Great news at the Board of The Social Investment Business last night!!
The case for Social Investment has been proven. The Futurebuilders Fund has reached capacity!
We are having to close the Futurebuilders Fund to new applicants following huge demand from the third sector for social finance. The Social Investment Business has been receiving £60-90m worth of enquiries over recent months.
The Futurebuilders Fund has confirmed the sector’s appetite for affordable loan financing - even in these challenging economic times. Futurebuilders has shown what can be achieved through social investment.
So the message is: Now it’s time to get cracking and set up The Social Investment Bank and clearly we need more than £75m.
We now have a proven model that can deliver social investment on a large scale, investing for social as well as financial return.
The Social Investment Business wants to see billions more brought into the sector. The SIB will build on this success in attracting money from private as well as public sources, so that we can help more charities supporting communities and individuals most in need.
Through loans, grants and business support, this Government Fund has strengthened hundreds of third sector organisations, including charities and social enterprises. It has built the capacity of organisations large and small, national and community, improving their capacity to deliver public services.
Since the Futurebuilders Fund was established, it has received thousands of applications and made over 370 investments, leading to over 230 public sector contracts worth over £46.2m in the first three quarters of 2009 alone.
So to those who say there is no demand for loans; you're wrong. To those who said we couldn't get the money out of the door into our sector; you're wrong. And to all those whinging about Futurebuilders when we won the contract; Eat your hat!!
And to OTS the message is find us more money to invest. And to HMT fingers out pronto on a Social Investment Bank!
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