February 2012
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Social Investment Made Simple: New Online Resource
CAF Venturesome is delighted to announce the launch of Social Investment Made Simple - a free online guide to social investment.
Social investment made simple defines the different forms of social investment to help voluntary and community organisations understand what could work for their organisation. It uses case studies to show how charities have used social investment successfully,...
Case Study: CENTRA recycles bridging loan
CAF Venturesome provides bridging loans to charities and social enterprises to help manage fluctuations in their cashflow. Such a facility can be particuarly useful if confirmed income is delayed, or unexpected costs are incurred.
In August 2011, education and training charity CENTRA approached Venturesome for cashflow support. It was forecasting a short-term cashflow shortfall due to...
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Social Investment: Revolution or Bubble?
New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) recently held a roundtable to get to the bottom of whether social investment is a revolution in financing, or a bubble about to burst?
Over 30 delegates, including CAF Venturesome’s Paul Cheng, gathered together to discuss their observations on what direction the social investment market is heading in - and what needs to be done to help get there.
There was...
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Venturesome invests £60,000 into Headliners
Venturesome has provided a £60,000 standby facility to the charity Headliners - through the CAF Social Impact Fund.
Headliners is a charity which inspires and encourages the personal development of young people through journalism. Its mission is to inspire children and young people to investigate and challenge the world around them, enhance their personal development and promote their right to...
January 2012
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Venturesome client Beatbullying awarded £1.3m from...
The Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP, has announced that £1.3 million from The Social Action Fund has been awarded to enable the creation of new not-for-profit organisation, We’re Altogether Better, formed to tackle social issues digitally.
The organisation is run by the team behind the award-winning children’s charity, Beatbullying, which was established in 2002 and has...
Welcome to our new Director
We are delighted to welcome Stephanie Sturrock to the team. Stephanie joined CAF as Director of Social Investment in January. She adds further to the diversity of skills in the team, having been Chief Executive of transformational social enterprise Seachange, and before that Managing Director of the pioneering international social investment organisation Shared Interest. In addition to her...
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Meet the CAF Venturesome team
CAF Venturesome is one of the world’s leading social investment funds. Our team represents a unique and diverse range of individuals. We are privileged to serve our clients - charities, social enterprises, and individual and corporate investors.
(from left to right: Isabel Newman (Investment Analyst), Dharisha Mirando (Investment Analyst), Holly Piper (Investment Manager), Paul Cheng...
Cwm Trannon wins award for best village shop!
Cwm Trannon has been announced as the winner of the 2011 Countryside Alliance Award for ‘best village shop and post office’ in Wales.
Based between the villages of Trefeglwys and Llawr-y-glyn in rural Wales, Cwn Trannon operates a village shop, post office, coffee shop, florist and community facilities. In February 2011, CAF Venturesome provided Cwn Trannon with a loan of...
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Calling all social businesses!
If you are an innovative social business, you can now apply to the Deloitte Social Innovation Pioneers to win a package of support that will help your organisation scale up and become investment ready.
Deloitte is looking to showcase 50 of the most innovative businesses from across the UK, that have a clear and sustainable business model, the ambition to...
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Movers & Shakers!
We’re please to introduce you to a new member of the Venturesome team, Holly Piper, who joins us as an Investment Manager. Holly previously worked at the management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, where she specialised in the retail sector. She has a degree from the University of Cambridge and a Master’s in Political Science and Political Economy from the London School of Economics. ...
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Bedford Creative Arts: A good news story to bring...
With a number of politicians telling us that this year’s going to be a difficult one, we thought we’d lighten things up a little with a success story to see in the New Year.
Bedford Creative Arts (BCA) is a visual arts charity which delivers a varied artistic programme to connect and engage with a wide range of people in Bedford. In 2008, CAF Venturesome provided a £30,000 standby facility to...
December 2011
3 posts
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Need help getting your head around charitable...
Paul Cheng, Head of CAF Venturesome explains all in this article for the BBC here.
Welcome back Katie Mountain!
Welcome back to Katie Mountain who has rejoined the Venturesome team as an Investment Manager having spent the past 18 months teaching in Colombia!
Katie previously worked for Venturesome from 2008 - 2010 and is looking forward to coming back to work on both the Venturesome and Community Land Trust funds.
Great to have you back Katie!
November 2011
5 posts
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Have you seen one of the Venturesome team?
The Venturesome team were out in force last week, attending both the Good Deals and NCVO Sustainable Funding conferences.
At the Good Deals conference Dharisha and Isabel manned our stand in the Marketplace (see pic!), whilst the Head of Venturesome Paul Cheng chaired a panel discussion on what social investors are looking for in their investees.
One of the day’s highlights was an interview with...
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Not one but two Social Investment reports released...
Two reports have been released this week that approach the social investment market from different angles.
The first, ‘Best to borrow? A charity guide social investment’ by NPC, walks charities through what social investment is, whether they should take it on, and five broad scenarios when it may be used.
The guide will be hugely useful to charities wanting to learn more about social...
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Guardian Q&A on charities and social investment
Rob Hodgkinson from CAF Venturesome has just finished his appearance on the Guardian’s Q&A on Charities and Social Investment.
Rob appeared alongside contributors from Allia, Charity Finance Directors Group, New Philanthropy Capital, Investing for Good, Scope, and the Charity Commission to discuss social investment and charities.
Click here to read the Q&A in full!
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Social investment provides councils with an...
A pioneering tie-up between the country’s longest running social investment fund, CAF Venturesome, and Oxford City Council has provided a new charity with the finance necessary to launch in the current climate of funding cuts. The Council has acted as a guarantor to a £115,000 loan that CAF Venturesome has provided to Arts at the Old Fire Station. The funding provides working capital to the...
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CAF Venturesome investee secures major sponsorship...
Congratulations to one of our charity clients, Big Difference Company, for securing a major sponsorship from TV channel Dave!
The Leicester based charity runs the annual Leicester Comedy Festival, as well as delivering arts and comedy to engage communities and deliver key messages throughout the rest of the year.
The charity’s landmark festival, now to be called Dave’s Leicester Comedy...
October 2011
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Scope launches £20m charitable bond
The charity Scope has today launched a new £20m charitable bond programme to generate extra funds for their charitable work. As well as generating a financial return for investors, the bonds will generate a social return through Scope’s work.
Scope is partnering with Investing for Good to deliver the programme which is aimed at trusts, foundations, high net worth individuals and wealth...
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European Investment Fund Confirms €50m Fund
Exciting news from the EU! The European Investment Fund has confirmed the launch of a €50m social investment fund early in 2012.
The fund will make investments in a similar way to Big Society Capital - investing in social investment intermediaries who will then invest in social enterprises. Whilst the goal will not be to maximise profits, we understand that the fund will seek to make a...
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What CC14 means for social investment...
The Charity Commission has launched its updated guidance on how charities can use investments.
Charities And Investment Matters (CC14) clarifies the position around Programme Related Investment (PRI) and Mixed Motive Investment (MMI) for charities.
Essentially, charity trustees can now decide on an investment strategy which explicitly aims at social, rather than mere financial goals,...
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Introducing our new team member!
Venturesome is delighted to welcome Dharisha Mirando! She joins our expanding team as an Investment Analyst - so will be on the front line of making investments in charities and social enterprises.
Dharisha has just completed a Masters in Development Studies at LSE, having previously worked in microfinance in both South Africa and Sri Lanka.
And Dharisha isn’t the only one to be joining...
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Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance - a great...
A great video here from Kiva, the US microfinance experts who have provided over $248m to people around the world in the form of loans.
They’ve mapped out their loans in a video which we’ve embedded below - it’s a great visual representation of the impact they’re having and shows how their model has exploded over the last few years.
Intercontinental Ballistic...
September 2011
6 posts
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Kevin Williams appointed to CAF Venturesome... →
Kevin Williams, Chief Executive of KIDS the disabled children’s charity has been appointed to the CAF Venturesome Investment Committee.
The Investment Committee is responsible for making decisions about which charities and social enterprises we should offer loans to.
We’re excited that for the first time we will have a former client as a member of the Investment Committee. Having...
CAF Venturesome is hiring!
CAF’s award winning social investment team is growing rapidly. We’re looking for an Investment Analyst to join the team. This is an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneurial, numerate individual to forge a career in the social investment market. To see the job description and person specification, please visit CAF’s website. To apply, send your CV and a covering letter to...
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Interview with Casey Lord of CAF Venturesome in... →
A great interview with Casey Lord of CAF Venturesome from the Guardian’s website yesterday! Click above to read more.
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CAF Social Impact Fund investor featured in the...
The largest individual social investor in the UK, Dr Shamil Chandaria, was featured in the Financial Times this weekend discussing his philanthropy.
We’ve told you all about him before! He invested £2.5m in our CAF Social Impact Fund and thanks to his investment we’ll be able to help around 100 charities and invest around £4.8m in them!
His interview asked him a series of questions...
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Venturesome offers more investments than ever!
This month CAF Venturesome offered investment to nine charities, ranging in value from £40k-£160k. No such thing as the summer ‘silly season’ for us, we’ve been busier than ever!
The rise in demand appears to be due to increasing awareness of the opportunities available and greater understanding of the benefits that borrowing money can unlock. This is great news for the sector, as it shows the...
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Who will invest in the new Social Impact Bonds?
In the past week the Government has shown more commitment to using innovative funding models with the announcement of four new Social Impact Bonds. This has made us think about whether the funds raised for the bonds will bring in new capital, or whether investment will come from the same Trusts, Foundations and Philanthropists that are already committed to tackling social problems.
The notion...
August 2011
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The scope for social investment in the youth...
As the dust settles from the riots, society is left to debate the causes of the violence with social exclusion, dysfunctional families, poor policing, the spending cuts are all being blamed by commentators and the media at large.
In the midst of it all, one thing is certain: a number of young people were involved in the violence and criminal activity. Many commentators have pointed to charities...
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The challenge of equity for social investors
A recent piece in Social Enterprise Live on ‘Making equity work in social enterprise’ struck a chord with the CAF Venturesome team, as we are all too aware of the challenges it can entail.
We think that understanding how equity can work for charities and community interest companies is a really important issue that needs to be explored further to help develop the social investment...
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CAF Social Impact Fund receives the UK's single...
Philanthropist, Dr Shamil Chandaria has committed £2.5 million for investment into the recently launched CAF Social Impact Fund from his CAF Charitable Trust, the Ad Astra Trust. It is believed this act of generosity will make him the single, largest individual social investor in the UK.
The CAF Social Impact fund enables individuals to invest their philanthropic capital for a fixed period of...
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CAF Venturesome is hiring!
CAF’s award winning social investment team is looking for an Investment Analyst.
This is an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneurial, numerate individual to forge a career in the social investment market. To see the job description and person specification, please visit CAF’s website.
To apply, send your CV and a covering letter to humanresources@cafonline.org by Friday 19th...
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What can the government do to promote social...
There was an interesting article last week on the Guardian’s Social Enterprise Network by Robert Ashton, which took the form of a wish list to the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, of “10 things the Government could do to promote social enterprise”.
This is quite timely. After the initial flush of excitement about the Big Society Bank (or Big Society Capital (BSC), as we...
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Venturesome investee recycles standby facility in...
Founded twenty years ago, the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) addresses under-reported human rights violations in the Kurdish regions. To date, the organisation has represented and advised on over 500 human rights cases, both challenging cultures and raising awareness of abuses in doing so.
CAF Venturesome first met KHRP in July 2010, when their funding was uncertain due to the ending of...
July 2011
8 posts
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Big Society Capital is a long term project!
It was announced yesterday that the Big Society Bank has changed name to Big Society Capital, with Sir Ronald Cohen as chair and Nick O’Donohoe as chief exec. A good article explaining the details of the announcement is here.
CAF Venturesome particuarly welcomes Ronald’s opinion that it is likely to be a “10-20-year project” for the social investment market to...
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Government proposes £10m Investment and Contract...
On Monday the Minister for Civil Society Nick Hurd released an open letter to the sector on the future of commissioning public services. It announced a £10m fund to support charities and social enterprises improve their chances of winning investment and public service contracts - the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund.
The fund reflects the increasing trend of charities and social...
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Goodbye from John Kingston!
Last week I attended a celebration of CAF Venturesome’s first ten years here in London. It also became a celebration of my time at Venturesome, as I am about to leave for pastures new.
We’ve come a long way in ten years. When we started, social investment was a concept, an idea which we dreamed had huge potential to bring new capital into the charity sector. We knew that social investment...
Venturesome Bridging Loans: A Case Study
In 2009, CAF Venturesome provided a bridging loan to The Andrew Lees Trust (ALT), which runs programmes aimed at empowering local communities in Madagascar. The focus of ALT is on providing social and environmental education and training in some of the most remote communities on the island.
The ALT had secured a grant from the European Council for its community radio and drought mitigation...
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Venturesome attends launch of new research into...
Earlier today we attended the launch of a new piece of research, “Investor Perspectives on Social Enterprise Financing” by ClearlySo, commissioned by City of London Corporation, City Bridge Trust and Big Lottery Fund.
The research seeks to understand how institutional investors perceive engagement in the social investment market, and to identify the key challenges that need to be...
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Cool2Care Crowned SE100 Growth Champion!
Cool2Care is the winner of this year’s RBS SE100 Growth Champion award!
The judges explained that they chose the CAF Venturesome investee because “they were not only growing at a remarkable rate but they also had a clear strategy for growth, sustainability, diversification and investment.”
Read more about what founder Phil Conway had to say about their achievements and plans...
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Venturesome Investees Nominated for Awards!
Two of CAF Venturesome’s investees have been nominated for RBS SE100 Awards, out of a total of 409 social enterprises.
Harehills CIC is one of four organisations t for the RBS SE100 Trailblazing Newcomer award for the start-up with the most impressive mixture of impact and growth; and recent Venturesome investee Cool2Care is amongst three nominees for the RBS SE100 Growth Champion...
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Launch event for the CAF Social Impact Fund
CAF are holding a launch event for the new CAF Social Impact Fund that we announced on our blog last week. The event will provide an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in social investment, explore the different financing options available, and hear further details of our new fund.
We’ll be starting with drinks and nibbles from 5:30pm, with a presentation by Paul Cheng,...
June 2011
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Sheepwash CLT project approaches completion
The first of the innovative Community Land Trust (“CLT”) housing projects to be funded by the CLT Fund is approaching completion and should be occupied in the coming months. The two house development in Sheepwash, Devon, will be completed shortly.
The Sheepwash project accessed development finance from the CLT Fund, which is managed by CAF Venturesome. The aim of the fund is to...
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The CAF Social Impact Fund launches!
We’re delighted to announce the launch of the CAF Social Impact Fund which offers major donors the opportunity to support charities through social investment.
The new fund allows donors, via a CAF Trust, to invest in charities, community groups and social enterprises with greater access to affordable capital.
The Fund will enable CAF Venturesome to support even more organisations, like...
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More information on Venturesome's investments
Check out our updated data page – the part of our blog where we map all the investments we’ve made since 2002, and show some headline statistics about the sort of organisations we’ve helped.
Between January and April 2011 we invested a further £730,000 in charities and social enterprises, including a £150,000 co-investment in Cool2Care.
To access our data just click on the ‘data’ link at the...
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Venturesome speaking today at Action Planning's...
We’re speaking at Action Planning’s conference ‘Generating Earned Income’ at Westminster Hall, London today! If you’re going then read this article first!
The Social Enterprise Truths….
1. Measuring social impact is about improving what you do, not just proving how well it works
2. Choose legal structure after getting clarity on mission, activities,...
May 2011
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Venturesome makes co-investment in Cool2Care →
CAF Venturesome has made a £150,000 investment into Cool2Care, a social enterprise that recruits carers for disabled children. Venturesome’s investment is alongside £200,000 from Big Issue Invest and £150,000 from CAN Breakthrough.
This investment package will enable Cool2Care to scale up its activities, enabling up to 5,000 families to receive one-on-one support, 10,000 additional carers...