Over £500,000 available for social enterprises to tackle homelessness
Howard Lake | 18 December 2007 | News
Organisations providing accommodation, training and employment and well-being services for homeless people are being invited to pitch to win a share of more than £500,000 of investment to offer more people a permanent route off the streets. The funding comes from Spark, a £1.5 million project to prevent and tackle homelessness using social enterprise.
The project is a partnership between the Government, the private sector and leading social enterprises The TREES Group and Big Issue Invest, the finance arm of the publishers of The Big Issue magazine. Other partners are PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Eastside Consulting.
John Montague, TREES chief executive, said: “We want to sow the seed of enterprise into organisations that are already doing excellent work with homeless people, but know they could achieve more given the right support.”
Social enterprises need to submit their business case via the project’s website before 18 February 2008.
A shortlist of the top 15 applicants will be announced in February 2008, and each will receive coaching from Eastside Consulting in preparation for a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch event in April.
The top five ideas will win a share of the £500,000 funding provided by the Department of Communities and Local Government, mentoring from the panellists and a one-day ‘enterprise makeover’ donated by Spark’s corporate partners.
In addition, Big Issue Invest has pledged a further £500,000 of potential investment for the best enterprises and the ten runners-up will receive coaching and mentoring.
Junior Housing Minister Iain Wright, who launched the initiative today, said: “This exciting competition will encourage homeless charities to generate a source of income and become more sustainable”.
www.sparkchallenge.org
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.