Social Enterprise
Finance
BUSINESS INFORMATION AND SUPPORT
Business
Link
Web:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
Tel:
0845 600 9006
Since
April 2003, Business Link, the national business advice service
offering support and advice to small businesses, has been required
to include support for social enterprises in their business plans.
This website provides straightforward information for business,
access to a wide network of business support organisations and
includes a directory of sources of finance.
GRANT
FINANCE
Below
are some links to organisations that may be able to provide this
type of support.
Local
Government
It
is always a good idea to approach your local government to see
what funds may be available to assist your social enterprise.
Regional
Funding
Web:
www.dti.gov.uk/regions/index.htm
A considerable proportion of funding is now
distributed at a regional level.
Information on the regions, including links to all the
Government offices’, Regional Development Agencies’ and
Devolved Administrations’ websites can be found at the link
above.
Central
Government Funding
Web:
www.governmentfunding.org.uk
This site is dedicated to giving the voluntary and
community sectors access to grants from various central government
departments.
Charitable
Trusts and Foundations
Some charitable trusts or foundations provide
finance for social enterprises, the following websites assist
organisations in finding grant funding – Directory of Social
Change (www.dsc.org.uk)
and Funding Information (www.fundinginformation.org).
Examples of trusts that have supported social
enterprises in the past are the Esmee Fairbairn Trust
(www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk),
the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust and UnLtd – the Foundation
for Social Entrepreneurs (www.unltd.org.uk).
LOAN
FINANCE
A
variety of loan finance options are available to social
enterprises: from banks and building societies, community
development finance institutions and other organisations being
supported by Government to provide new forms of ‘patient
capital’ finance. Below
are some helpful links on this topic.
Adventure
Capital Fund
Web:
www.lif.org.uk
The Adventure Capital Fund (ACF) was launched in December 2002 with the aim of
delivering a new form of long-term investment into community
enterprises. This is a unique partnership between three government
departments, several Regional Development Agencies and leading
players in the field of social and economic regeneration, all of
whom are dedicated to the development of long-term sustainability
of community-based enterprises in areas where traditional market
forces fail to apply.
Charity
Bank
Web:
www.charitybank.org
Tel: 01732 520029
A charity that can accept deposits that earn social as
well as financial returns and a not-for-profit bank, whose sole
business is providing affordable finance for charity work.
Community
Development Finance Association
Web:
www.cdfa.org.uk
Tel: 020 7430 0222
The
Community Development Finance Association (CDFA) is the UK trade association for community
development finance institutions (CDFIs). CDFIs provide finance
(most often in the form of loans or equity) to individuals,
businesses and organisations that find it difficult to access
finance from the formal banking sector. The CDFA's
website includes a comprehensive member directory including those
who specialise in providing finance for social enterprises. Each
directory entry gives details of the CDFI, the products it offers
and how to get in touch with them directly.
Futurebuilders
Web:
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/
Following
the publication of the cross cutting review of the role of the
voluntary sector in public service delivery on 10 September 2002,
the Treasury is taking the lead, in partnership with the VCS, in
setting up a new one-off three-year investment fund –
futurebuilders - worth £125 million. The fund has been
established to help voluntary and community sector organisations
to overcome obstacles to effective service delivery, to modernise
the service delivery part of the sector for the long term, and to
increase the scale and scope of VCS service delivery.
NCVO
Sustainable Funding Project
Web:
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/Asp/search/microsites/main.
aspx?siteID=3&sID=27
Encourages
and enables voluntary and community organisations to explore a
full range of funding options, in particular generating income
from trading goods and services.
UK
Social Investment Forum
Web:
www.uksif.org
Tel: 01732 520029
The
UK’s membership network for socially responsible investment.
UKSIF’s website includes a comprehensive member directory
including contact details for banks and building societies such as
Barclays, the Co-operative Bank, HBOS, Lloyds TSB, Natwest,
Triodos and Unity Trust Bank which provide finance for social
enterprises.
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