Social funding provider hails record annual investment

● SIS provided £11m for likes of social enterprises ● Helped 1.4m people, up from 1.1m in prior year

Responsible finance provider Social Investment Scotland (SIS) has hailed its record investment of about £11 million in social enterprises, community organisations and mission-driven businesses in the year to March, while it approved roughly £2.5 min loans during lockdown.

The organisation’ s latest social impact report reveals £4.36 min vested in social enterprises and communities, with the remainder injected in supporting the growing sector of responsible lenders and in mission-driven businesses through profit-with-purpose investor SIS Ventures.

Active loans and investments with SIS during 2019/20 totalled more than£28m among 175 social enterprises.

More than 1.4 million peo - ple benefited either directly or indirectly from SIS’ activities, up from 1.1 million in the previous 12 months, benefiting communities across all 32 local authorities in Scotland, and some areas south of the Border.

SIS has also published figures highlighting its support for Scotland’ s social enterprises and third sector at the height of lockdown – between 1 April and the end of June. In that time, SIS provided 800 support interventions for people and organisations from the third sector, approving £2.52m in loan funding through the Third Sector Resilience Fund and supporting 20 of Scotland’s Credit Unions through the Credit Union Resilience Fund.

The organisation also scaled up its market-building activity during 2019/20, designing and managing seven support initiatives, including the retail academy, and 64 workshops, webinars and masterclasses to help communities and social enterprises develop capacity, confidence, and resilience.

SIS chief executive Alastair Davis said: “Over the past 15 months, demand for both finance and support has never been greater among third sector organisations and social enterprises. Like most other sectors within our economy, our customers have found themselves facing considerable challenges during the pandemic to keep their heads above water. However, despite these impacts which are still ongoing, the role of community and social enterprises in responding to the challenges posed by Covid-19 has been nothing short of extra ordi nary. Working with our numerous partners, SIS is now focused on supporting these individuals, organisations and businesses through a recovery period so they can play a vital role in building an impact economy in Scotland, where positive impacts for people and planet come first.”

Meanwhile, Social Enterprise Scotland has launched its Digital Showcase 2020, which will be held on 3 November and looks to “shine a spotlight on the exceptional work of the social enterprise sector through Covid-19”.