- The organisation, founded as Big Society Capital, has invested £925 million of its own capital since launching in 2012 and used that to unlock a further nearly £3 billion from other investors, all channelled to organisations tackling social issues
- The new name will help better affirm the organisation’s mission to grow investment into social issues in the UK. With the organisation and sector having an increased profile in the years since its founding, the new name will create future opportunities whilst retaining its track record and heritage.
The UK’s leading social impact investor has today announced that it is now known as Better Society Capital, a name which it says will better reflect its mission. The organisation was formed in 2012 to further grow the amount of money invested in tackling serious social issues in the UK, and says that ‘Better Society Capital’ is a clearer articulation of the mission while retaining the track record and connection to the movement of social investment that it has helped to build.
Conceived under New Labour in the early 2000s and launched under a Coalition government in 2012, Better Society Capital was set up as an independent and financially sustainable organisation to grow the UK social impact investment market. It helps direct money from pension funds, trusts and foundations, family offices and other institutional investors into organisations tackling social challenges spanning homelessness to healthcare.
Since then, it has helped the market grow more than tenfold from around £800 million to over £9 billion, through its own investments and bringing co-investors into the space, as well as working to build the market through awareness raising and education.
Initiatives in recent years have included helping to create Good Finance, an organisation which helps social purpose organisations navigate social investment; enabling retail investors to access impact opportunities for the first time via the Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust; partnering with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in a trailblazing scheme to support families in temporary accommodation; helping to facilitate the largest ever transfer of UK renewable energy assets to community ownership ; and a pioneering report on the fiscal and social benefits of government working with social investors.
As the UK faces fiscal challenges, those with the least are affected the most and inequality across the country grows. Reductions in exorbitant temporary accommodation costs, improved delivery of public services and a socially just transition to net zero are among the benefits to the next government should they use social investment’s full potential.
Stephen Muers, Chief Executive of Better Society Capital, said:
“Better Society Capital has now been working to bring investors alongside us to tackle social problems for over twelve years, and we have seen remarkable success from the organisations that we have been able to support. This evolution to Better Society Capital provides opportunity to reaffirm our mission and open up new opportunities to help maximise value for government, private investors, and the social purpose organisations who need it.”
Robin Hindle Fisher, Chair of Better Society Capital, said:
“Better Society Capital achieved an enormous amount in its first twelve years and I am excited about the contribution it can make to the market’s growth in the future. For us to do this it is important that we define our role in the sector clearly and ensure that our outward messaging is as true to our mission as possible. I am confident that this change of name will unlock opportunities for BSC, and in turn for the organisations we fund and the investors we partner with, while making the UK a better place to live.”
Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said:
“It is very heartening to see how much has been achieved using unclaimed assets since the legislation to release them passed in 2008. I congratulate the BSC team for its creativity and skill in pursuing its important mission. I wish it continued success in creating a better society under its new name.“
Notes
Press contact:
Ian Young, PR & Media Officer iyoung@bettersocietycapital.com
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 £9 billion into social purpose organisations tackling issues from homelessness and mental health to childhood obesity and fuel poverty, a ten-fold increase in ten years.