Traditional grants remain the backbone of how the funding sector supports civil society - but they are not the only tool available, and for many organisations they are not sufficient on their own. This session explores what it looks like to invest in communities and civil society organisations with other forms of investment and what can we learn from those who have been doing it.
Figurative will bring learning from designing and managing social investment funds in arts and culture - exploring how different forms of capital can work together across very different expectations, risk appetites and timelines, and what it takes to make those relationships work in practice. The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) will share findings from a new three-year research project by the Marshall Institute at LSE on Match Trading, SSE's incentive-based enterprise grant model, examining how organisations build commercial capacity over time and what this reveals about the role funders can play in supporting enterprise-led approaches. And The Equality Impact Investing Project will share learning from working across the social finance and equality ecosystems to increase the flow of investment to organisations led by and for marginalised communities.
Together these perspectives open up a practical conversation about what a more joined-up approach to investment in civil society could look like - one that holds space for different tools alongside each other, and that is designed with the needs and realities of organisations at its centre.
This session will be of particular interest if you are exploring how to move beyond grants in your funding practice, are curious about how different forms of capital can work alongside each other, or are thinking about what a more joined-up approach to investment in civil society could look like.