Supporting women in social enterprise
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2023
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Embrace equity”. This theme is particularly important at Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and the focus of our Social Business Impact Programme. A pilot launched last year, this programme provides blended finance and business support to London-based social businesses, led by women of colour. It has also been devised and driven by a team of influential female figures in the social sector.
While equality is about everyone having the same opportunities, equity is about making sure individuals have what they need to be successful. Social investment exists to provide social enterprises and charities with the affordable, repayable finance they need to sustain and grow their social impact. Social enterprises work in every sector of the UK economy with nearly half led by women. This is an environment where gender equity matters.
The events of the last few years have exacerbated many existing social problems, including inequity. The global call to tackle racial injustice has rightly forced many social investors to think more about how they increase their efforts to address these challenges. Minority-led businesses have historically faced challenges in accessing social investment, which has dampened their ability to grow. In fact, Social Enterprise UK found that in 2021 social enterprises were not growing equally – the median turnover for social enterprises led by Black women was £31,900, compared to an overall median turnover of £100,000. Collaborative and sustainable approaches to encourage more diverse thought and experience across the social investment sector is what is needed now and in the future. We have learnt from our existing borrowers and partners that one of the main issues facing social enterprises after the pandemic was access to affordable, flexible finance with unrestricted grants where possible.
In partnership with Hatch Enterprise, in 2020 we began devising a programme to support women social entrepreneurs by offering business support alongside social investment.
An introduction to another woman passionate about supporting social entrepreneurs, Colleen Ebbitt, from JPMorgan Chase Foundation, led to months of talking, planning and designing what would ultimately become the Social Business Impact Programme.
We chose to pilot the programme in London where JPMCF’s focus is.
Ten applicants were chosen to take part in our pilot programme, which ran from September 2022 to February 2023. The programme offered non-financial support from a team of experienced women, including Hatch Enterprise’s Programme Managers, Norvie Dzimega and Tiany Valentine and Anoushka Amin, recruited by Venturesome to manage the Fund. Alongside this, we brought together six women to form an independent and diverse investment committee, each with personal experience of the issues faced by the cohort on the programme.
All this incredible work has led to eight social entrepreneurs successfully applying for blended finance packages (part 0% loan / part grant), providing them with up to £70k to employ more people, grow their social enterprises and generate social impact in their communities.
While the pilot focused on London, we hope that by working with more philanthropic investors who embrace equity, we will be able to roll this out across the UK to enable a more diverse range of social businesses to grow and accelerate their social and environmental impact.
We lead the Venturesome team which is headed up by our Head of Impact & Advisory, Ashling Cashmore. The three of us have a combined 40 years of experience working in social enterprise and social impact finance.
We have been recognised for this work by Pioneers Post in their top 100 Women In Social Enterprise for 2023 (WISE100). We hope to see the social entrepreneurs we have supported on this list in the future and look forward to sharing their journeys to inspire more women to get involved in social enterprise.
Meet our inspirational first cohort:
Paula Bryan - Carers4Carers
Sukai Eccleston - CasildART
Jayni Gudka - Unseen Tours
Thuta Khin - Leiho
Sumera Kidwai - Kidwise
Pinky Miles - Off the Streets Less Heat
Doreen Sinclair-McCollin - Elevated Minds
Tameeka Smith - Trimenco
Jacy Stewart - For Business Sake
Korinna Williams - Shadow to Shine