Allia's latest charitable bonds release £250,000 in grants
Howard Lake | 6 September 2011 | News
Social investment organisation Allia has raised a further £1.8 million through its charitable bonds, releasing £250,000 of grant funding to a range of charitable causes. The latest bond issue means that Allia has raised a total of £17.8 million of investment through its bonds.
One of the charities benefitting from this latest round is unemployment charity Tomorrow’s People. It received £41,000 as a result of investments by East Sussex County Council, individual supporters and by investing some of its own reserves. Baroness Stedman-Scott, chief executive of Tomorrow’s People, said: “Tomorrow’s People, being true to its colours, has sought to find innovative ways to bring in the funding needed to continue to make a difference. We applaud the commitment from those who invested in Allia’s bonds and we would ask others to get involved in supporting charities in this way so that they can further their good work.”
Allia started in 1999 as Citylife and developed its charitable bond mechanism to raise funds through a series of campaigns for projects addressing unemployment and disadvantage around the UK. In 2010 it rebranded as Allia and launched a new fundraising service to allow other charities to raise additional funding through its bonds.
The biggest investor in the latest round was Abcam, a producer and distributor of research-grade antibodies in Cambridge. Abcam’s investment of £1 million will give it a return of £77,500 on maturity, while releasing up-front funding for a new social and environmental enterprise centre in Cambridge. Abcam’s chief executive, Jonathan Milner, said: “Abcam is delighted to support the new centre via a charitable bond – it’s an excellent mechanism for attracting funds from companies in that on maturity the initial sum is returned along with
interest. We wish the new centre every success.”
The next round of charitable bonds will be opening shortly and Allia is inviting more charities to register their interest.
www.allia.org.uk
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.