18th October 2018 - Nesta has today launched its latest impact investment fund to help arts, cultural and creative organisations in England to achieve social impact and improve their resilience. The £3.7 million Cultural Impact Development Fund will provide risk-taking, ambitious organisations in the arts, culture and creative industries sector with between £25,000 and £150,000 in repayable finance and support to articulate, monitor and evaluate their social impact.

The Fund will also pioneer the use of financial incentives to help organisations in the investment portfolio achieve their social impact targets. Organisations will be able to get a reduction in the headline interest rate for loans with terms between two and five years by successfully evidencing they have achieved their social impact goals.

The programme is managed by Nesta and funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, with finance being provided by its partners Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.

It follows the success of the Arts Impact Fund - a £7 million fund backed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Nesta, Arts Council England and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - which has made 22 unsecured loans of £150,000-£600,000 over the past three years.

The Arts Impact Fund has supported various organisations across England to increase their ability to generate positive social impact. It is helping The Old Courts arts centre in Wigan to create a new arts hub, which will provide dedicated working space for artists and early-stage entrepreneurs in the digital creative industries, and give local residents a new performance venue to enjoy. Another example includes supporting social enterprise Project INC to open new learning centres in the North West for young people who are struggling to engage with education. These will be based in existing arts and heritage organisations, and aim to improve attendance and educational outcomes as well as personal and social skills through creative learning.

The investment committee for the new Cultural Impact Development Fund includes Marcel Baettig, Chief Executive Officer at Bow Arts Trust, Kieron Boyle, CEO at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity (Chair), Helen Goulden, Chief Executive Officer at The Young Foundation, and Fran Sanderson, Director of Arts & Culture Investments and Programmes at Nesta.

A recent March 2018 survey(1) of 1,068 arts and cultural organisations, commissioned by Nesta, highlighted the demand for repayable finance to support the sector. It revealed that organisations are set to seek an aggregated £309 million over the next five years. Demand for small-scale finance was especially strong, with 41 per cent of respondents indicating that they would be looking for less than £150,000.

Fran Sanderson, Director of Arts & Culture Investments and Programmes at Nesta and on behalf of the Cultural Impact Development Fund, said: “We are really excited to have this opportunity to partner with Access to address the gap in the market for smaller loans that we could clearly see whilst managing the Arts Impact Fund. We hope we’ll be able to help smaller organisations all over the country use this patient capital to drive revenue generation and compound their impact - we believe fervently in the power of arts, culture and creativity to engage and empower even the most marginalised in society, and the passion of organisations working in the sector to drive positive change for individuals, communities and wider society.”

Andrew Gnaneswaran, Access Foundation said: “We are pleased to be supporting the Cultural Impact Development Fund and working in partnership with Nesta to provide this much needed access to finance for the arts and culture sector to build resilience and be able to sustain and deliver impact. The Growth Fund as a whole is already showing the power of blended finance to meet the finance needs of smaller charities and social enterprises, with average investments of £66k into over 160 borrowers, with a median turnover of £250k.”

The fund will have a three year deployment period commencing October 2018, with the final loans expected to be repaid by July 2026. To apply to the Cultural Impact Development Fund or find out more information, please visit: www.artsculturefinance.org

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For media enquiries and interview requests please contact Anna Zabow in Nesta’s press office on 020 7438 2697 or [email protected]

Notes to Editors

1. Nesta and mtm (2018), ‘Repayable finance in the arts and cultural sector’
2. Fran Sanderson, Director of Arts & Culture Programmes and Investments at Nesta and on behalf of the Cultural Impact Development Fund is available for interview.

About Nesta

Nesta is a global innovation foundation. We back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time, making use of our knowledge, networks, funding and skills. We work in partnership with others, including governments, businesses and charities. We are a UK charity that works all over the world, supported by a financial endowment. To find out more visit www.nesta.org.uk

Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833.

Access

Access – The Foundation for Social Investment exists to bridge the gap between charities and social enterprises and social investors. Access does this through two main programmes: the Growth Fund which blends grant from Big Lottery Fund and loan from Big Society Capital and is focused on enabling the provision of the simple and affordable investment products that charities and social enterprises tell us they need; and the capacity building programme, which provides charities and social enterprises with the support they need to get ready to take on investment.

Website: www.access-socialinvestment.org.uk

Twitter: @si_access

Phone: 020 7084 6833

Big Lottery Fund

Big Lottery Fund uses money raised by National Lottery players to help communities achieve their ambitions. From small, local projects to UK-wide initiatives, its funding brings people together to make a difference to their health, wellbeing and environment. Since June 2004 it has awarded £9 billion to projects that improve the lives of millions of people.

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Big Society Capital

• Big Society Capital’s aim is to improve the lives of people in the UK by connecting investment to charities and social enterprises that are creating social change. We do this by bringing together our investment capital (up to £600 million), our expertise (team of 40) and our network of partners.
• We want to make it easier for more people and organisations to use social investment and to access the wide range of funds that are now available. To deepen our impact also work with partners to focus our efforts on areas where social investment can make the biggest difference. The current themes are: providing homes for people in need; supporting communities to improve lives; and early action to prevent problems.
• Since it was set up in 2012, Big Society Capital has invested £340 million into intermediaries and social banks that lend to charities and social enterprises.