Social Enterprises Need Corporate Support

SENCS (Social Enterprises Need Corporate Support) is a collaboration between the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) and Legal & General. The aim of the project is to create a model that links large businesses and their employees with local social enterprises through a community investment model.

Website:  www.cafonline.org

The model will see local Social Enterprise Funds being set up and managed by multi-stakeholder Investment Committees. The committees will include a mix of Legal & General employees, CAF and representatives from local bodies, charities and enterprise partnerships. The Investment Committees will select and support the investments in local social enterprises. The aim is to increase levels of giving and support. This can be a combination of social investment, employee engagement and mentoring.

CAF and Legal & General have specific expertise and influence in the areas of community investment, social investment and supply chains. They want to bring new approaches to these areas: community re-investment, early stage social investment, open supply chains.

Legal & General will make available £50,000 annually for equity investment and, should the proof of concept be successful, the team hope to raise equity funding from multiple businesses and employees in the future.

The aim is to test the model in Brighton and Hove before rolling it out nationally.

The Award:  CAF and Legal & General have been awarded £65,000 for the SENCS project.  This is to build and test the new investment and employee engagement model in Brighton and Hove and also to fund expert social enterprise consultants for the social enterprises.

Contacts

•   jgill@cafonline.org
•  frances.borrer@landg.com