Stakeholders explain the role of Big Society Capital:
“BSC will enable us to use the power of social entrepreneurship to deal with social issues”.
Big Society Capital is an independent financial institution. We were established to develop and shape a sustainable social investment market in the UK. This gives organisations tackling major social issues access to new sources of finance to help them thrive and grow.
We invest in social investment finance intermediaries (SIFIs).These are organisations that provide appropriate and affordable finance and support to social sector organisations that are tackling some of our most intractable social problems.
Social sector organisations are driven by a social purpose, rather than the pursuit of profit. These include charities, social enterprises, voluntary and community organisations, cooperatives and mutuals.
SIFIs connect socially motivated investors with social sector organisations that need finance. This allows social sector organisations to grow and increase their impact.
We invest directly in SIFIs rather than in social sector organisations. We believe that by supporting SIFIs to grow and become more sustainable, they will be able to bring millions more in investment into the social sector than we could bring alone. This means that over the long term, the social sector will have access to reliable sources of appropriate and affordable finance.
A strong, diverse, well-capitalised and sustainable social investment market in the UK, through which social sector organisations can access appropriate and affordable finance and support to grow their impact on society.
To have a transformative impact on the social investment market in the UK by supporting social investment finance intermediaries to become financially robust and able to:
Attract greater and more diverse sources of investment;
Effectively and efficiently channel appropriate and affordable capital to the social sector; and
Provide effective financial and business support services to the social sector.
To increase awareness of and confidence in social investment by:
Promoting best practice and sharing information;
Improving links between the social investment and mainstream financial markets;
Working with other investors to embed social impact assessment into the investment decision-making process.
Further details are available in our Vision, mission and activities document.