GOOD DEALS
the first national social investment conference
6 May 2008
LSO St Lukes, 161 Old Street, London EC1V 9NG
Investors
Match Maker sessions: throughout lunch we will be holding speed - dating between investors and investee, in the Crypt of LSO St Lukes.
This will be a major opportunity for social enterprises and charities to meet a wide range of funders, investors, business angels and support organisations to discuss their investment opportunities
RBS Group - main sponsors of Good Deals
At RBS Group, we are continually looking for ways in which we can contribute
better to the communities that we operate in. Our Community Banking team
is at the heart of our activities with a particular focus on people, places
and organisations.
For us, this is about assisting disadvantaged people and communities into
the economic mainstream and helping deprived neighbourhoods become more
enterprising. We are focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs to realise
their dreams of starting up in business.
We also give help and advice to not-for-profit organisations that are often at the heart of efforts to build stronger communities, we realise that these organisations are themselves working to become more enterprising.
We strongly believe social enterprises are an important contributor to the
growth and regeneration of local communities. It is not easy we know, to
set up and run a business - even more so, a social enterprise. They challenge
the accepted ways of doing things. It’Äôs not that they set out to be awkward,
but having discovered better, more suitable ways to tackle some of the most
pressing social, economic and environmental issues facing us today, it’Äôs
hard to accept the status quo.
By focusing our activities on these areas, the Community Banking team is
able to show that by working together, the private, public and third sector
can make a real and lasting difference to the lives of people in some of
our poorest communities.
London Rebuilding Society - kindly sponsoring the evening drinks reception
London Rebuilding Society (LRS) provides loan finance and business support
to social and ethical enterprises and not-for-profit organisations. We also
lend to private limited companies that have a social, ethical or environmental
purpose. Loans are generally from £5,000 to £50,000. We can also arrange
larger packages by working with high street banks, grant-funders, and other
social lenders; a loan from LRS, which views risk and security differently
from many investors, often acts to lever in other funding. Loans can be
for any period up to 10 years; rates of interest are from 7 to 12% depending
on risk and need.
Founded to benefit London's communities, LRS is itself a social enterprise,
an exempt charity Industrial and Provident Society, and an autonomous organisation
controlled by its member-shareholders. LRS’Äô relationship lending philosophy
means that it offers support to potential borrowers in the preparation of
their investment proposals, often from a very early stage in their development.
LRS has also created an innovative scheme for helping house-owners unable
to afford essential repairs to their property. This scheme was initially
piloted in the London Borough of Newham, and has now been extended to other
boroughs in East London.
Triodos Bank
Triodos Bank is a fully licensed, commercial bank using money to finance positive change. Triodos lends exclusively to organisations with social, environmental and cultural objectives. Rather than avoiding negative activities, Triodos Bank actively finances enterprises pursuing positive goals.
Triodos is the only social bank to offer integrated business and investment
banking services to charities and social enterprises. These include competitive
current, deposit accounts and loans as well as capital raising services
and investing venture capital.
We won't sell you products you don't need. Instead our rates, charges and
terms and conditions are competitive, transparent and up-front. Triodos
Bank will work with you to find the best solutions to your banking needs,
without compromising your values.
Call 0500 008 720 or visit www.triodos.co.uk
for more information.
Unity Trust Bank
As a specialist bank for charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises, Unity Trust Bank is dedicated to providing the right banking solution for you, enabling you to concentrate on delivering on your goals. Our strength lies in our understanding of and providing services to meet the needs of our customers in the social economy.
We can provide the full range of banking services from day-to-day banking
to specialist loan finance and grant bridging loans. With a commitment to
providing market-leading customer service, we work in partnership with a
wide variety of organisations in the social economy to help underpin their
long term development aims.
Rathbone Greenbank Investments
Rathbone Greenbank Investments provides a personal and professional ethical investment service for those who want their investments to take account of their environmental, social and ethical concerns. We work with private individuals, trusts, charities, pension funds and their professional advisers.
Importantly, Rathbone Greenbank Investments only manages ethical and responsible
investments. Understanding and interpreting environmental, social and ethical
issues is integral to our business. We work with over 500 clients and look
after in excess of £350 million in assets. Our team has been at the forefront
of ethical and responsible investment since 1992, and launched one of the
UK’Äôs first tailored ethical portfolio services.
Venturesome
Venturesome is a social investment fund, a CAF initiative launched in 2002.
We provide advice and capital investment to charities and other social purpose
organisations.
Since outset, we have:
- Piloted and promoted an investment model in which financial risk is balanced
against potential social impact
- Helped individual organisations with their capital funding needs
- Helped build a social investment market place, in which capital is used
more efficiently
To date, we have invested over £10m in 150 organisations. In doing so, we
have gained a reputation for customer service, and were recognised as Britain's
Most Innovative Charity in 2007. We learn from our practical work and capture
that learning, sharing it with the wider market in order to encourage greater
access to capital investment.
Big Issue Invest
Big Issue Invest is a specialised provider of finance to social enterprises. Part of The Big Issue group of companies founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick, it is led by social entrepreneurs and staffed by experienced financiers. Big Issue Invest is a social enterprise, with an asset lock and any dividends paid to The Big Issue.
Social Entrepreneurs say that they like dealing with a unique financial
organisation that has had first hand experience of building and running
social businesses.
Big Issue Invest's Board is made up of a unique combination of social entrepreneurs,
practitioners and financiers. Our Board and partners bring together a wealth
of experience, innovation and success.
Big Issue Invest can creatively analyse social enterprises, and is prepared
to think beyond the traditional measures of company accounts and asset valuations,
to design financial solutions suitable to the enterprise.
We provide loan finance, either cash flow or asset backed senior debt, as
well as a cocktail of financial structures that include royalties, loan
conversion and guarantees. The average size of Big Issue Invest's loans
is around £200,000. The minimum loan size is £50,000.
For social enterprises bidding on public sector contracts, we have a Contract
Finance Fund which provides off balance sheet contract finance up to £8,000,000.
We will soon be launching a Social Enterprise Venture Fund to provide risk
capital to scalable social enterprises.
We are also developing an Alternative Credit Scoring Index to help increase
access to mainstream credit for up to 2,000,000 low-income consumers.
Unltd Ventures
UnLtd Ventures provides consultancy support to a number of outstanding social
entrepreneurs, helping them to scale up or replicate their organisations.
The individuals who we work with have already established themselves as
successful social entrepreneurs, either through our Level 1 and 2 Awards
or independently of UnLtd.
What UnLtd Ventures provides is the support and structures that will help
them to grow local initiatives into robust and sustainable organisations,
through scaling or replicating geographically or reaching out to different
groups in the community. This includes providing advice on strategy development,
business and financial planning and management, replication models, organisational
structure and governance, as well as access to an exclusive group of industry
specialists and mentors.
We provide this support through our own in-house team of business consultants
and experienced practitioners, as well as through partnerships with external
providers of specialist services.
UnLtd Ventures recognises that a lack of financing often holds back early-stage
social enterprises from growing to scale and achieving their full potential.
We act as a broker between our clients and providers of a range of different
types of funding, as well as directly providing early stage development
finance to some of our clients.
Futurebuilders
Futurebuilders England is a £215 million government-backed fund offering loans-based investment packages to third sector (not-for-profit) organisations who are delivering, or would like to deliver, public services.
Established in 2004, Futurebuilders offers a combination of loans, grants
and professional support to help build the capacity of third sector organisations
to deliver better public services across all areas of public service delivery.
The majority of applicants have never borrowed before, so Futurebuilders
provides sustained, flexible and individual support to ensure investees
have the right financial, managerial and governance structures to take on
loans and successfully compete for contracts in the public sector.
As of 1 April 2008 Futurebuilders England has been under the management
of the Adventure Capital Fund.
www.futurebuilders-england.org.uk
Ashoka
Ashoka is the global association of the world’Äôs leading social entrepreneurs’Äîmen
and women with system changing solutions for the world’Äôs most urgent social
problems. Since 1981, Ashoka has
elected over 1,800 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing
them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global
network of peers in 65 countries.
Cooperatives UK
From The Old Crown pub to the Phone Co-op, from Westmill Energy Co-operative to Fordhall Farm and to a raft of village and community shops: all these have used Industrial and Provident Society legislation to raise significant sums of money and empower and engage their member owners.
Since 2005 there has been a doubling in the number of community investment
initiatives which have used IPS legislation to offer their communities the
opportunity to invest in share capital. Community investment is about people
investing their savings in community projects. More than £47 million has
been invested by over 65,000 people.
IPS legislation has a number of unique features not available to Community
Interest Companies (CICs) or charities, which makes it a highly appropriate
vehicle for establishing and developing sustainable community-led enterprises.
These features are neither well known, nor well understood, by those promoting
and developing social enterprises.
Jim Brown of Baker Brown Associates, commissioned by CooperativesUK to write
a study of this growing phenomenon, explains how it’Äôs done, the options
available and answers your queries.
Co-operative Fund
The Co-operative Fund is funded solely by the Co-operative Group and serves
as its primary co-operative development and support mechanism.
The aims of the Co-operative Fund are to:
’Ä¢ Promote, support and develop co-operative solutions and co-operative enterprises
’Ä¢ Expand the co-operative movement
’Ä¢ Promote the co-operative advantage and demonstrate its relevance in the
UK today
Funding streams
The funding of projects follows a strategic approach based on four funding
streams which are:’Ä¢ Start ups
’Ä¢ Co-operative solutions
’Ä¢ Promotion of co-operation
’Ä¢ Co-operative support structures
Sturgeon Ventures
Since its incorporation in 1998, Sturgeon Ventures (Sturgeon Ventures LLP), a British investment management company, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has consistently been one of the leading players in the incubation of young companies in the United Kingdom. Sturgeon Ventures LLP Partners are Seonaid Mackenzie and Charles Murray
The Wellness Fund I LP is being set up by Sturgeon Ventures LLP to seek
long term capital appreciation by making growth equity investments into
private companies, as well as investments into publicly traded companies
on smaller public exchanges in the UK and Europe that will provide growth
and expansion capital to emerging companies in the Wellness Industry. The
fund is seeking to raise a total of £50m with a first close of £20m.
Equity Plus
Equity Plus provides finance brokerage services to the social enterprise sector and has recently launched ’ÄòSEAN’Äô ’Äì the Social Enterprise Angel Network. This is a network of business angels pursuing a blended value approach to investment, seeking financial return and social impact. Operating across the UK, the Equity Plus team also provides investment-readiness consultancy and can undertake corporate finance work to structure investments with a range of finance providers, mixing debt, equity and other forms of finance. Equity Plus has recently delivered an action research project on equity finance in the social enterprise sector funded by the Office of the Third Sector.
For more information please see www.equityplus.org.uk or call the Equity Plus team on 020 7234 3625.