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Our history and values

What shapes our organisation?

We are shaped by our history and decades of experience working with charities and social enterprises. Our values inspire and guide us to achieve our mission to provide finance and support for a more equal society. 

Our history

Since 2002, we have worked with hundreds of social enterprises and charities to provide finance and support that empowers and enables them to do what they do best and make an impact. Our history has shaped us into the organisation we are today. 

We began in 2002 as the Adventure Capital Fund, a partnership of several social sector organisations. This £2m fund was created by the UK Government to work out how to create sustainable community enterprises through social investment. Since then we’ve managed social investment funds for several government departments, including Futurebuilders, Communitybuilders and the Social Enterprise Investment Fund.

In 2011, we were endowed £27m that remained in the Communitybuilders Fund which is owned and administered by our parent charity, the Social Investment Business Foundation. This meant we had our own money to invest, while also enabling us to partner with others.

SIB’s place in the social economy

SIB has long had a unique role in the UK’s social investment landscape. We have fulfilled the role of pioneering investor, support provider, wholesaler, partner and co-investor, and, through direct working relationships with everyone in the market, we have increasingly bolstered its leading position in knowledge and influence. We also host key cross-sector initiatives that work toward the betterment of the social investment market, including the Social Investment Forum, the Diversity Forum and the Equality Impact Investing Project.

From our beginnings in 2002, to setting up the Resilience and Recovery Loan Fund and its successor the Recovery Loan Fund launched during the Covid-19 crisis, every fund is delivered with the same goal in mind: to support the social economy in creating a more sustainable, resilient and equal society.

2002

SIB is founded

3,500+

organisations founded

£266m+

grant funding delivered

£184m+

loan funding provided

Our values

We’re inspired by our five core values. They are fundamental to the relationships with the charities and social enterprises we support, our behaviour towards each other and the manner in which we conduct our everyday work. 

People

Putting people first

We want to help improve people’s lives. Whether it is listening to what our customers need or treating colleagues with respect, people are at the heart of everything we do. 

Curious

Curious

We’re not afraid to ask questions and think about new ways of doing things. We want to develop new approaches and learn from the results so we get better at what we do.

Bold

Bold

We’re confident in the value of our experience and are willing to take risks to get results. We’re not afraid of failure and are willing to do things differently to improve people’s lives.

Partner

Collaborative

We know we can achieve more working with partners than we can alone. We want to combine our skills and experience with others so we can increase the impact we make.  

Accountable

Accountable

We deliver what we say we will, and are open and honest in how we work. We all take responsibility for what we do and the impact we make.

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Want to work with us?

We want to work with people who share our values 

Work with us

Careers Link

Want to work with us?

We want to work with people who share our values 

Work with us

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