Report details how investment has impacted lives

Over a million Scots have benefitted from funding awarded by social investor Social Investment Scotland (SIS) in the past year, according to its annual social impact report.

The report is the result of in-depth research amongst 150 customers comprising social enterprises, charities and community organisations to measure the impact of investment on their social and economic goals.

In total, 2.1 million people have felt the benefit of SIS’s social investment since 2016, underlining the continued growth in demand for social investment from Scotland’s social enterprises, charities and community organisations.

Alastair Davis, Social Investment Scotland’s chief executive, said: “We want to enable organisations to be a sustainable force for good and our annual reports are a way for us to measure how well we’re supporting our customers.

“We are pleased to see that our impact is being felt right across Scotland and most importantly that over a third of beneficiaries are those in the most deprived areas.

“We’re also delighted to report that 50% of our loans are under £50,000, which reflects our commitment to organisations who need smaller loans to achieve their next steps.”

SIS made 43 investments during the year across 31 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, while the impact of these have been felt right across all 32 regions.

The funder also increased its reach to those living in Scotland’s most deprived areas with more than a third (37%) of those benefiting from loans living in geographic areas suffering from poverty, equating to nearly half a million people. Some 16% of beneficiaries live in the 0-5% most deprived areas in Scotland.

Its activity has also had an impact on the jobs sector. Over the past year alone, SIS customers created 405 full-time equivalent jobs, sustained more than 3,522 jobs and generated £158 million in turnover, up £2 million from the year before.