John Kingston, Director of Venturesome, awarded OBE in New Year’s Honours

31 December 2009

John KingstonJohn Kingston, Founder Director of Venturesome, the Charities Aid Foundation’s social investment arm, has been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the Voluntary Sector in the New Year’s Honours list. John has been instrumental in creating and developing a social investment market in the UK, and Venturesome’s influence continues to be pivotal.

John Kingston said: “It really is a great privilege to be honoured for work that I love doing and wish to acknowledge the many committed people I’ve been lucky enough to work with over the years.”

After an MBA at Manchester Business School John joined 3i Group plc. He then moved to Save the Children UK in 1990 as Director of Fundraising/Marketing, before joining CAF in 2001. John was Chair of the Institute of Fundraising (2000-2003), Co Founder of the Social Investment Market Group and is currently Chair of the Nationwide Foundation.

In 2001 John created Venturesome to pioneer a new approach to funding third sector organisations, offering bridging finance and development capital to charities, in the form of unsecured loans, underwriting and quasi-equity.

As well as being social investment practioners Venturesome also publish reports and papers on their work and that of the developing market, this includes the influential 2008 paper Financing Civil Society which has helped to create a common language for the UK’s social investment market.

Media contact

George Leigh
Press Officer
T: 03000 123 272
M: 0796 018 2471
E: gleigh@cafonline.org

Notes to editors

  • Venturesome is the Charities Aid Foundation’s social investment fund, launched in 2002. Venturesome provides bridging finance and development capital to charities and social enterprises. To date it has committed more than £12.5 million to over 200 organisations. Venturesome shares its learning from its investment work with the wider social investment market in order to encourage a more efficient use of capital.
  • the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is a charity set up to help other charities by working with donors, companies and charities to encourage and facilitate a culture of giving. They do this by offering products and services that make giving easier, tax efficient and help charities to make the most of donations through their banking and fundraising support services.