School for Social Entrepreneurs explore how social investment can be used effectively to scale your organisation and the impact it is able to deliver.
Your social enterprise is in good shape. It’s established, sustainable, and supporting the community. Congrats!
But you want more. Now might be time to consider scaling up to increase your social impact.
At the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), we run courses that equip changemakers to start, scale and strengthen organisations that make a positive difference. Our Scale Up programmes are specifically tailored for social entrepreneurs looking to take their organisation to the next level. This step isn’t always necessary – there’s no shame in staying small!
On top of learning support, mentoring, grants and Action Learning, SSE also recommends social investment as a way to scale up. It can be a great way to access the additional finance you need to grow your social enterprise.
Change Please: A fresh shot at life
Change Please supports people experiencing homelessness, helping them secure a living wage job, housing, training and onwards opportunities. “Social investment has been absolutely vital to the continued success and growth of Change Please, helping us to scale both commercially and socially,” says Laurence Higgins, Director of Impact and Fundraising at Change Please.
It has provided finance for them to open new cafés and retail sites - “absolutely key to our ‘jobs-first’ intervention; helping to lift people out of homelessness and into permanent jobs.”
Social investment has also helped Change Please hit their social and commercial goals, while always keeping their social mission front and centre. "Obtaining repayable finance has meant that we had to be laser focussed on ensuring that our product selection, training, marketing and retail management continue to be excellent. We want to continue to ensure excellent customer service and increased revenue."
Miss Macaroon: Baking a brighter future
Rosie Ginday, CEO and founder of Miss Macaroon raised £120,000 of social investment in 2016 to help scale her patisserie social enterprise. The investment was a loan from BCRS and blended match funding from UnLtd through the Big Venture Challenge.
"We were able to develop our first retail space, piloting our flagship Miss Macaroon store and prosecco bar in the Birmingham business district”, Rosie says proudly. “We proved this premium macaroon store as a concept to deliver transformational change, training and jobs programmes for long-term unemployed young people on the autism spectrum, with mental health issues and other multiple and complex needs.”
Miss Macaroon have now repaid the debt finance in full. They even opened their second store and training space in Resorts World Birmingham in 2011. “We're in the process of developing a joint venture to scale our concept and grow our social impact regionally,” explains Rosie.
For those thinking about social investment, Rosie has some sage advice for you: “For those interested in gaining social investment putting a strong business plan together is key.”
To learn more about their social investment journey, check out the Miss Macaroon Case Study.
If you’re looking for more support and advice, check out the Good Finance Is It Right For Us tool, which is a good starting point in exploring whether or not social investment is a step in the right direction for your organisation.