The Impact World this Week: 5 December 2025

UK: Just 6% of the total volume of government contacts awarded in the UK from April 2019 to March 2024 went to voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) — representing only 4% of the total value. Those figures come from the Public Procurement through VCSEs report, produced by public sector market intelligence platform Tussell and published by the government last week. The report shows VCSEs earned a total of £80.9bn directly from the public sector – 8% of total public sector spending with private suppliers. Local government awards by far the greatest value and volume of contracts to VCSEs compared to other parts of the public sector – 11,063 contracts worth a combined £11.7bn. The majority (60%) of VCSEs active in the public procurement market are SMEs, yet they earn less of the VCSE market share (27%) compared with larger suppliers. The report analysed Tussell data on government contracts and spending in England, supplemented by a database of suppliers from Social Enterprise UK (SEUK).

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Star and Shadow Cinema in Newcastle hosted a full weekend of films, alongside their neighbours Blank Studios and Flea Circus, who ran open studios and festive shopping events, as part of the UK's Community Business Week 

UK: A Christmas lights switch-on in Gateshead, a climate transition street party in Bristol and live music in Manchester have all been part of Community Business Week, which took place across the UK from 29 November to 5 December. Community businesses in the UK could access a toolkit from organisers Power to Change, which describes itself as a “think-do tank”, to host celebrations of their work and enable people across the country to discover, visit, or support their local community business. Nick Plumb, director of policy and insight at Power to Change, said: “Across the country, we see community businesses breathing life into high streets, offering vital local services, providing good jobs and building places people are proud to call home.”

Spain: Impact investing is growing among foundations in Spain, with 45% of organisations saying they engage in the practice. The foundations were responding to a study carried out by SpainNAB, Fundación AltamarCAM, Esade Center for Social Impact, AEF and DLA Piper, the results of which were launched at an event hosted by DLA Piper on 3 December. Of the 74 foundations that responded to the study, most allocate less than 5% of their budget, while a smaller group has committed more than 30% of their assets to these strategies. But despite the growing interest in impact investing, the study also found significant barriers, including 43% of foundations citing a lack of internal expertise and 31% reporting impact measurement as a challenge. 

• READ MORE: Spain positions itself among world leaders in impact investing

Figure of the Week: AU$3.77m of funding was unlocked for early-stage social enterprises in Australia by the inaugural year of the Catalysing Impact programme. Catalysing Impact is designed to accelerate the growth and impact of Australian purpose-driven businesses focused on climate resilience and inclusion. The initiative is Funded by QBE Foundation, the global insurer’s charitable arm, and delivered by Social Impact Hub, which provides advice, education, mobilising capital and ecosystem building for Australian social enterprises. The 10 enterprises on the Catalysing Impact programme received AU$10,000 participation grants and five enterprises received catalytic grants between AU$50,000 and AU$350,000, designed to unlock additional external investment and expand their impact. Expressions of Interest are now open for the 2026 Catalysing Impact cohort.

Movers and shakers 

• Jane Diplock has been appointed chair of the Supervisory Board of GRI. She is a former chair of IOSCO (the International Organisation of Securities Commissions) and is currently on the board of several organisations including the World Benchmarking Alliance.
• Susan Griffiths will become the new CEO of the Young Foundation in March 2026. She was previously managing director at Social Development Direct, a social enterprise consultancy focused on gender equality, disability and social inclusion. 
• Emily Braid, a career civil servant who is also the director of public service reform and management, is understood to have taken the role of director of the newly created Office for the Impact Economy in the UK. 

In case you missed it 

UK: B Corps in the UK are outperforming other similar businesses in turnover growth, growth funding and resilience. That’s according to the Take 10 report, published last month by B Lab UK to mark the 10-year anniversary of the organisation. The report found that UK SME B Corps saw 20% turnover growth and 11% employee headcount growth between 2024 and 2025. Overall, UK B Corps received a median of £1.5m in growth funding from external investors over the past decade and 93% of B Corps operating in 2020 are still active, according to the study. All those figures represent better performance than averages for all comparable UK businesses, researchers found. The report says the UK B Corp community of over 2,600, the largest in the world, now employs over 200,000 people and has a combined annual turnover of £38bn across 120 different industries; 88% are SMEs, 6% are sole traders and 6% are large businesses (with 250 or more employees).

Global: New energy is being put into the effort to electrify Africa, with UK-based impact investment platform Ethex taking full ownership of its sister investment platform Energise Africa. The deal has been described as a “friendly agreement” with Netherlands-based impact investment platform Lendahand, with whom Ethex co-founded Energise Africa in 2017. Since its launch Energise Africa has enabled thousands of people in the UK to invest over £45m to finance clean and affordable energy access for more than 1m people across Sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 600m people still have no access to grid electricity.