Investing in Social Enterprise

Social enterprise has developed from the need to improve the provision of socially important goods and services and from the awareness that social problems cannot be solved soley by traditional not-for-profit and philanthropic approaches.

Download the Investing in Social Enterprise report (PDF 0.84Mb)

The UK social enterprise sector is growing. On some estimates there are 62,000 social enterprises, accounting for 5% of all businesses with employees and contributing £24bn per annum to the UK economy. In the post-credit-crisis environment the need for a properly funded social enterprise sector is greater than ever.

This report for the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, supported by NESTA, explores the existing tax incentive schemes for enterprise and their applicability to social enterprises. This provides an invaluable manual for policymakers, entrepreneurs and their backers.

Published
May 2010

Author
Vince Heaney
Additional research by Katie Hill