Charities and social enterprises
Get investment for a new project and generate momentum towards the future you want to see.
Create self-sustaining, long-term impact
The future of our region will be defined by organisations like yours. We provide repayable finance that unlocks new possibilities for areas such as:
- Housing
- Economic inclusion
- Environmental
- Transformation
- Community resilience
- Health & wellbeing
You don’t need to be stuck for finance
For charities and social enterprises, grants are usually the first choice of funding. But when you’re looking to create momentum for a new project, ideas can get stuck in a short-term cycle of applications and momentary windfalls.
There’s another way. We’ve seen people break free from these limitations with carefully designed loans. We create these by listening closely to your ambitions and finding ways to support you that go beyond finance.
How our investment might work for you
Drawing on our 75 years of combined experience, charities and social enterprises have been able to take on loans with confidence and move their projects forward.
Build long-term and sustainable impact
We’ll work with you to design a loan that keeps the demands of your organisation in mind and a financial structure that works for you over the long term.
Pursue your vision and execute on it
We tailor our loans to bring your ambitions to life, and then we’ll stay active as financial partners, helping you make your vision happen.
Find new supporters and partners
We’ll connect you with our regional networks, creating introductions and finding ways to expand your base of mission-aligned customers, suppliers and supporters.
Get the tools and insight you need
We’ll guide you through the investment process, providing you with a mix of regional, commercial and impact insight that other lenders might not have.
What kind of investment is available?
The exact figure we can offer will depend on the project type as well as the experience of your leadership team. As for the terms, we design these on a case-by-case basis to give you optimum support and the best chance of long-term success.
Our mission is to support businesses that might not otherwise gain support. That means that some of these investments will be early stage and as a result, some investments might not work out as hoped.
We undertake due diligence to ensure we are able to proceed with investment and we work closely with the potential investees throughout the process.
Who is our investment for?
If you decide you would like us to invest in your business plan, we’d love to hear about:
- Your sound business idea, strategy and model
- Your measurable impact
- Your capacity to deliver on your idea
- Your commitment to the region
- Your readiness to take on repayable finance
We have a fairly simple process, common to most investors:
Stage 1: Onboarding
We send you an Introduction Form in which you tell us all about your organisation and your proposal. If we agree that you are in alignment with us, and we can potentially invest, we progress to the next Step. Note that in addition to the basics noted above, we will only invest if you have proven revenue streams for your proposal.
Stage 2: Leadership, Staff & Business Plan
This is where we ask for a lot of information, getting into the nitty-gritty of your proposal and your organisation. We strongly prefer teams of more than one director. We look for experience, good governance, skillsets and leadership in executing your proposal. You will need to show us Annual Accounts, Management Accounts, Business Plan (or detailed Pitch Deck), Financial Model, any legal permissions you need, market research, any sales contracts, invoicing etc., or any other information we request which supports the proposal.
Stage 3: Independent review (Investment Advisory Committee)
Our Bristol-based panel takes a very close look at your proposal through the lens of the investment paper that our team write for them as a distillation of Stage 2. If they agree with our team that investment is a good idea, we progress to the next stage; if not, we can go back to Step 2. They may also request amendments or special conditions.
Stage 4: Independent decision
(FCA Approval): This is where we seek final approval for the proposal. By this time, we believe it is fully shaped for investment; however, the Financial Conduct Authority investment committee have the final say.
Stage 5: Investment Offer and Legals
If Stage 4 produced an approval, we will issue Heads of Terms and start drawing up the legal agreements. There is usually some negotiation at this stage, and fulfilment of any preconditions.
Stage 6: Drawdown
of the investment agreed in Stage 5 comes last and you launch into delivering on your proposal; we ask for reporting as time goes on, telling us periodic financial and impact information. We stay in touch as your investment partner.
Enterprise Development and Investment Support
We’re partners in the Bristol Local Access Programme providing development support and investment to enterprises coming from or working with communities experiencing inequality in Bristol.
We connect: Our network
We find natural alignments between businesses, projects and our regional network and uncover opportunities for partnership and multiplied impact.
