Social Investment Business

Social Investment Business provides finance to create fairer communities and improve people’s lives. They do this by providing the money and support they need directly, partnering to support them effectively and, using their knowledge to inform their own work and influence others.

Since 2004, SIB has deployed and managed over £400m of loans and grants into over 2,000 organisations and enabled almost 1,000 more to get dedicated support through programmes.

SIB has been applying EII principles and strategies across several of its funds and programmes and has focused on being a host to projects with a focus on people and equalities. Our Diverse Ambitions pilot programme provided practical support, knowledge and referrals support to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) charities and social enterprises. We are a partner and grant administrator for Access Foundation’s Enterprise Development Programme, which includes a strand focused on the equality sector. The Covid-19 Community-Led Organisations Recovery Scheme had an emphasis on BAME-led or BAME-supporting community-led organisations.

We have also adapted our impact management framework to include specific questions on equality, both in terms of what our customers are delivering and how they function as organisations. We have carried out a review of internal decision-making processes, resulting in a number of changes to reduce the possibility of bias. Alongside a better understanding of sectors and supported groups, we have made a concerted effort in the last year to collect better data on the diversity of applicants to new SIB funds and programmes. Every emergency fund that we have run since March 2020 has included the same metric on diverse leadership, which we collect at application stage. This has, at long last, enabled us to better understand the reach of SIB-administered funds into minority communities.

To facilitate the broader, enabling conditions for equality within the social investment sector, SIB also hosts EIIP, the Diversity Forum and the Social Investment Forum.