Recent highlights from our 2021 social enterprises

It’s been over six months since we onboarded four new social enterprises with All Good Ventures. Come this ‘half way’ mark each year, we take time to virtually meet with each enterprise to hear their highlights and challenges, and see how we can further support them for the duration of the year. Thus far, we’ve caught up with three of our four 2021 enterprises; Seath and Peter (Restore Social Enterprises), Peninah (Adili Africa), and John (Thunderbird Studios); and we look forward to cat...

Five tips for putting in a STELLAR application with All Good Ventures

We take applications from social entrepreneurs all over the world annually between 1 – 31 March. Each and every applicant is gunning for the same thing; Money, Mentoring and Muscle support to bring their people-helping business idea to life. Here are five top tips to help YOU stand out amongst the other applicants. Happy reading, and good luck! Tip 1: Get familiar. It might sound simple, but it’s one of the best tips we can offer: get familiar with All Good Ventures and whether your social e...

What are our 2021 ventures up to? Find out…

Time has flown since we onboarded four more ventures in the middle of this year. Amidst the many unique challenges brought about by Covid-19, each project leader is working incredibly hard to get their social enterprise off the ground! We’re so proud of them. Here’s an update from each on what they’ve achieved since becoming an All Good Venture, and what their hopes and plans are for the coming months. Restore Enterprises: Brisbane, AustraliaProject leaders: Seath Holswich and Peter Murphy...

Presents with purpose: 10 social enterprises to buy from this Christmas

The countdown to Christmas is well and truly on. You might have already started dreaming or even buying (um… #organised!) gifts for family, friends and colleagues. Ticking off your gifts at this time of year can feel never-ending and a little overwhelming. The good news? We’re here with a list of 10 of our favourite social enterprises to buy from (in New Zealand and further abroad).  Not all our All Good Ventures social enterprises sell consumer products but a few of them do; so we...

Want your social enterprise to make an impact? Here's where to start.

Thoughts on building a robust business foundation from All Good Ventures’ Founder, Rod Claycomb . I’ve been involved in start-ups pretty much all of my career. I get excited about new ideas, new beginnings and new opportunities. So, it’s probably not a big surprise to anyone that Heather’s and my charity was set up to offer support to social enterprises that are just getting started. In fact, many of our funded projects are just an idea with very little substance behind them.&n...

A new partnership with international agency, Impact Consulting

We’re very excited to announce a development in our Mentoring Programme this year: a partnership with international consulting agency, Impact Consulting. Impact Consulting reached out to us earlier this year with an offer we couldn’t refuse. They saw our call for applications go out on social media and contacted us. Their consultants - who come from world leading universities and business schools - would like to come alongside some of our social enterprises each year in a business ...

BIG announcement: Who we're supporting in 2021

After receiving a record number of applications this year, and spending many hours thoughtfully and prayerfully considering who to partner with, we have selected this year's All Good Ventures projects!  Introducing: Thunderbird Studios (Canada), Ridi Trading (Africa), Restore Enterprises (Australia) and Ministry of Chai (New Zealand)! These four budding social enterprises come from all corners of the world, and although their business ideas differ significantly from one another, they have o...

Our five current ventures: What they’ve been up to

Our social entrepreneurs have been working hard to develop their social enterprises. Here’s a round-up of what they’ve been up to over the past few months. Our Remainders: Philippa Holmes Pre-Christmas was an especially busy time for Philippa as she geared up to host Auckland-based event, A. Social Impact Summit, in November. The Summit gathered dozens of people from across the food industry to explore food security, food sovereignty, and the food system in Aotearoa (New Zealand). At the Sum...

Now is the time to GATHER like never before

By Heather Claycomb, Director All Good Ventures VERBgath·er | ˈga-t͟hər As we enter the 2020 holiday season, the topic of gathering has never been as relevant as it this year.   At a time when Covid is preventing us from being with loved ones and governments are imposing stay-at-home orders across the world, I believe now is the time to ‘gather’ like never before.  This is a topic I’ve pondered all year and today seems like a great time to share my ponderings with you.&...

OneDay Health making huge impact in Uganda

OneDay Health in Uganda just sent us their annual report and WOW!  All Good Ventures (including funds matched by a donor) was proud to have provided 56% of their grant income last year, which allowed them to achieve the impact noted below in rural Uganda.Take a look at some of their key impacts they've made this year, below.  And for the full picture, have a quick read of OneDay Health's 2019 Annual Report....

Smartphone app tackles anger issues

Ron Vink, Whistlebox app: Lower Hutt, New Zealand     Police are called out to a Family Violence incident every 5 minutes in New Zealand, which takes up 43% of their time. In New Zealand a woman is killed by a partner or ex-partner every month. Children are being abused at one of the highest rates in the developed world and anxiety issues in the community is at an all-time high.Last year, Ron Vink met a gentleman who had come up with an app which connects to an Apple Smart Watch.&...

Making cents from scents for education

Bhavisha Kumar, The Good Karma Co: Auckland, New Zealand     Bhavisha was born in Fiji and came to New Zealand when she was 13. She always wanted to start a social enterprise and help underprivileged children get access to education. This passion came from her father who grew up in a poor family in Fiji.  He was one of the lucky children who did gain access to education, which provided a future for himself and his family.  However, Bhavisha has seen first-hand many Fijia...

Rescuing people through rescued food

Philippa Holmes, a Rescued Food Line: Auckland, New Zealand     Philippa has been working with rescued food products for the last two years; originally, she and her team were using it as a way to provide great food at community events for free.Over the last year, she has shifted to giving food parcels directly to families in need as she saw a huge increase in food security locally, in and around Panmure, Auckland.Up until March this year she was helping around 30 families per...

Our inaugural year - a success!

Wow, what a year!   All Good Ventures has just finished its first year of seed-funding our two inaugural social enterprise projects.Heather and Rod have personally mentored the first, mainly to give us hands-on experience to help us develop the mentoring part of All Good Ventures going forward.  The second project has been mentored by a volunteer mentor, John Birch.We are just about to launch our call for proposals for our second years’ projects.  We are aiming to keep this...

Founders to donate further funds to All Good Ventures

Those of you who know Rod and I know we both own our own businesses (or part of one, in the case of Quantec!).  My business is HMC, which is a small PR agency based in Hamilton, New Zealand.  This year I actually am celebrating my 15th year in business.  It's been a fun ride, that's for sure.To mark this significant milestone, I've decided to do something radical.  From this financial year onward, I'm donating 100% of HMC's profits to All Good Ventures.  Yep, that's righ...

16,000 Ugandans freed from health poverty

We've been chomping at the bit to announce our second supported venture, whom we started talking to way back in January!  Finally, we've got the funding and support sorted, so we can make the announcement.All Good Ventures is supporting OneDay Health.This amazing organisation, headed by Kiwi doctor Nick Laing, is building simple health centres in extreme rural areas of Uganda, bringing these communities access to healthcare which they otherwise couldn't access.  The name 'one day healt...

Announcing our first supported venture

We are excited to announce our first supported venture EVER! Morningside Urban Market Garden in Auckland is developing a community garden that grows microgreens and edible flowers with the help of refugee women in the local community. A disused bowling club is being regenerated as a garden and community space, local cafes will purchase the greens and these amazing ladies get the chance to learn new skills, practise their English, assimilate and settle as a valuable member of their new community....

The Means or the End?

Today, I was asking myself a question.  What is better…the journey or the ending?  You might think that a truly enlightened person would answer, “Of course, it’s the journey, never the ending.”  That’s also the answer that would be more political, more modern, more thought-provoking.  Sounds like something I’d hear on the Super Soul Sunday podcast Heather often listens to, actually.  I am pretty sure I would give that answer in more situations than not.&...

Living your purpose is scary

Can you relate to this?  When I was at Millville High School, someone asked me once how I envisioned my life playing out.  I can remember saying I wanted to be a music director and play piano for a big church one day.  Definitely, I saw music as part of my purpose.  When I started at Shippensburg University, my dreams were a bit different.  I planned to become a genetic counsellor.  I was going to help couples navigate the complexities of genetic birth disorders and...

Profits for people in need

Many, if not most, people spend their working lives employed by a business that pays the bills.  Obviously, they contribute to the bottom line of the company they work for.  But, rarely do they need to worry about how to pay for the company’s expenses.  They do their job and get paid for it.  The companies that they work for have a product or a service for which they can charge more than it costs them to make it.  The ‘margin’ between the cost and what they charge ...

Great (ad)ventures start with one step

Philippians 1:6 “ …. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We’re starting something good. Today Rod and I launched All Good Ventures by telling our friends, family and close networks about this vision that God put into our hearts nearly a decade ago.  Reading through this website and watching our video on the home page, you can find out a bit more about what we’re up to.  So, how did all this get started? As happ...