Social Venture Intermediaries Fund

NESTA backing for social venture intermediary organisations

Social ventures need practical and relevant professional support, such as advice on innovation, markets, finance and business development, from providers who have a strong understanding of the distinct needs and challenges faced by social ventures. This support comes from the specialist organisations which NESTA term's 'Social Venture Intermediaries' (SVIs).  We're providing back for these intermediaries to help them increase their impact on innovative social enterprises and ventures.

Since the end of January 2011 NESTA has been inviting applications to participate a funded portfolio enabling us to learn more about the support such organisations need and models of intermediary support.  The strong response has demonstrated the breadth of intermediary support bodies and interest among them in finding new ways of helping social ventures grow the scale of their impact.

Applications are now closed and decisions on the portfolio will be announced shortly.

What are SVIs?

SVIs perform a valuable public service role by supporting social ventures to operate more efficiently and commercially increasing the scale of their impact, thereby assisting the development of an increasingly important part of the UK economy - one which is vital to the delivery of public services to end-users.

NESTA believes that the support provided by SVIs is key to ensuring that social ventures have access to the expertise and advice they need. At the same time, we recognise that SVIs themselves face challenges, including the need to upscale and adapt their own operations to respond to the complex needs of social ventures, and the need to increase awareness among social ventures of the potential value to them of the services which they provide.

NESTA's SVI Fund Portfolio

NESTA's Social Venture Intermediaries Fund has been set up to back approximately eight social venture intermediaries within a balanced portfolio, which will allow them to develop and grow their impact.

Three organisations have been selected so far:

• Stepping Out  - Stepping Out is an early stage intermediary business providing expert advice and support to nascent social ventures emerging from public bodies. It supports on helping organisations assess the potential to spin out, negotiate the transfer and then develop during their formative years.
• The Shaftesbury Partnership - The Shaftesbury Partnership is a social business creating innovative new social ventures by identifying social issues and then researching, designing and developing new solutions with a sustainable business model. 
• Impetus Trust - Impetus Trust have pioneered a highly effective model of venture philanthropy across the UK and are now looking to focus on wider system change to create a better environment for their portfolio of supported organisations to flourish. In addition to their general portfolio that invests in charities helping economically disadvantaged people to gain education, skills and jobs, Impetus have two specialist funds that are helping early years and reducing reoffending organisations to scale up.

By working with our portfolio of social venture intermediaries we aim to:

• Help resource further development among SVIs
• Understand the impact of high-quality SVI's on supporting and developing social ventures
• Explore how SVI's can operate on a sustainable basis and the different models that are used to support this

We also anticipate facilitating opportunities for a wider network of intermediaries to come together and share information and learning on how best to support innovative social enterprises and ventures.