Charities Aid Foundation and Hatch Enterprise are launching a social investment programme specifically for London-based social businesses led by women of colour.

Funded by JPMorgan Chase and private donors, the programme is for social businesses that have a clear social or environmental impact mission and reinvest or donate their profits to make a positive social change.

It offers up to £70,000 per social enterprise in funding. This ‘blended finance’ investment includes:

up to £50,000 in zero-interest loans to be repaid over 5 years
a grant worth up to £20,000
opportunities to apply for further low interest loans worth up to £150k
The female business leaders will also be supported to make the best use of the funding with mentoring, coaching, business advice and workshops to help them grow.

The programme is focused on social businesses led by women or other marginalised genders from an ethnic minority background. This follows recent findings that these businesses face greater challenges accessing social investment, and therefore struggle to grow. For instance, Social Enterprise UK’s ‘State of Social Enterprise Survey 2021’ found that social enterprises are not growing equally – the median turnover for social enterprises led by Black women was £31,900, compared to an overall median turnover of £100,000.1

The programme is open for applications until 1 August 2022 and will run between 2022-23.

Neil Heslop OBE, Chief Executive at the Charities Aid Foundation said:

“Social businesses help tackle social problems, improve communities and individual lives, and positively impact the environment.

“In our 20th year of championing social investment, we’re excited to launch this programme specifically for social businesses run by women of colour, working with Hatch Enterprise and with the support of JPMorgan Chase. We know that minority-led businesses have hist