Social Investment

The Homeless Link Social Investment Fund

This fund was created specifically to provide a resource for those working to reduce homelessness in England, and to support those in the sector wishing to explore the prospects that could be unlocked through social investment. The fund aims to: (1) increase the homelessness sector’s knowledge and experience of social investment, (2) and to develop new models for income generation and funding and to improve their long-term financial sustainability of organisations.

Investments

Through the fund we have awarded social investment to 21 organisations and have a portfolio of £1.8million. Investees have received blended finance, with 20% grant funding and 80% loan mix.

The fund has enabled a range of activities from providing supported accommodation for young people to increasing corporate fundraising capacity within an organisation.

Other examples include:

- Handcrafted where funding enabled the purchasing of renovation projects which were completed with the involvement of their services users as part of their employability training programmes

- Doncaster Homeless Youth Project whose project focuses on move on accommodation for young people looking for long term housing solutions.

Interested in Social Investment?

Homeless Link are no longer open to new social investment applications, but please contact us if you would like to hear more about our work or discuss your social investment plans.

Helpful links

Other providers of live funds include:

The Reach Fund is a grant programme that helps charities and social enterprises raise investment: What is the Reach Fund?

Good Finance is a website created to introduce charities and social enterprises to social investment and other finance options available.

Homeless Link Blogs about Social Investment

Can social investment funds create new ways of working?

With grant finance becoming less and less certain, social purpose organisations are having to consider new ways of ensuring they can continue to provide essential support to the most vulnerable members of our community.

Read the blog

Developing opportunities through social investment

Homeless Link’s Social Investment Fund was created to provide a resource for those working to reduce homelessness in England.

Read blog here

Why has Homeless Link set up a Social Investment Fund?

Like many of you, when I first started hearing the term - social investment, my immediate reaction was that this was a way of privatising the voluntary sector.

Read the blog

Useful Resources

Some useful resources for exploring social investment