Social Enterprise Funding

Power to Change is a charitable trust that funds and champions community businesses in England — enterprises owned and run by local people to benefit their community. It provides development grants, trading grants, and organisational development support to community pubs, shops, transport schemes, and other community-owned enterprises. Grants range from a few thousand pounds for development work to several hundred thousand for capital projects.

Access Foundation (formerly the Access: Blended Finance initiative) provides grants and unsecured loans to charities and social enterprises that are not yet ready for commercial social investment but are beyond pure grant dependency. Its Social Enterprise Support Fund (run during and after the pandemic) demonstrated its ability to deploy rapid, flexible finance. Access works through a network of social investment intermediaries across the UK.

Social investment is repayable finance — loans, quasi-equity, or revenue-based finance — provided to social enterprises and charities on terms that reflect their social mission. Unlike grants, social investment must be repaid, but it is available at lower cost and with more flexibility than commercial lending.

Big Society Capital is the UK's social investment wholesaler, channelling capital into social investment intermediaries such as Resonance, Charity Bank, CAF Venturesome, and Social Investment Scotland. These intermediaries lend directly to social enterprises, often for periods of 3–10 years. Social impact bonds and outcome-based commissioning are more complex forms of social investment relevant to larger organisations delivering public services.

The legal structure of your social enterprise significantly affects what funding you can access. Charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) and companies limited by guarantee with charitable objects can access charitable grant funding but are restricted in distributing profit. Community Interest Companies (CICs) have a community interest statement and asset lock but are not charities, making them eligible for business grants while also demonstrating social purpose to social funders.

Many social enterprises choose a hybrid model with a charitable parent and a CIC or trading subsidiary. This allows the charity to receive restricted charitable grants while the trading subsidiary generates commercial income. The choice of legal form should be driven by your funding strategy and operating model — seek advice from Social Enterprise UK or a specialist solicitor before incorporating.

Beyond grants, social enterprises can access social investment — loans and equity from investors who accept below-market returns in exchange for social impact. Key providers include Big Society Capital (the UK's largest social impact investor), Social Investment Business, Resonance, and local community development finance institutions (CDFIs). Social investment is particularly useful for enterprises that generate revenue but need patient capital for growth.

Blended finance combines grant funding with repayable investment. For example, Power to Change offers community business loans of £50,000–£300,000 alongside capacity-building grants. The Social Enterprise Support Fund (run by DCMS) has provided development grants to help social enterprises build their investment readiness. UnLtd awards for social entrepreneurs range from £500 (Try It) to £15,000 (Do It) and £50,000+ (Grow It), combining finance with mentoring and pro bono support.

Social enterprises that are also registered charities must prepare their accounts in accordance with the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP), issued jointly by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The SORP sets out how income, expenditure, assets, and liabilities should be presented in trustees' annual reports and financial statements. Correct SORP compliance is a condition of charitable registration and is increasingly required by grant funders who ask for a copy of your most recent accounts.

Under the SORP, charitable income is presented as either restricted (funds that must be used for a specific purpose specified by the donor or funder) or unrestricted (funds available for general charitable purposes). Grant income is almost always restricted. Managing restricted and unrestricted funds in separate ledgers — or at minimum with clear cost codes — prevents the serious error of spending restricted grant money on general costs, which constitutes a breach of the grant condition and must be reported to the Charity Commission as a serious incident.

The Charity Commission requires registered charities to file a trustees' annual report and accounts each year. Charities with income above £25,000 must file online; those above £250,000 require independent examination; those with income exceeding £1 million or gross assets over £3.26 million require a full statutory audit. Late filing results in automatic late marks visible to potential funders who search the register. Keeping your filings up to date is a simple credibility signal that costs nothing but time. For CICs (which are not charities), equivalent annual returns are filed with the CIC Regulator at Companies House.

Social enterprises with mixed charitable and trading income — for example, a CIC trading arm alongside a charitable parent — should take specialist accounting advice to ensure that gift aid, cross-subsidies, and shared costs are handled correctly. HMRC scrutinises arrangements where a profitable trading subsidiary is used to fund charitable activities, and the rules around charitable trading subsidiaries making gift aid donations upward to the parent charity require careful management.