The Impact World This Week: 15 May 2025

UK: A £1.5m pilot hopes to create what it believes will be the country's first Black-led female-founded social investment fund, with the ultimate aim of getting more funding to diverse social enterprises. Beyond Barriers is a six-year social investment pilot which aims to support Black and global majority-led community enterprises. It’s a response to the flaws in the UK’s social investment market identified by the Adebowale Commission in 2022, which pointed out that funding wasn’t reaching black and minority social entrepreneurs. The pilot is funded by Trust for London, City Bridge Foundation and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and it will offer patient, flexible catalytic capital alongside skills support. What’s more, impact investor Sumerian Foundation will support BUD Leaders, a Black-led organisation, founded by Georgina Wilson (pictured), to become a social investor so that it can identify, support and fund minority-led enterprises. 

• Read more: UK social investment making ‘slow and disappointing progress’ in meeting social entrepreneurs’ needs – Adebowale  

Global: Impact investing academic and adviser Aunnie Patton Power announced the launch this week of the Innovative Finance Initiative, which she describes as a “bold, five-year effort to scale what works and unlock what’s next in the world of innovative finance”. Patton Power is the founding director and the organisation is funded by The ImPact (a network of families focused on impact investing) alongside the MacArthur Foundation, the Blue Haven Initiative and others.

UK: Impact wealth manager Tribe Impact Capital has acquired impact fund Snowball, it revealed this week. Snowball was created in 2016 by James Perry, co-founder of socially responsible ready meal business Cook and one of the instigators of the B Corp movement in the UK, alongside Alexander Hoare of Hoares Bank, the Panahpur trust and others, with the aim of achieving both impact and financial returns. Both are B Corps. Tribe chair David Scott said: “By bringing a respected name like Snowball into Tribe, we expand our reach in private markets and reinforce our commitment to move money in support of the UN SDGs.” 

• Read more about Snowball’s journey: Sorting the sustainable from the spin: who's the 'real deal' on impact investing?

Australia: The first loan issued by Australia’s Social Enterprise Loan Fund (SELF) has been awarded to alternative education social enterprise ShoreTrack. The AUS$200,000 loan assisted ShoreTrack with the purchase of a permanent property, enabling it to expand its programme. Launched in March 2025, SELF is the first dedicated loan fund for social enterprises in Australia that create employment pathways. The fund offers flexible loans of $100,000 to $500,000, with interest rates starting from 6.5% and terms of up to seven years. Over the life of the fund, it’s expected to support between 12 and 20 social enterprises, creating over 200 jobs for people facing barriers to employment.

Global: It's time to grab a box of popcorn and find a comfy seat as B Lab and BBC StoryWorks release a new film series about purpose-driven business leaders from around the world. The 21-part online Common Good series (link not available for UK viewers) visits 14 countries to tell the stories of the impact B Corps are making, including an entrepreneur in the Sahel desert protecting dairy farmers’ livelihoods while bringing their products to the city, the tea-makers brewing biodiversity in Guatemala by encouraging cardamom farmers to plant in the local forest and the beekeeper in Greece creating resilient hives with help of a forward-thinking cosmetics company. BBC StoryWorks is the BBC’s commercial arm and the content has been paid for.