Enterprise Data 2022: Mapping UK social investment

Our 2022 Enterprise Data includes over 650 social sector organisations who have taken social investment in the form of lending during 2022. The Enterprise Data shows which social issues are being tackled by the charities and social enterprises featured, as well as where in the UK these enterprises are located, and whether the investment is reaching the communities that need it most (using IMD data as a guide).

The Enterprise Data is a detailed view of £455m of the £611 million of the deals committed to social lending (lending to social enterprises and charities) that appear in Better Society Capital’s 2022 market sizing. The Enterprise Data also includes transactions back to 2011, but we are focusing on the 2022 data to paint an up-to-date picture.

Our Enterprise Data shows how much social investment is flowing and which charities and social enterprises are accessing it. This data offers insight on who is accessing social investment, where they are accessing it, and why. It provides an opportunity to identify gaps in the market and suggests where growth might be targeted.

The data examined three key areas:

• Which social area the recipients of investment are addressing according to Good Finance’s Outcomes Matrix, a practical tool to help organisations plan and measure their social impact
• The location of the recipients and the social need in those locations, according to IMD Indices
• The median transaction size to provide more information on individual deals and provide insight into how much organisations are typically receiving

Where does our data come from?

• Our Enterprise Data release is focused on social lending. We collect this information through our own portfolio and requests to those who have contributed to our market sizing data.
• The latest data release (as of December 2022) now captures over 6,200 commitments over the last 11 years totalling £3.1 bn of social lending into social purpose organisations such as charities and social enterprises.
• Our enterprise data includes over £446m of new commitments made in 2022 into 677 organisations. This represents 73% of total deal flow within social lending captured in our market sizing publication.

Based on commitments made in 2022

This tableau provides a visualisation of the data set, to break down where social lending has happened across the UK. Use the tabs to help explore.

Who: Who are the investors proving loans to charities and social enterprises?

When: What new deals are there? When have deals happened at enterprise level and how has the committed amount changed?

Where: Which areas of the UK have received social investment? How do the investments map to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation?

The data can be filtered in multiple different ways on each tab, including sorting by primary or secondary outcome area which categorises the investees by the area in which they are generating impact.