News Archive
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Danyal Sattar
Many of the friends we’ve made over the last fifty years have crossed paths with us time and again and that’s certainly true of our interviewee today. Here we meet Danyal Sattar, Chief Executive of Big Issue Invest (BII) “ICOF really are the pioneers of social impact investment in the UK, there’s just no doubt about that. […]
Community sports and social club secures investment for refinance and growth
Members have received a huge boost by securing a financial package that enables ambitious and enterprising plans to renovate, develop and grow their sports and social club for the benefit of the local community. Based in the heart of the picturesque Victorian spa town of Leamington Spa, Oak House Sports and Social Club has a […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Nick Temple
Today in our series of interview with friends and partners from our fifty years, we speak to Nick Temple, Chief Executive at the Social Investment Business I first came across ICOF while I was at Social Enterprise UK. We had a lot of cooperatives in the membership and we were working out what our member social enterprises […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Retrofitworks
In 2017, we were delighted to work with Retrofitworks, a multi-stakeholder co‑operative based in London, to support their cashflow as they grew and developed The Retrofitworks team are on a mission to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s housing stock in order to meet the UK’s net zero carbon emission target by 2050. By […]
Introducing Paul Mather, one of our new Trustees!
“I’ve been on the board at Midcounties for three years, since soon after they bought the convenience store and post office I’d owned and run in partnership with my wife, Gail. It was through that shop that I first came in contact with Tim Coomer way back in 2005. Previously, I used to work for […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Dave Thornett
As the end of our fiftieth year comes into sight, we’re speaking to our current partners and those we work closely with. Today we meet Dave Thornett, Business Development Manager at Key Fund investments, the social investor in the North of England. “My personal connection with ICOF really began in the mid 1990s. I was […]
Friends gather to celebrate our fiftieth birthday at Gala Dinner
Regular readers of our blog and newsletter will know that we’ve been celebrating our fiftieth year, this year, with interviews with friends and a look back through our archive. But what is a birthday without a party? On a sunny day in October, (almost) fifty people whose connections with us span fifty years, travelled from […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Hinton St George Shop
Village shops have been a big part of our work in the last fifteen or twenty years. As with so many, OurSHOP in Hinton St George , Somerset, is a community hub as well as a place to stock up on essentials and treats. The only shop in the village – with supermarkets a six […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Stewart Macgregor
Today in our series of interviews with friends from our first fit years we speak to Stewart Macgregor, Specialist Adviser at Co-operative Development Scotland “Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the organisation in Scotland which supports companies and community groups to adopt employee ownership or a co-operative business model. I am one of the specialists with […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Glenn Bowen
As we look towards the end of our fiftieth year celebrations, we’re talking to people from partner organisations across the four nations of the UK. Here we say ‘’schwmae’ (how’re you doing?) to Glenn Bowen, Director for enterprise at Cwmpas, previously The Wales Co-operative Centre. “We have a long and historic connection with ICOF. Even though […]