Business School

CASE, the Co-operative and Social Enterprise Development Agency in Leicester, hosted a session to explore the next steps for impact investing in Leicestershire – the ‘host’ county for this edition of The Gathering. In particular, the discussion considered why the county is currently a ‘cold spot’ for social investment and how repayable finance, public money and philanthropic funding can be maximised to help achieve social change for the people of Leicester and Leicestershire.

With the chaos caused by the 2008 financial crash paired with continuing development in finance technology, more people have been moving away from traditional savings markets to explore how they can become investors. This session explored this shift towards “democratisation” through a range of different social investment platforms and initiatives. 

How can we make social investment more accessible to a diverse client base? The Encouraging New Voices session shone a spotlight on a number of initiatives addressing a lack of diversity in the social investment sector. The Diversity Forum, Voice4Change, Dartington Hall Trust and Hatch shared their perspectives on what needs to be done to move the sector closer to solving this issue. 

At a time of austerity in public services, there is an even stronger case to work collaboratively. How can we get local authorities to buy into what we do as investors? Who are the commissioners enabling positive change and what can we learn from them or do to support them?

What can social investors do to help develop a pipeline of social investment-ready social enterprises and community businesses?

Equity investment in UK social enterprises is rare. But a 100-year-old trust set up by a chocolate entrepreneur appears to have made a breakthrough that could be a model for others to follow.

Hiring your first employee? Or managing a team – and realise you haven’t taken time yet to put sound HR processes in place? Consult our checklist to get up to speed. 

Schools might get great academic results, but are they producing socially responsible young people? Pilar Balet gives an insight into a project being developed by Jesuit schools in Catalonia and the techniques used to measure its impact.