New £20m community investment fund will help charities that provide “local solutions”
Howard Lake | 26 February 2014 | News
A new £20 million social investment fund providing loans of up to £1 million to charities and social enterprises launches today [Wednesday 26 February 2014].
The Community Investment Fund – set up by fund management company Social and Sustainable Capital – will offer loans from £250,000 to £1 million to “community-based” organisations that aim improve the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged local people and “provide local solutions to local needs, create jobs, and develop the local economy”.
The fund, which expects to invest around £5 million a year, will focus on supporting organisations that provide health and social care, education, training and employment support, and children’s services.
Ben Rick, the founder of Social and Sustainable Capital, said the Community Investment Fund had been “designed to allow for substantial individual investments into the best social organisations serving their communities”.
The fund is financed by social finance company Social Investment Business and social investment bank Big Society Capital, which have both committed £10 million to it. But Social and Sustainable Capital hopes to attract further investors who are looking for social as well as financial returns.
The fund’s backers say they expect demand for finance from charities and social enterprises to rise to £1 billion by 2015.
Charities and social enterprises seeking investment from the fund can apply through the Community Investment Fund‘s website.
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.