Tagged - Charity Bank

INTERVIEW: With its pilot £25m impact fund, the Church of England is becoming an important player in UK social investing. Vanessa Morphet tells us why it's all about being "catalytic" – and why the church's decentralised structure brings challenges.

PLUS: LeapFrog reaches 5% of low-income population; philanthropists back maternal and child healthcare fund in Asia; BlueOrchard launches financial inclusion fund; and more.

Social investment counts for just 1.4% of all UK business lending. So how can we get mainstream banks to play a much bigger role in the social economy? By changing the incentives – and therefore the culture – of banking, says the Big Issue Invest CEO.

PLUS: Access Foundation's flexible finance grantees; Irish government offers €1m for social enterprise awareness-raising; Key Fund reports £447m 'total impact'; Olio and Oddbox lure investors; Social Finance raises $50m; and more.

Stories are up to 22 times more memorable than facts alone – and in challenging times, it’s particularly important to tell them well, says Sophie Short from Social Enterprise Mark CIC.

PLUS: Social Impact Ventures rebrands and doubles fund size; Save the Children Australia impact fund opens for business; UN’s first outcomes fund; the new $400m 'blank-cheque' sustainability company; and more.

Be patient, flexible and targeted to areas of need: new data from the UK's £142m Futurebuilders England Fund – launched back in 2004 – suggests lessons for what will make future social investment work.

PLUS: Sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis secures €200m investment, new fund to back SMEs addressing malnutrition in Africa, European Social Catalyst Fund launches, Brexit donor sets up £100m charitable foundation, and more.

Last week’s general election returned the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, a heavy defeat for Labour, and an unobstructed path towards taking Britain out of the EU. What now?