Personal giving

From one-off donations to long-term giving, or designing your personal philanthropic strategy, we work together to help you realise your giving ambitions.

DISCOVER OUR PERSONAL GIVING SOLUTIONS

Corporate giving

You have the vision for making a difference. So do we. We help you plan how to give based on your goals.

DISCOVER OUR CORPORATE GIVING SOLUTIONS

Services for charities

Helping your charity or social enterprise become more resilient.

DISCOVER HOW WE SUPPORT CHARITIES

Insights

Discover the latest insights for donors and charitable organisations to help create a greater impact

Explore

About us

We are a leading charity, working at the centre of the giving world. We help donors to give more impactfully and charities to build their resilience so they can do more of their life-changing work.

Find out more about CAF
SERVICES FOR CHARITIES

Social investment for charities and social enterprises

Affordable, repayable finance to grow your social impact

What is social investment?


Social investment is the use of funds to achieve a social return as well as a financial one. We lend to charities and social enterprises from money donated by our generous funders. On repayment, we recycle those funds to help even more social organisations. 

As we’re repaid, we use the same funds to lend to other organisations looking for affordable, flexible finance. This means that one pot of money can benefit many organisations and causes, multiplying the impact of those funds.

Grow your impact - with repayable finance


Through our Venturesome Impact Fund, we provide social investment for purpose driven organisations – charities, social enterprises and community groups – all over the UK. This is in line with our vision for a fair and sustainable future for all.

The fund offers flexible finance options designed to help your social organisation ease cashflow, develop new services or purchase assets – to grow your trading income which plays an important part in sustaining and scaling your social impact.

Affordable, flexible repayment finance

Ease your cashflow, develop new services, build capacity.

No restrictions

Grant funding usually restricts how you use the funds. Social investment doesn’t.

Borrow without putting assets at risk

Most banks look to secure large loans on assets like property. We don’t.

Your repayments help other social organisations

We recycle the money you repay, lending it to other organisations who need our support.

You can diversify your income

Become more resilient and do more good for more people.

Strengthen your operations

Getting ready for social investment can bring more discipline, rigour and transparency to your charity.

The Venturesome Impact Fund


We want all purpose-driven organisations to be able to access affordable, flexible finance – particularly those who may not otherwise be able to access mainstream lending – so they can become stronger and more resilient. That’s why our fund is:


  • Continuously open for applications
  • Cause universal
  • Available to social enterprises and charities across the UK (including those that provide services overseas)

Most of our social investments are unsecured loans. This is often an attractive option for organisations that struggle to access finance from banks due to their lack of assets, such as property, to be used as collateral. In some circumstances, we will offer blended finance packages (part loan/part grant), which can help smaller organisations facing additional pressures. 

We offer between £50,000 and £1 million, with a 5.5%* fixed interest rate that won’t change during the lifetime of the facility. Additional commitment and legal fees apply.

Our flexible investment types include:

  • Unsecured loans
  • Blended finance (part loan/part grant)
  • Standby facilities (a pre-approved loan to draw on if it's needed)
  • Bonds **

Our unrestricted investment can fund:

  • Working capital/cashflow management
  • Delivering products and/or services to new customers
  • Building organisational resilience such as investing in improving impact measurement and reporting, designing and developing products or services, systems and processes, sales and marketing, hiring new staff, and purchasing assets

Typically, our loans are between 3-5 years, but we can increase that up to 10 years under certain circumstances.

*Investments outside of a typical 3-5 year structure and/or without a regular payment schedule may attract a higher interest rate which will be determined on a case by case basis.

**If you are raising a bond to drive your social impact and fit our criteria we would be interested in hearing from you.

 

You may be eligible for social investment if your organisation:

  • Has a clear charitable purpose and social impact. You don’t need to be a registered charity, but we can’t currently accept companies limited by shares unless they have an asset lock, a charitable mission lock accompanied by a dividends and profit sharing policy that restricts unreasonable private benefit. Community interest companies (CIC) limited by shares are eligible.
  • Is incorporated and registered in the UK, but your activities can be anywhere in the world
  • Has been trading for at least one year and can provide evidence either from donations or trading
  • Has a minimum annual turnover of £75,000
 

Through social investment, we are unable to fund:

  • Blended finance for organisations with a turnover of more than £500,000
  • Stand-alone grant funding
  • Refinancing of existing loans
  • Property purchases for organisations with a track record of 3+ years and stable finances. If that sounds like your situation you may wish to explore a secured loan from CAF Bank
  • Loan repayment from grants, where no growth in trading/earned income is demonstrated
  • Charitable organisations that serve the general public but are not able to demonstrate that they are increasing access for underserved groups (e.g. sports clubs, schools and academics institutions, faith organisations)
  • Loans for individuals i.e. PhD stdents and scholarships
 

  • The scale and depth of the impact you can make on people or the environment
  • Evidence that funding will make a difference in the community
  • A plan showing how social investment could help you become more sustainable, create jobs and open up opportunities
  • Evidence of strong governance, an appropriate legal structure, and a sustainable business model to repay the loan
  • Receipt of regular impact and financial reporting whilst the loan is outstanding
  • Demonstrate loan repayments can be made from growing trading income, and so building your organisation’s resilience
 

1. Complete the short enquiry form
2. If you’re eligible, we’ll schedule a call to review loan terms and address any questions
3. We’ll ask you to complete a full application form with further details including a cashflow forecast, management accounts, social impact report, and a business plan (if available)
4. Our due diligence process will include a call with your management and one of your board members
5. The application will be presented to our Impact Committee and we’ll let you know of the outcome
6. If successful, we’ll ask you to complete a background check form
7. We’ll then ask you to sign a legal contract, pay the upfront fees and share your board resolution with us
8. You’ll email us a drawdown request telling us when you would like to receive the investment 
9. You’ll receive the amount requested in your organisation's bank account
The process typically takes 8 weeks from start to finish, but in periods of high volume it may take longer.

 

  • Delivering social impact is not central to your operating model and/or you can't prove that your organisation is solving a social problem. As a social impact investor, investing our donors' philanthropic capital, we need to show our investments are alleviating some of society’s most challenging issues.   
  • Lack of recurring unrestricted surplus. Social investment is best suited to organisations who are growing their trading income.
  • Inability to afford a loan, non-viable income streams or non-mitigable risks. Repayable finance is not always the right funding tool for an organisation. We will use our experience to identify models and teams that can grow using social investment, rather than be encumbered by it.  
  • As a fund open to all impact areas across the UK, we may need to limit the amount of funding to one impact area, geography or structure to ensure the Fund remains viable. These factors will change from time to time and if we decline you on this basis, we will tell you as early as possible.  
 

Ready to apply?


Complete our short enquiry form to start the process. You will need to have ready:


  • Your organisation’s charity or company number
  • How much you are asking for
  • How you plan to use the investment

If you’re eligible, we’ll then send you a further application form to tell us more details about your organisation.

APPLY FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT

Why use social investment from CAF?

Social investment pioneers

We’ve provided social investment since 2002, making us one of the first and most active social investment funds in the UK.

Expert social investor

Our multi-disciplinary team are experts in social investment and here to support you in analysing your organisation, its impact and positioning itself for future growth.

Over £65 million deployed

Since 2002 we have lent more than £65 million to over 500 charities, social enterprises and community groups.

Always open

Our fund is cause universal, continuously open to applications and available for organisations all over the UK, including those with international projects.

“CAF's social investment support has been pivotal to our sustainability and success in making a huge difference to the most isolated communities in Birmingham. Because of CAF, we have been able to make a difference to over 40,000 individuals."


Ray Goodwin, Chief Executive, Spitfire Advice and Support Services

New to repayable finance?

Our Repayable Finance Guide shows how charitable organisations like yours can make the most of borrowing, when and why to take on loans, and what lenders look for in an application.



Download our guide

Talk to us about social investment

We're here to help. Start the conversation to find out if social investment could be right for your organisation.



CONTACT US