UK: pilots launched to encourage investment

Ed Miliband, UK Minister for the Third Sector, has announced the launch of two £100,000 pilot programmes that will investigate how to encourage private sector investment in social enterprise. The projects will be led by Charity Bank – the UK’s first not-for-profit bank, and Community Innovation UK – an organisation that helps charities diversify their income and creates in-house businesses and social enterprises. The projects will try to establish the scale of demand for private sector investment among social enterprises, and which investors may be willing to accept a mixture of financial and social return on their investment. Malcolm Hayday, Chief Executive of Charity Bank, said: “This funding will enable Charity Bank to investigate the range of financial products that are required by social enterprises and the willingness of potential investors to invest in them.” The findings of the projects – which will run until March 2008 – will be made widely available to inform the social enterprise and broader finance sectors. www.communityinnovation.org.uk www.charitybank.org