Social finance and ventures

Grow Your Own: How local authorities can support social enterprise

Publication 1 November 2011

Social enterprises have long been established in Britain, providing a range of products and services whilst also delivering social value. In 2011, as a sector, social enterprise was still emerging but attracting more attention – largely driven by public spending

Growing interest? Mapping the market for social finance in the youth sector

Publication 1 August 2011

The 11,000 organisations that comprised the voluntary and community youth sector (VCYS) in 2010 were (and are) under unprecedented pressure. This report considers the potential for social finance to not only address under-capitalisation, but also to grow the capacity and

Social Impact Investment: The opportunity and challenge of Social Impact Bonds

Publication 1 March 2011

The spending squeeze in the UK from 2008 onwards means that there is more interest than ever, both in tools to achieve greater value, and ones that can tap new sources of finance for social goals. Different approaches to investment

Social Impact Bonds in Health

Publication 1 October 2010

Social Impact Bonds are a potentially very powerful instrument for creating change and improvement. This short paper describes the basic structure of social impact bonds, why they might be useful for the public sector, and some of the issues that

Danger and Opportunity

Publication 1 September 2009

Danger and Opportunity – part of a series on methods and issues in social innovation – argues that the most recent economic crisis, and the increased emphasis on social innovation are both merging to create a new social economy that

Social Venturing

Publication 1 July 2009

Social Venturing – part of a series on methods and issues in social innovation – focuses on how to establish and grow a social venture. While there is a long-standing economic and managerial literature on the market economy, and methods

The role of private equity in social and sustainable development

Publication 30 March 2008

This report explores the role private equity and venture capital providers can play in social and sustainable development. The research was used by the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) to provide a detailed analysis of the current state of engagement