Make a bigger difference with your charitable funds

Are you looking to make an impact with your charitable giving ? We can help. Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is a registered charity that’s been connecting donors to the charitable causes that matter to them for 90 years.

Our CAF Charitable Trust offers a smart, simple, tax effective way to plan your charitable giving and get started with social investment, so you can make a difference.

                                
                                            

Achieve more impact with social investment

Since 2002, CAF Venturesome - our social investment arm - has made over 500 social investments, totalling £40m, to charities and social enterprises. We've been supported by 100 funders who have used their philanthropic capital to achieve both a social and financial return.

By working with us, you can be part of something truly transformational. We use your money to make loans to charities in need of short-term capital. When they repay us, we loan this money to another charity, and another, maximising the social impact of your money.
Find out how you can support social investment with the CAF Charitable Trust.  

Help charities go further

CAF Venturesome is proud to have achieved 500 social investments. This has given a lifeline to hundreds of charities and social enterprises across a multitude of causes including children, housing, disability, health, housing and education. Just some of the charities we have helped are:

• Local Food Links – a social enterprise which provides health meals to schoolchildren in Dorset 
• Hubbub – an environmental social enterprise which CAF Venturesome supported to help fuel people's passion for ethical fashion
• Headliners – a charity providing journalism training to young people who are isolated at risk of exclusion, people with disabilities and those who have been in care

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Celebrate 500 social investments

To celebrate our 500th social investment, we recently hosted an event which brought together our supporters, partners as well as the charities and social enterprises that we have helped. Read more about the event in our blog.

We were privileged to hear from Caroline Mason, Chief Executive of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of our funders, sharing her inspirational experience on valuing social impact and embracing risk when embarking upon social investment.

“If you’re thinking of getting involved with social investment, the starting point would be to really think about the kind of things you care about and the change you want to make.” Caroline Mason, Chief Executive, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Caroline Morgan, Chief Executive of Local Food Links, also talked passionately about how social investment from CAF Venturesome has helped them double the number of healthy meals served to local primary schoolchildren.

“Local Food Links is extremely grateful to CAF Venturesome for providing the loan which enabled our organisation to grow and continue working with all of our schools, as well as taking on some new ones.” Caroline Morgan, Chief Executive, Local Food Links

Keynote speakers at our event. From left to right: Holly Piper, Head of CAF Venturesome; Caroline Morgan, Chief Executive, Local Food Links; Caroline Mason, Chief Executive, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Become a social investor

Social investment with the CAF Charitable Trust can help you make a bigger difference to many causes around the world, from reading classes for vulnerable children in Africa to increasing healthy school meals and building much needed affordable housing in the UK.