Social lending 2022
We aim to supply much-needed capital to impact-led social enterprises and charities, both to enable them to build resilience in the face of the current economic environment, and to access pathways to growth.
Our aim is that at least 50% of the organisations that take on social lending are from, or are working with, under-represented communities. We also aim to invest at least 60% of our portfolio in the areas of the UK that have been overlooked, as represented by the top two quintiles in the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).
- £10m new investment in 2022
- 2000 number of social enterprises and charities receiving money from Big Society Capital and other investors alongside since 2012
- 75% percentage of organisations operating outside of London
Enabling resilience and growth
We have continued to make progress towards these goals, focusing in the short term on the interventions and enabling activities that underpin building resilience through the current market environment. Among other means of providing capital into the sector, in 2022, we committed more than £10 million of new investment to social lending, across four deals, including an investment in the Growth Impact Fund managed by Big Issue Invest and UnLtd, which is focused on tackling inequality for marginalised people in the UK, through the provision of products, services, training or employment.
Investing in communities
The funds that we are already supporting continue to create impact in their communities. For example, through the Community Investment Enterprise Facility (CIEF) managed by Social Investment Scotland, which supports four Community Development Finance Institutions, and via the Recovery Loan Fund (RLF) managed by the Social Investment Business. Both funds benefit from the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme Guarantee. In 2022 we also continued to work with partners from across Government, the financial sector and civil society, to find ways to grow these further, so that investment capital can flow at scale into communities that need it the most, and so that the organisations supporting those communities have access to a vital fuel to continue creating impact.
| 2022 Investments | ||
|---|---|---|
| Greater Manchester - Local Access | £4.4m | Investment that looks to create a programme that will operate across four separate GM boroughs (Oldham, Stockport, Bolton and Wigan), which will have individual aims of improving their local social economies, but will be facilitated through some overriding cross-borough investment infrastructure delivered by GMCVO. |
| Key Fund Match Facility | £3.8m | Investment in flexible match facility, for various carve-outs to enable Key Fund to match programmatic opportunities that require match, and/or provide support to new and emerging community/social enterprises looking to develop or grow trading activity while they wait for their own capital funds lent out to be repaid to be recycled. |
| Hartlepool and Redcar & Cleveland – Local Access | £1.2m | Investment in The LARCH programme is a £4m investment and is one of only six areas in the UK to be chosen by Access ¬– The Foundation for Social Investment and Big Society Capital, who are the main funders of LARCH, with the support of two other partners – The Key Fund and Tees Valley Community Foundation. |
| The Growth Impact Fund | £1m | Investment in £25m blended capital fund providing patient and flexible capital to social enterprises and charities tackling inequality in the UK. Partnership between Big Issue Invest (BII), UnLtd and Shift. |
