Social Investment Business named a finalist in the UK Social Enterprise Awards, recognising businesses which are transforming society
Social Investment Business (SIB) has been shortlisted in the UK Social Enterprise Awards, recognising it as one of the leading social enterprises in the country.
SIB is a finalist in the Social Investment Deal of the Year category for their Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund (RRLF). RRLF was a fund for social enterprises and charities who were experiencing disruption to their normal business model as a result of COVID-19. It was established in six weeks in April 2020 to make an existing government scheme (the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) more easily accessible to charities and social enterprises.RRLF was run by Social Investment Business (SIB) with an initial £25m investment and support from Big Society Capital. In August 2020, £4m in grants from Access – The Foundation for Social Investment – was made available alongside loans for organisations in England. SIB was the lender and worked with experienced social investor partners on the design and delivery of the fund: Big Issue Invest, CAF Venturesome, Charity Bank, Resonance, Social Investment Scotland, Social and Sustainable Capital and Wales Council for Voluntary Action. Legal firm Weil provided pro-bono support. RRLF finished with £28m in total funding approved to 77 social enterprises and charities.
Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. There are 100,000 social enterprises in the UK contributing £60bn to the UK economy, each one being set up to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face from homelessness to the climate emergency.
The UK Social Enterprise Awards run by Social Enterprise UK, the national membership body for social enterprises, recognise the nation’s most pioneering social enterprises. Social Investment Business will be joining other shortlisted organisations at the prestigious awards ceremony held at London’s iconic Guildhall on 8 December.
This year the Awards featured two new categories one recognising a Social Enterprise Building Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Justice and the other for the Social Enterprise Team of the Year – a category specifically acknowledging those teams which have demonstrated the strength, passion and resilience so characteristic of the social enterprise sector over an extremely challenging year.
Previous winners have included a company set up to tackle furniture poverty, an IT consultancy employing people with autism and a community energy co-operative – demonstrating just how diverse the social enterprise sector is.
Commenting on being shortlisted, Chief Executive of SIB Nick Temple said:
“We are delighted that we have been shortlisted for the UK Social Enterprise Awards in the Social Investment Deal of the Year category for the Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund.
We simply would not have been able to set up and run the Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund without the support from our investors Big Society Capital and Access, the efforts of the British Business Bank, the expertise of our delivery and referral partners, and the committed efforts of the whole SIB team and Board.
What powered our work on the Fund was the knowledge that social enterprises play such a crucial role providing important services across the country. We need them not only to survive the pandemic and to maintain their provision, but to grow their impact and to lead us in the delivery of a fairer and more equitable recovery. If we have played a small part in helping make that happen, we are extremely proud of that achievement.”
Commenting on the Awards, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook said:
"The UK Social Enterprise Awards are back, bigger and better than ever before. We have had a record number of applications this year, all of which have showcased the strength, dynamism and resilience of the social enterprise community through what’s been an incredibly difficult and uncertain period.
Over the course of the pandemic social enterprises have been going above and beyond the call of duty to support their teams, the individuals, and communities they work with, showing the grit, determination and innovation so inherent to this sector. They’ve been operating directly on the frontline of the crisis, launching new products and pivoting their business models to meet the needs of communities and society as a whole.
The Awards are all about celebrating the achievements of the UK’s social enterprise movement, which is showing us that another way of doing business is possible - one which has never been more important as we look to build back better and address the climate emergency.”