Greetings from Berlin where most folks are celebrating “Pan European Day of Indolence” while we’re still producing SIB News (and its sister “Exchange Invest”). Today in SIB News: Trans-Atlantic views today from Colorado and the UK on pertinent topics, happy reading…
Bennet: Enterprise, Partners Win $250,000 Grant To Support Denver Pay-for-Success Initiative To Reduce Homelessness
Real Estate Rama
Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced that Enterprise Community Partners, along with Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) and Social Impact Solutions, has won a $250,000 grant to advance a pay-for-success initiative to reduce chronic homelessness in Denver. The competitive grant from Nonprofit Finance Fund is funded by the Corporation for National and Community Services Social Innovation Fund. Denver’s Housing to Health Initiative will provide housing to 300 chronically homeless people with serious primary and behavioral health challenges. It is part of Mayor Michael B. Hancock’s comprehensive plan to reduce chronic homelessness in the metro area.
Retail Charity Bonds: Catalysing Investment Culture Shift
Ellie Ward – Pioneers Post
Ellie Ward talks to Allia’s Phil Caroe about retail charity bonds – the social investment machine that’s opening up impact investment opportunities to LSE regulars who want to use their money for social good.
Earlier this month £27m was raised in just 17 days to provide a housing association in the south east of England with the finance it needs to support some of the most vulnerable members of society.
In July last year, £11m was raised in under two weeks for a different charity that provides secure housing for people with learning difficulties.
The figures speak for themselves and it’s clear that in less than 12 months, the financial innovation that has made this all possible – retail charity bonds – have firmly made their mark on the UK social investment market.
Social Investment: The Best Big Idea (Since The Last One)
Dan Corry – Public Finance
Social investment has been hyped as the solution to myriad problems. And there’s much to recommend it—but the new government should steer clear of the over-excited rhetoric
Five years ago, ‘the Big Society’ was central to the Conservatives’ pitch for power. But it collapsed almost immediately on coming into contact with the tough realities of government.
The project’s vaguely defined intention was to inspire communities into coming up with their own sustainable solutions to local problems; but the charities and social enterprises expected to lead this work were suddenly staring down the barrel of funding cuts, especially from local authorities. Many of the groups heralded as potential ambassadors for the Big Society became, swiftly and unsurprisingly, deeply sceptical about it. The only surprise is that the project is back again, re-appearing as a headline in the 2015 Tory manifesto—albeit buried away in the middle of the document.
As these trials and tribulations grabbed the headlines, ministers and aides were busily promoting another grand idea for the charity sector. Social investment was unveiled to wonks and policy-makers as the new dawn of finance for charities and other non-profits. Among this group, the hype was turned up high.
This idea may have more longevity. But if the strongest advocates for social investment want to see it develop to the full, they may find the accompanying excitement more a hindrance than a help.
Such excitement hasn’t been hard to find. According to ministers and their key advisors, we were going to see an explosion of finance that moved away from the musty world of boring, old-fashioned fundraising from rich philanthropists, or ordinary folk putting their shilling in the collecting tin. Instead dynamic, private-like loan finance would be the funding of choice. The language of the city and of private equity, about risk and return, would all come into the scene.
The godfather of social investment, Sir Ronald Cohen, spoke of us being in the ‘early days of a social revolution’ and about the ‘First $trillion’. Iain Duncan Smith said ‘we cannot underestimate the difference social investment could make’, while at the G8 summit on Impact Investing David Cameron talked about the power of impact investing to ‘tackle the most difficult social problems…problems that have frustrated government after government, country after country, generation after generation.’ And he gave out generous tax breaks to enable that – even while the national debt soared.