Measuring the impact of investment on charities and social enterprises

The social investment market aims to support more social enterprises and charities to deliver impact. To track progress, we annually collect data on how much capital is being committed to these organisations.

This data provides a detailed view of transactions between participating fund managers and other intermediaries and social purpose organisations. Beyond mapping the outcome areas addressed by these organisations, the data also captures where they are located across the UK. This illustrates where social investment is currently reaching and helps to identify areas which are underserved, for future lending.

This is not a complete set of all social investment activity in the UK, but a voluntary collaborative effort from those across the sector. We are grateful to our partners for their contribution, which demonstrates the impact that social investment is having to front line organisations.

According to the latest data (as of December 2023):

In previous years, we have asked relationship managers to provide the following data:

• The use of proceeds and the purpose of investment of each loan.
• Financial data about each borrower from when they took on the loan and each subsequent year. To ensure the largest sample set possible, we focus on four key metrics: Total Assets, Net Assets, Revenue and Net Income.
• Impact data for each borrower from the year the loan was taken on and each year after.
• Responses to a survey asking enterprises for their self-reported change in resilience and impact from when they took on investment, and the extent to which these changes are attributed to the investment.

The taxonomies we use provide clear, standardised categories that can be applied across a wide range of loans. This produces descriptive data that can be aggregated at a portfolio level, helping us generate quick insights.

If you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch.