Access - The Foundation for Social Investment

Great to see this important milestone in expanding the Dormant Assets Scheme to the investment and wealth management sectors — with pioneering participants Jupiter Asset Management, Janus Henderson Investors, Schroders and J.P. Morgan Asset Management At Access, we’ve seen first-hand how dormant assets can unlock finance for charities and social enterprises, particularly in places and communities that need it most. This next chapter — built on collaboration between industry, government, and the Investment Association — is a huge step towards unlocking meaningful impact at scale. #DormantAssets Department for Culture, Media and Sport

It has been a long journey to secure this next tranche of Dormant Assets to further grow opportunities for community based charities and social enterprises to access the finance and support they need. I am delighted that we have now received final ministerial sign-off and we can get to work at Access in making these funds available for the organisations and communities which need them most. Massive thanks to all the partners who helped to bring this about, including everyone who signed up to the Community Enterprise Growth Plan, not least Impact Investing Institute, Better Society Capital, GSG Impact, NAVCA, Pathway Fund, Power to Change, School for Social Entrepreneurs, Social Enterprise UK, Social Investment Business, Responsible Finance, UnLtd

Access has now opened to funding applications from social investors and intermediaries. This follows confirmation from the Government that £87.5 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme has been allocated to social investment to improve access to finance in underserved places and communities. We will be working closely with partners to deliver on the Dormant Assets Strategy and the aspirations set out in the Community Enterprise Growth Plan (CEGP). This includes £12.5 million earmarked for youth-focused organisations and £12 million of scale-up funding for a Black and Ethnically Minoritised-led social investment fund, the Pathway Fund. Pathway aim to publish the results of their regional consultation later this month and will set out their own plans in November. Access funds social investors and intermediaries, not charities or social enterprises directly. If you are a charity or social enterprise looking for social investment, visit Good Finance. #SocialInvestment #SocialEnterprise #CommunityEnterpriseGrowthPlan #DormantAssets Our Investment Policy, application forms, application guidance and other relevant documents can be found on this page https://lnkd.in/eS5bD4Vi

We are SO excited for Locality Convention 2025! Will you pop by and visit our stand in Liverpool? Learn about the latest best practices and bold new approaches community organisations are using to survive, adapt and thrive. Connect with leaders and policy-makers to make your voice heard. Leave with ideas, skills and practical tools to make a difference where it matters most! 📆 12 and 13 November 2025   📌 Liverpool FC, Anfield Stadium Tickets With just a few weeks to go, tickets are selling fast – book your place here >> https://lnkd.in/eYsUWZ_h #Locality25 #Convention #Community #CommunitySector #VCSE Locality

Too complicated, too niche, doesn’t deliver impact and the sector doesn’t want it.   Those were some of the prompts rehearsed by the Enterprise Grants Taskforce yesterday afternoon (hosted by School for Social Entrepreneurs). Our job was to counter negative perceptions of enterprise grant making held by sceptical funders and foundations.   With clear narrative, evidence, examples, and plenty of data (not to mention a good dose of humour) members of the taskforce debunked them all!   Most organisations in our sector are already trading, and many want to do more. Earning income promotes resilience, independence and empowerment - increasingly priorities for all funders. It's meeting real need in the sector and stimulating demand for other forms of finance.   Enterprise grant making is a method not a cause, so it doesn't mean a change of impact focus. It can be pursued within whatever impact priorities a funder already has - even those where the income model might be hard to see at first (for example last week in Liverpool I met the CEO of an amazingly enterprising legal aid charity).   By stimulating additional income into the organisation and offering the potential for some recycling of grants it's an efficient and more sustainable way to fund the sector.   Foundations adopting an enterprise grants approach haven't needed any new systems or staff, and there's a wealth of good practice and peer support from taskforce members and beyond.   Still need convincing? Come and join a taskforce meeting and see the potential of this powerful funding practice to boost the resilience of your grantees. https://lnkd.in/esSa59rJ

Every four years, the Oversight Trust runs an independent review of the organisations it oversees - including Access - to understand how effectively they’re delivering on their goals and where they can go further. An independent review of Access is now underway. If you’ve worked with Access or have experience of the wider social investment world, the review panel would love to hear from you. Find out more and share your thoughts by 31 October 2025:

🎉 We're excited to welcome James Adeleke (FRSA), CEO of Generation Success, to our panel! James brings deep insight from his social enterprise experience on social mobility, mentorship, and empowering young people – topics that connect powerfully with what we’re discussing at 'The Future of EDI in Social Investment'. We look forward to hosting this event for what promises to be a rich, engaging conversation with sector leaders including: - Patricia Hamzahee OBE FRSA – Black Funding Network - Mark Norbury – UnLtd - Amy Gutcher – Sumerian Foundation - Annelise Sauter – Better Society Capital - And now James Adeleke (FRSA) – Generation Success When: Tuesday 24 September, 4:00‑6:30pm Where: Better Society Capital Our guests can expect a roundtable discussion, actionable ideas, survey insights, and plenty of opportunity to connect with peers. We’d love to hear your views in the comment on what comes next for EDI in social investment. #DiversityForum #SocialInvestment #EDI #Leadership #InclusionMatters #YouthEmpowerment

The Bromley by Bow Centre was the perfect place to mark ten years of Access - The Foundation for Social Investment's work yesterday with friends and partners all working towards a social investment ecosystem which works for community based charities and social enterprises.   Together, over the last ten years we've made huge progress: More than £162m has flowed to 3,300 organisations, a quarter of whom are based in the most deprived 10% of England (and they are among the best and repaying), and almost half don't appear on other funder data sets, showing that blended finance reaches communities other funding doesn't. Dedicated programmes are reaching communities which have for too long been excluded from the finance they need, for example 34% of funds from our flexible finance programme has flowed to black and minoritised communities   Most of all we've seen the power of partnerships. Yesterday we published reflections from ten voices across Access and our partners, telling the wider story of our collective work from the founding vision to the long term future, from the flows of money to the impact on communities, and from the role of mainstream finance to questions of equity and power. Thanks so much to all those who contributed. https://lnkd.in/eb4zTyJ6   While we celebrate what we've achieved we also look to the future. Our work to build the resilience of charities and social enterprises has never been more important as they work to tackle some of the great challenges of our time, not least the emboldenment of intolerance in our communities.   The full spectrum of capital must be there for the organisations who need it in underserved places and communities, supported by a wider range of public, private and philanthropic sources. We need more resilient social investors and greater join up with the wider funding system, especially in support of enterprise. And we need a system which is easier to navigate and better trusted by those it serves.   I was so grateful to have the opportunity to thank so many of the people and organisations who have been part of this journey - too many to mention but not least the founding team who set up Access, the trustees including our founding and current chairs John Kingston and Nick Hurd, the amazing staff team past and present, the organisations who make this work possible Reclaim Fund Ltd, The National Lottery Community Fund, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Oversight Trust, and all the partners delivering finance and support in communities across the country. Thank you.   Here's to the next ten years.