Summary
Post explaining how development in social enterprise have supported clients to draw down more than £1m social investment.
We’re celebrating a milestone in our investment readiness work.
By mid 2025 – We’ve now supported clients to access more than £1M (£1,090,000) in repayable/ blended finance. In most cases working with them to strengthen their proposals to achieve investment. As we reach this milestone we have undertaken a review of what has been achieved.
- The investment achieved is mainly debt with some blended (grant) finance and one client also gained equity investment.
- In total there were 10 investors with 5 being mainstream social investors, 2 charities who were new to investment, and 3 partner investors.
- Investment ranged from £30,000 to £150,000.
What’s been achieved?
- We’ve supported 15 VCFSE organisations who were seeking/ exploring social investment.
- Most of our support (13 of the 15) in this area has been funded through the Reach funding.
- Of the 15, **8 (*53%) have secured investment with a total value of just over £1M.
- Of the 15, 6 (*40%) explored the possibilities but ultimately decided investment was not the right route for them.
- Of the 15, 1 (*7%) were unsuccessful with the investor not able to invest because of lease clauses that could not be changed.
- Of the 15, 13 (*87%) gained resources for support through the Reach fund and two (13%) funded it themselves.
Transparency note: *Percentages have been rounded. **The overall National success rate of Reach funded activity is 58% so our rate (53%) is consistent with the National picture.
Impact
- Of those successful the cost of our services was £38,010 (net) meaning for every £1 invested in our work it equated to £28.68** invested
- Of all those organisations supported the cost of our services was £72,251 (net) translating to each £1 spent £15.09** invested
- Of those funded by the Reach (successful or not) fund the cost was £63,911 and those successful gained £790,000 in investment equating to £12.36 per £1 of grant spent***
- The average cost to our clients for our investment readiness support is £4,816.73 (net).
Transparency notes:
**Two of those who achieved investment were supported by our consultants but also engaged other consultants to help them achieve investment.
***The National picture of Reach funded activity equated to £7.37 (November 2021) invested per £1 of grant spent. Of those Organisations that were Reach funded and were only supported by us (without other consultancy involvement) achieved a total of £540,000 in investment making a Reach intervention rate of £8.45.
The figures we’ve quoted are net (that is money we actually earned rather than any tax that was added), reach fund also provide grant to pay for VAT when the VCFSE client is unable to recover VAT. We estimate that VAT from our Reach funded clients who could not recover VAT would have added £7,148 which would make our Reach intervention rate (inclusive) for every £1 that would equate to £7.59 which is much more consistent with the overall National picture of £7.37.
How we can help
Our specialities in terms of social investment readiness are:
- Financial forecasting and modelling
- Financial / management systems
- Market research, analysis and strategy
- Impact measurement and monitoring
- Good Governance
If you are thinking of social investment as a route to increasing your impact/ growing your social enterprise, and need any of the service noted above, then get in touch.