Access - The Foundation for Social Investment

How social investment helped IndiRock transform an empty unit in Southend's Victoria Shopping Centre into a vibrant community hub, bouldering wall and coffee shop. Sporting Assets INDIROCK

🔋 Want funding for ‘going green’? ✅ Join our FREE webinar! 🤔 If your co‑operative/community biz is considering investing in energy efficiency measures, join us online on WEDS 26 MARCH at 12‑1pm to find out about the Energy Efficiency Sharematch Fund. 🌱 ☀️ The fund provides grant funding to match money raised from community share offers for eco measures such as solar panels, draft proofing and energy efficient vehicles. 🚗 👍 ✍️ Sign up here: https://buff.ly/pY08UvI #Coops #CommunityBusiness #CommunityShares #ComShares #SocialInvestment #Cooperatives #LowCarbon #EcoFriendly #Sustainability #EnvironmentallyFriendly #Green

How can we make sure voluntary, community, and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations have access to suitable social investments? VCSE organisations often struggle to finance their own building energy efficiency upgrades due to limited funds. They also struggle to get loans from traditional lenders like banks, which is why social investment is so important. But social investors don't always understand the barriers for VCSEs and how to use funding most effectively. To address this, CSE has developed a new upskilling programme. Funded by Access - The Foundation for Social Investment, the programme will build more understanding around the challenges facing VCSE organisations. This will lead to important conversations around making funding more accessible, flexible and appropriate for different circumstances 👇 https://lnkd.in/ed4A7nxH

You may have seen the news that Key Fund will take over the management of GMCVO’s social investment funds. This is the culmination of immense efforts over the last few months.   While we would have liked to be able to do more, we are thankful to all those involved for getting this over the line and to our own board of trustees for their flexibility and willingness to work through difficult decisions at pace.   We’re pleased there is now an opportunity to build on the valuable partnerships in place and continue to support charities and social enterprises in the region.

Ever wanted to let politicians understand how vital your business is for society and the economy? Any social enterprise can now fill in Social Enterprise UK’s State of Social Enterprise survey. It’s proved influential over the last 15 years, helping to show the size of the sector, the social value it creates and the contribution it makes to sustainable growth. It’s contributed to policy on social investment and procurement that’s supported the sector grow and created business opportunities for social enterprises. Make sure MPs, investors and other decision makers know how important you are. You can make an impact in less than 20 minutes by filling in the survey today using this link sose2025.co.uk

#Stockport is one of a number of organisations lucky to receive funding from Access - The Foundation for Social Investment to inspire, encourage and support a local Social Economy. Now in it's third year, our #ProperGood support programme for Social Entrepreneurs caters for over 40 organisations. This network of Social Entrepreneurs, all at different stages of their business journey, is continually growing and provides a wealth of knowledge and insight for those starting out, creating a lasting network of support ✨

2024 was a record year for Access - The Foundation for Social Investment. Our latest data shows that blended finance programmes facilitated £30m of finance to flow to community based charities and social enterprises around England.   Our quarterly dashboard continues to be a rich source of insight on our programmes and for the sector as a whole.   - For the first time we are reporting on the energy efficiency programme, tracking the age of community buildings and the retrofit interventions being adopted.   - All our programmes continue to target the most deprived parts of the country but the cost of living programme shows the greatest proportion of funding going to the 10% most deprived communities.   - Reach fund continues to grow its deployment, with volumes over the last six months almost back to pre-pandemic highs. Take a look and let us know what you'd like to see more of - big thanks to all the programme team at Access for producing this especially Yusra Ali. https://lnkd.in/eNfDyQym

Looking forward to two days of a packed agenda at Access - The Foundation for Social Investment conference. Reflecting on 12 months of delivery at LocalAccessBD. Insights, influencing, learning & knowledge exchange all things social investment Impact Hub Bradford Better Society Capital

The Acumen Hardest to Reach Fund is scaling off-grid solar distribution into sub-Saharan Africa’s underserved markets to help achieve universal energy access.   It was great to hear from Sandra Halilovic at the latest Blended Finance Collective breakfast event yesterday. The fund model brings together several innovative uses of subsidy, most crucially to mitigate the FX risks in enabling loans to be made in local currencies. The role of concessional finance in the capital stack, technical assistance and customer revenue subsidies were all highlighted too.   Thanks to members of the Collective who attended who asked such insightful questions. There will be more events throughout the year - see https://lnkd.in/eKCumwqY

We're recruiting new trustees at Access - The Foundation for Social Investment - deadline 2 March. Access supports charities and social enterprise in England through blended finance provision. Having been fortunate to work with the team in multiple ways (currently as trustee) since its inception ten years ago, I cannot recommend this small but mighty outfit enough. Get in touch if you have questions! #trusteeroles #charitysector #socialenterprise #blendedfinance #leadership #socialinvestment