Better Society Capital (BSC) welcomes the Quadrennial Review’s recognition of its contribution towards tackling a range of social issues and reducing inequalities, while balancing its dual mandate of sustainability and market growth.
The Review highlights four key areas of development - portfolio balance, sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and organisational development – bolstering BSC’s continuous improvement and innovation.
BSC outlines a clear plan to amplify its impact, with a focus on transparency, adaptability, and collaboration with stakeholders over the next five years.
30th January 2025 - Better Society Capital (BSC) welcomes the findings of the Oversight Trust independent panel’s Quadrennial Review, which illustrates the organisation’s ongoing positive impact whilst highlighting the challenges it faces in delivering against its founding mandate. BSC is designed to serve as a catalyst for growing the wider social impact investment market by acting as an investment wholesaler, all while ensuring its own long-term sustainability.
The Review underscores BSC’s vital role in addressing pressing social issues and helping to create an investment ecosystem that prioritises both financial sustainability and social good. It also identifies opportunities for further development, which BSC welcomes and aims to address in the organisation’s new 2026 strategy.
Acknowledging the inherent challenges of balancing sustainability with market growth in an evolving economic, political, and social environment, the Review identifies four strategic focus areas for BSC to deepen its impact:
- Impact: BSC will publish its 2026 Strategy in late 2025, including a review of its target asset allocation and a renewed emphasis on its communication strategy to attract and support other investors interested in entering the impact market.
- Sustainability: BSC aims to replicate successful models of impact capital management with public bodies, explore innovative financing mechanisms, and ensure that operational costs remain aligned with long-term sustainability goals.
- Engagement: BSC will strengthen partnerships with government, combined authorities, and regional leaders to unlock more capital and catalyse social investment initiatives, particularly with Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) and institutional investors.
- Organisational Challenges: BSC will explore mechanisms to gather candid feedback from stakeholders and investees to further embed equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles across its governance and operations.
Remaining focussed on the sustainable long-term growth of the social impact investment market, BSC looks forward to leveraging the insights from the Review to guide its next phase of strategy and operations.
To read BSC’s full response to the Quadrennial Review, [click here].
Stephen Muers, CEO of Better Society Capital, said:
“The Quadrennial Review provides a thorough evaluation of our progress, and we are motivated by its recognition of the impact BSC has achieved in shaping the UK’s social investment landscape. We are grateful to the panel for acknowledging the tensions between our mandate and the needs of the
wider ecosystem. We welcome their guidance on how we can evolve further to meet the challenges of our complex dual mandate, and the rapidly changing environment we operate in.
“In our upcoming strategy for 2026 and beyond, we will outline these priorities and actions that align with our commitment to fostering market growth and ensuring long-term sustainability. By building on our successes and implementing these recommendations, we are confident in our ability to continue growing the social impact investment market and drive meaningful change for communities across the UK.”
About Better Society Capital Better Society Capital is the UK’s leading social impact investor. Our mission is to grow the amount of money invested in tackling social issues and inequalities in the UK. We do this by investing our own capital and helping others invest for impact too.
Since 2012, we have helped build a market that has directed more than £10 billion into social purpose organisations tackling issues from homelessness and mental health to childhood obesity and fuel poverty, a twelve-fold increase in 12 years.