New funding – £18.7m grant fund for social enterprises
More funding news – The Social Enterprise Support Fund will provide essential financial support between £10,000 and £300,000 to help social enterprises during COVID-19.
The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) and four other social enterprise support agencies have come together to deliver a new fund, and applications opened at 1pm today (Monday 13th July).
Big Issue Invest, The Key Fund, Resonance, UnLtd and SSE will jointly deliver £18.7m in grants, with support from CAF Venturesome, the Young Foundation and Ashoka.
This has been made possible thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
The Social Enterprise Support Fund is aimed at social enterprises supporting people at high health risk from COVID-19, and those supporting people facing increased social and economic challenges as a result of COVID-19.
The fund responds to an urgent need in the sector to:
- help social enterprises change the way they work
- make their spaces COVID-secure
- manage liquidity during the next six months
SSE CEO Alastair Wilson says: “Many social entrepreneurs are on the frontline of this crisis, supporting people who are most at-risk. Others are working with groups who have been disproportionately hard hit by COVID-19. At the same time, they have seen their income from trading plummet. This funding comes at a critical time.
“Working with our partners, we will do everything we can to ensure this funding reaches social entrepreneurs as quickly as possible, so they can recover lost income and help their communities to recover and rebuild.”