New £10m Crowd Match Fund unites Crowdfunder, Ethex & ThinCats with Big Society Capital
Melanie May | 7 December 2016 | News
A £10 million Crowd Match Fund has launched that will allow the public to invest directly in charities and social enterprises through a partnership between Big Society Capital and crowdfunding platforms Crowdfunder, Ethex, and Thincats.
The platforms, with Thincats participating through Community Chest, will list social sector organisations that want to raise debt and equity finance, and will allow the public to invest directly in charities and social enterprises, and make use of Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR).
Through the fund, Big Society Capital will match crowdfunded investments made by individuals into SITR-eligible charities and social enterprises. It will be the first of its kind to match different investments made by the public across the social sector. Private investors may qualify for the 30% tax break SITR offers a when investing in eligible organisations.
The fund’s launch follows the recent announcement by the Chancellor of an increase in the amount that younger charities and social enterprises can raise through SITR to £1.5 million from April 2017.
Ben Warren, investment associate at Big Society Capital, said:
“This fund marks a totally new approach for social investment and crowdfunding. By bringing together these three partners we want to open up opportunities for the public to invest in a huge variety of causes they feel passionate about.
“We hope that this initiative will help charities and social enterprises find new routes to investment which could offer better value and engagement from their local community. We know that donation-based crowdfunding was the fastest growing model of alternative finance in 2015, and we are excited about the potential for this fund to create similar momentum in the social investment sector.”
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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.