Melanie Mills believes it is essential for trustees to Get Informed about social finance
We all know that knowledge is power. From the many choices we make in our personal lives to critical decisions at work, knowledge helps us to achieve the best outcomes possible.
This is why Big Society Capital has launched the Get Informed – Social Investment for Boards campaign. We wanted to provide charity trustees and social enterprise non-executive directors with the essential knowledge they need to make informed decisions on social investment and support their social missions, after all we are all volunteers.
Why now?
The funding landscape for charities and social enterprises is changing and more are exploring social investment (repayable social finance) as an alternative tool to finance their organisations. Get Informed was a response to feedback. Time and time again, the executive teams of charities and social enterprises and social investors tell us of deals which have fallen through because the board wasn’t engaged early enough or that they couldn’t access appropriate information on social investment to share with their board.
We knew that in order to address this, we needed to provide board members with readily available resources and practical support to enable them to better understand the opportunities and risks, including the opportunity to have a free mentor with experience of social investment for additional guidance. Recognising the crucial need in this area, the following great organisations already working with trustees and non-executive directors jumped on board to help us: Trustees Unlimited, Reach Volunteering, CASS Centre for Charity Excellence, Association of Chairs, Honorary Treasurer’s Forum and the Charity Commission.
Knowledge is best imparted through shared experiences and peer learning is one of the most valuable and trusted sources of information for social enterprises and charities. From conversations around the dinner table to chats on the phone, we appreciate hearing stories from our peers especially those who have been before us.
Get Informed features our faces – board members who have already experienced and explored social investment. From a £50,000 loan into a Scottish community enterprise to a £2m charity bond for a national disability charity, there are a range of stories offering different perspectives. Most importantly, these are not the polished sales version, but stories that share the ups and the downs of the journey they have been on.
Time to GET INFORMED
“Taking on social investment has been challenging, but valuable as it has required us to review our business strategy and financial discipline,” said Roger Goodyear, co-chair of Portsoy Community Enterprise in Aberdeenshire
While Alice Maynard, formerly chair of Scope, said: “If you don’t at least actively consider it, you are kind of selling your beneficiaries short”.
Social investment is one more tool to help social enterprises and charities with a trading or contract income to generate impact but you’ll only know if you get informed.
Sign up to the Get Informed – Social Investment for Boards campaign now.
Melanie Mills is Social Sector Engagement Director at Big Society Capital
