Enterprise overview
It’s the social enterprises, charities, and social purpose organisations delivering products and services all over the UK that make a positive difference in people’s lives – often for the most vulnerable in society. These organisations are diverse in size, legal forms and business models. Each generates revenues and makes an impact in its own way.
- 1200+ Number of social enterprises, charities and social purpose organisations using social impact investment – All numbers from Big Society Capital
- 184% Growth in number of organisations using social impact investment since 2017
- 82% Percentage of organisations using social impact investment that are based outside of London
To meet their varied needs for investment capital, we aim to help build an investment ecosystem that attracts investors’ capital. This ecosystem must also allow fund managers, social banks and other intermediaries to support enterprises with the right type of investment and non-financial support.
Through our work with Good Finance, we also make sure social enterprises, charities, and social purpose organisations can get clear information on social impact investment and whether it’s right for them. While we don’t directly help enterprises with their broader development, we do work with partners, such as Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, who offer this support through a range of programmes.
- 57% Percentage of enterprises using social impact investment in the 40% most deprived areas of the country – All numbers from Big Society Capital and fund managers across the portfolio
- 70% Percentage of organisations using social impact investment that have an asset lock
- 44% Growth in commitments to organisations since 2017
Our goal is to support organisations to develop and deliver a broad range of business models that make a positive social impact in key areas of people’s lives, while generating sustainable financial returns. In taking on social impact investment, we expect organisations to either grow their impact or simply become more resilient, so that they can sustain their impact over time.
Since 2012, we’ve helped make it possible for an increasing number and range of social enterprises, charities, and social purpose organisations to access social impact investment across the UK. As of July 2020, more than 1,200 social enterprises or charities have benefited from social impact investment – an increase of 186 since 2017.
Over these last three years, we’ve made particular progress helping smaller enterprises and charities (five or fewer employees) to access social impact investment, through combining grant with repayable finance – so-called ‘blended investment’. Find out more about our partnership with Access - The Foundation for Social Investment, the National Lottery Community Fund and the Growth Fund.
Our support for a Social Investment Tax Relief has made more affordable capital available to social enterprises and charities.
We’ve also increased the social impact investment flowing to new social ventures in the UK. These fast-scaling enterprises are developing a range of new business models, with products and services now reaching more than 12 million users.
