# CAF Venturesome completes 500th social investment & warns of unmet demand

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/07/15/caf-venturesome-completes-500th-social-investment-warns-unmet-demand/
- Published: 2016-07-15T10:00:04+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**[CAF Venturesome](http://www.cafonline.org/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.

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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.”

 * **[More support available on social investment for charity and social enterprise boards](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/09/20/support-available-social-investment-charity-social-enterprise-boards/)**(
   20 September 2016)
 * **[£500k funding pot to help London charities enter social investment market](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/04/04/500k-funding-pot-help-london-charities-enter-social-investment-market/)**(
   4 April 2017)
 * **[Social finance an option for churches says UCIT](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/06/30/social-finance-option-churches-says-ucit/)**(
   30 June 2017)

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