CAF Venturesome completes 500th social investment & warns of unmet demand
Melanie May | 15 July 2016 | News
CAF Venturesome, the social investment arm of the Charities Aid Foundation, has announced that it has made its 500th social investment.
CAF Venturesome has now provided charities and social enterprises with more than £40 million in affordable loans since its 2002 launch.
CAF Venturesome provides unsecured loans of up to £350,000 to social organisations with a clear charitable purpose, with a particular focus on organisations that can demonstrate their strong social impact but may be considered too high a financial risk by other lenders. Since 2002, it has been supported by more than 100 funders.
CAF Venturesome’s analysis of the 500 investments shows that:
- The average size of a social investment from CAF Venturesome’s main funds was £101,000.
- Four out of every five organisations supported have high social impact.
- 14% of the organisations backed by CAF Venturesome are based in the South West. The East of England accounted for 12% of social investments followed by London and the South East which each accounted for 11%.
- 14% of social investments were made to charities working overseas.
According to CAF Venturesome however, there is currently a major shortage of social investment available compared to the level of demand, with the shortage particularly acute for organisations looking for social investment of £150,000 or less.
Holly Piper, head of CAF Venturesome, said:
“It is clear that there is still a huge amount of rising demand from charities and social enterprises which is not being met. In such tumultuous times, we expect this demand to only increase, as more and more charities look to diversify their income streams and improve their resilience in the face of economic and policy uncertainty.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.