Vision

Social Finance will lay the foundations for a social investment bank as recommended by the Commission on Unclaimed Assets. It will demonstrate the need and potential of this institution, and build the expertise needed to run it, prior to the release of capital from dormant accounts.

The Commission’s aim was to maximise the social impact of the release of dormant account funds. It made the following observations:

• Social needs in Britain have become diverse and in places acute. Many social problems are multi-faceted, affecting broad populations but with elements that are localised and need solutions tailored to particular communities.
• The third sector’s range of interventions, activities and experience with marginalised communities means it is ideally positioned to respond to these diverse and acute social needs.
• The third sector’s ability to respond effectively is inhibited by the way that it is currently financed. Grants are expensive to raise and tend to be restricted to funding current service provision. This leaves little finance available for organisations to adapt, change and invest in their workforce or infrastructure.

Social Finance’s ambition is to transform the ability of the third sector to respond to society’s changing needs by enabling greater access to a variety of investment instruments. We are building a pioneering organisation to develop financial products that marry the needs of investors and the sector, support organisations in their efforts to deploy and raise capital, and research social investment markets and opportunities.