Tag Archives: social business

The landscape and economic impact of Social Investment

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The nature of the Social Investment market, a snapshot in 2013
Growing the Social Investment Market in the UK…

The Cabinet Office, in July 2013, have just made widely available a City of London report which looks at the size, nature, depth and effectiveness of the current Social Investment market.

Growing the Social Investment Market shows that In 2011/12 the Social Investment market market surpassed the £200m mark in value for the first time, showing growth of almost 25% in a year. The report strongly evidences the social good that can result from this market growth.

‘The report also shows that there is...evidence of greater coverage of the English regions and Devolved Administrations, which both reinforce London’s concentrated presence in the sector, but still highlights other growth within the UK. There is however, heavy concentration among lenders, with seven SIFIs (Social Investment Finance Intermediaries) providing 90% of social investment capital – and an increasing proportion of this is secured lending’.

Download a pdf copy of the report here...

Some key findings in the report:

  • In 2011/12 the UK social investment market grew by almost a quarter from 2010/11 to £202m through 765 deals.
  • Of the 29 SIFIs actively investing in 2011/12, four large social banks and nine large SIFIs (Social Investment Finance Intermediaries) investing greater than £1m accounted for 97% of the market by value.
  • The volume and value of deals reveals the social investment market was highly concentrated in a relatively small number of SIFIs in 2011/12.
  • There is evidence of greater coverage of the English regions and Devolved Administrations, which both reinforces London’s presence and highlights other developing areas within the UK. This indicates substantial diversity in the geography, sector and social outcomes of investments. 
  • There has been an increase in secured lending as a proportion of the total market value, from 84% in 2010/11 to 90% in 2011/12, making this the predominant lending form. Nevertheless, a greater diversity of social investment products was on offer in 2011/12.
  • The majority of SIFIs (89% of respondents) expected to increase their investments in social ventures over the next two to three years.

Annexe 3 of the document illustrates how wide the research area was geographically.

A positive report, outlining the economic and social impact that Social Investment can drive forward. The blank space in the report, however, is perhaps how to strengthen and widen the role of SIFI’s in the regions. Thereby connecting the regional and local social initiatives on the ground, even closer to innovative, social and effective funding mechanisms.

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A great example of the coming Social Finance paradigm shift to the regions can be found on the web pages of Social Incubator North. You can read more about SEEM’s involvement in the work on our  Press and Media page here.

The main home page of SEEM is here.

 

 

80,000 hours – how will you spend it?

Enterprise Start-ups, Social Business News, Social Finance, , , , , , ,

80,000 Hours is a website that features a team of Oxford graduates/undergraduates as they develop choices, of career, of lifestyle and direction of travel towards the social economy, or not.

The number of hours represent the average spent by professionals in the course of their working lives. Being committed to social business and enterprise, that not only fosters ethical, equal and fraternal business activity, should be a clear and distinct choice mapped against the drivers of our sector.

This short film, below, offers the 80,000 Hours view of students and graduates and how a commitment to the social economy has changed their life. In the 80k Hours model, pursuit of social outcome and a triple bottom line for your start-up are not two mutually exclusive ambitions.

In the East Midlands should the option to develop a Social Business model, regardless of sector start-up choice, be a readily available and well informed choice? We think so. Oxford cannot be the only centre of academe where social mores and ethical sustainability of enterprise will resonate.

The choice of Social Business as a paradigm for success should be an obvious career pathway in mainstream post-academic life. But these choices are not without conflict. The 80k Hours philosophy has, so far, been intimately linked to the Earning to Give model.You can see another short film and an explicatory narrative about Earning to Give on these 80k Hours web pages.

High paying careers in traditional business sectors, where wealth creation is shared with good causes, may seem an ideal solution to well educated graduates. However, if the core giving is funding by non-ethical, non-inclusive, non-sustainable activity, like arguments about carbon- offset, where is the real benefit to be found?

You can see a well argued case for and against the Earning to Give model on the LessWrong community blog here…

Rather the whole embrace of the Social Business sector, where values, community support and sustainability are embedded in the delivery of surplus generation – we would argue, should be the best model.

Lets start a movement to encourage tertiary education institutions, undergraduates and graduates in our region, to actively consider Social Business frameworks as an imaginative, viable and wholly satisfying career choice. Delivering the third sector on steroids in fact, across the next two generations of enterprise activity.

This project may even be fundable?

Do we need more steak holders?

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Creating steak holders?
Creating steak holders?

Kitchenette , an innovative ‘kitchen incubator’ resource in London, have recently produced a report for Nesta highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls of developing catering enterprise. How to best to support and fund innovation in the sector?

A Steak in the Economy offers insights into how important catering and hospitality is, but the work Kitchenette does perhaps also highlights how under-nourished the imagination of the sector can be in developing new ideas and approaches to food entrepreneurship.

Download the report in pdf format here…

The data evidenced in the report shows how perilous sustainability can be in the hospitality sector. The very high cost of retail property and high street outlets, combined with high levels of staff churn and shifting tastes in traditional market segments, means the five year survival rate for food based enterprise is dismally low in the U.K.

However, amidst the weight of tradition, this author would argue, continue some fantastic opportunities for a new, lightweight, agile and responsive approach.

Filling the local empty retail space with a pop-up cafe or restaurant? Read the case studies in the report to see how establishing ‘the minimum viable product’, a technology start-up concept, can help deliver innovation.

The report stresses the importance of social media in developing reputation, a customer base and as a lever in scaling enterprise. If everybody is a critic (…we have all eaten the greatest burger or falafel…)  use the technology to turn this to business advantage. Share the great reports of good food delivered with everyone.

When we network we like to eat and drink together. Low capital cost entry into a sector should be counterbalanced by an imaginative customer proposition. Food can be a binding agent across communities in a local social centre. Food can be a creative output for a young team, seeking confidence and skills as they explore the world and their own capabilities.

A while ago The Guardian ran a series of lengthy articles on the emergent USA street food movement. No lack of enterprise or quality was evident in the outlets reviewed.

Quality, food safety standards and a crisp, potent and telling business pitch are a given, whichever entry route to market the entrepreneurial spirit takes. Here’s to embracing the Kitchenette concept and to seeing social finance help create more steak holders!

 

 

Mind the Gap – financially speaking

Social Business News, Social Finance, , , , ,
Falling between the finance cracks - a social solution
Falling between the finance cracks – a social solution

Dr. Nick Henry and Philip Craig are the authors of this report which examines the evidence around the need for community finance initiatives – Mind the Finance Gap.

Mind-the-Finance-Gap-summary-report available here/pdf format

Funded by The Royal Bank of Scotland and in association with the CDFA the report examines finance demand from social and business sectors which fall outside the consideration of mainstream banking  services.

These groups may be businesses and entrepreneurs, they may be civil society organisations with a wide social remit, including social enterprises or charities. They can also include individuals with unsteady regular income or homeowners with a need for financial support for renovations, for example.

In 2011, the big banks made £75 billion of loans to small and medium enterprises. Between September 2011 and August 2012 banks and building societies combined provided £7 billion of overdrafts and loans and £137 billion of credit card lending to individuals . For those businesses, organisations, individuals and homeowners that cannot access mainstream finance such as that described above,  

This report estimates current potential annual demand for community finance in the UK (excluding the Green Deal) is at some £5.45 – 6.75 billion. In contrast, in 2012, community finance organisations delivered an estimated £0.7 billion of community finance to UK businesses, civil society organisations, individuals and homeowners. Community finance investments generate a wide range of economic and social benefits (especially within the most disadvantaged and excluded communities of the UK) – and which meet a wide range of Government policy objectives.

Community finance organisations, if capitalised to do so, have the potential to generate sustainable economic development and social well being at the heart of UK communities. Currently, the majority of potential economic and social benefits are being lost to UK economy and society.

You can access a full copy of the report in pdf format here.

Welcome to Mining the SEEM

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Your news and views
Your news and views

This is a new venture for us, as part of our changes this year. Our journal is intended to be a collaboration, a place that you can feature your successes, thoughts and latest updates from the world of social business and community enterprise.

Each month we will publish a keynote article from one of our members, exploring a key social business issue in a little more depth. But every day we will always have the latest news and views from our membership across the region.

As a SEEM Patron Member to send us content, we love content, see our how can you contribute page. You can leave a comment on any news item on our main journal page, or send us your updates, press releases or service developments.

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Joining SEEM?

You can become a Patron Member of SEEM. The application form and more details are available on the Join Us page of the Seem main web site. Read more here…

Take part in the debate, have your details and activities featured in our Members Directory and get our regular updates too. Send us an article or KeyNote for our journal and we will add your energy and contribution to the durable record of Social Finance development in the UK that we are creating.

Ethical business with a social dimension...
Ethical business with a social dimension…