Big Issue Invest announces launch of Impact Loans England

New investment programme managed by Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue

Impact Loans England programme is funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment and is designed to help charities and social enterprises

Big Issue Invest has launched Impact Loans England, a new £5 million lending scheme aimed at enabling social enterprises to access loan funding of between £20,000 and £150,000. The programme is funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, with finance being provided by its partners Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.

The Impact Loans England programme is now available to organisations across England with the £5 million to lend over the next three years. The funding is available to organisations keen to do more of the good work they do – whether it’s buying equipment, hiring new talent, or progressing with business development plans.

Daniel Wilson-Dodd, Head of Lending at Big Issue Invest says, “A lot of great organisations struggle to access small and medium-sized loans, so we wanted to provide support for those exciting social enterprises and charities.”

One of the first organisations to take advantage of the new finance scheme is MTCIC, a community Interest company, that provide counselling and mental health therapies to the population of East Anglia. It also provides training learning and development opportunities for individuals wanting employment within the field of wellbeing and mental health.

“This loan has given us the opportunity to develop our business plan to providing digital online services. It will enable us to expand our workforce so that we are better placed to work collaboratively with partner organisations, not only with social enterprises and charities, but with the private and statutory sector too. This offers MTCIC the security to build for the future.” says Sue Jay MBE, Managing Director at MTCIC.

The Impact Loans England programme is a continuation of what Big Issue Invest has been doing over the past few years in other schemes aimed at helping social enterprises grow, often by accessing finance for the very first time.

Big Issue Invest anticipates the popularity of this programme and is planning to deliver a deal a week for the first six months after launch. Applications for Impact Loans England are now open. Visit bigissueinvest.com or email impactloansengland@bigissueinvest.com. A Twitter Q&A with @BigIssueInvest will be held in February, using the tag #ADealAWeek.