Funds & Projects

Our Corporate Social Venturing Programme develops early stage social businesses through investment, business support and cross-sector partnerships. To date, more than 100 corporate mentors have been involved and more than 40 social businesses have benefited from the programme.

Our newly launched Power Up Scotland Programme develops early stage social businesses through investment, business support and cross-sector partnerships. Power Up is open to organisations across Scotland and has made £750,000 available to lend over the next two years. The funding available is to enable organisations to build on the good work they currently do within their communities.

Big Issue Invest offers loan finance between £20,000 to £150,000 to social enterprises and charities in England. This new £5 million lending scheme is aimed at enabling smaller social enterprises to access unsecured loan funding. The loans can be structured to your individual needs.

This is a £10 million fund to finance the provision of new affordable housing in London.  We aim to invest the funds into community organisations, charities and smaller housing associations, helping them to renovate empty homes or buildings and convert them into quality affordable housing for Londoners to rent or part buy. The fund offers loans of between £50,000 and £2 million at competitive rates and flexible terms.

Our first Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF I) launched in 2010, and is now fully committed having invested over £8 million into 21 social enterprises. Its successor Fund, SEIF II, currently supports ambitious social enterprises and charities with sustainable business models looking to grow and extend their social impact. The Fund has £22.5 million available to invest and offers repayable finance of between £250,000 and £3 million for growth, working capital and capital expenditure purposes.

Our Outcomes Investment Fund (OIF) provides finance to charities and social enterprises delivering payment-by-results contracts into the public sector, a growing source of revenue for many social sector organisations. The OIF investment terms are aligned with the contract being financed, including flexible repayment profiles and a variable financial return linked to the success of the contract. BII is an experienced outcomes-based investor and provides support to investees before and after a contract launches.

The Threadneedle UK Social Bond Fund is managed by Columbia Threadneedle Investments with Big Issue Invest acting as the social advisor. Based on this partnership between Big Issue Invest and one of the UK’s leading asset managers, the Fund helps bring social investment to the mainstream. The current Fund size is approximately £100 million.

Employment Opportunities Fund in collaboration with Aberdeen Standard Investments was launched in February 2018. The aim of the Fund is to generate a financial return over the long term by investing in companies which promote and implement good employment opportunities and practices.

We believe that everyone should be treated equally, no matter if you are a tenant or a homeowner. Working with Experian to tackle digital and financial exclusion faced by social housing tenants, The Rental Exchange has the potential to improve the credit score of 3.4 million tenants across the UK by taking social housing tenants’ rental payment experience into consideration when assessing their credit histories. To date, 1.5 million tenants have been engaged.