{"id":1230,"date":"2022-12-16T12:25:33","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T12:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/?p=1230"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:09:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T15:09:46","slug":"what-can-we-learn-from-the-uks-social-investment-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/fr\/story\/what-can-we-learn-from-the-uks-social-investment-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"What can we learn from the UK\u2019s social investment ecosystem?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The UK\u2019s social investment ecosystem is proof of the immense growth potential of community bonds in Canada. Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ashley Wang from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.socialfinance.org.uk\/\">Social Finance UK<\/a><\/strong> and Annie Constable from <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodfinance.org.uk\/\">Good Finance<\/a><\/strong> to learn more about the UK\u2019s social investment marketplace.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Below are three lessons that we can learn from our UK counterparts.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<h3>1. Working with leaders in the social investment ecosystem will help non-profits, charities, and co-operatives address knowledge and capacity gaps<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the UK, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bigsocietycapital.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Big Society Capital<\/strong> <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the leading financial institution dedicated to social investment in the UK. Big Society Capital and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/access-socialinvestment.org.uk\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Access &#8211; the Foundation for Social Investment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> created an organization called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodfinance.org.uk\/\"><strong>Good Finance<\/strong><\/a> to address a large knowledge gap they had observed in the social investment ecosystem. Good Finance\u2019s website is home to jargon-busting tools, case studies, and a directory to connect organizations with investors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What is social investment?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rUrKGENE9ME?start=75&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, in Canada, Tapestry helps organizations to learn about the community bond model and determine whether it&#8217;s a good fit for their project. We provide organizations with the resources and tools to fill knowledge and capacity gaps. From understanding terminology, to launching your community bond campaign, we support you every step of the way in whatever capacity you need. Our goal is to ensure that the path to integrating community bonds into your organization is as seamless as possible.\u00a0<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<h3>2. Community investment provides a flexible source of financing<b><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increasingly, organizations are seeking creative sources of financing that give them the operational flexibility to do what they need to do to achieve their goals. Grants, while providing free capital, can often impose strict requirements that limit project dimensions, and ultimately the impact a project can have. They can also be tedious, time consuming, and unsustainable. For many organizations, terms set by banks and traditional funders won\u2019t be favorable, and often this financing will only provide a portion of the needed capital for a project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is why many organizations in the UK have turned to social investment tools, such as charity bonds, as an alternative. Charity bonds can be seen as the UK equivalent of a community bond (read another blog on this <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/fr\/obligations-caritatives\/\"><b>ici<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">). Social investment tools are a sustainable solution for organizations to raise the capital they need, and enable individuals to diversify their investment portfolio while creating impact in the community. The massive demand for flexible finance in the UK has brought many impactful investment opportunities to the market and this is sure to happen in Canada as well.\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<h3>3. The government has played a critical role in catalyzing the adoption of social investment tools<b><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the early 2000s, the UK had a build up of dormant account assets &#8211; the result of forgotten assets in long-lost bank accounts and insurance policies. In 2008, Parliament passed the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act which directed a large portion of these assets to social investment. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bigsocietycapital.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Big Society Capital (BSC)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, was launched with \u00a3400 million of dormant account funds. The UK government also offers the Social Investment Tax Relief which is a 30% tax break for individuals who invest in social enterprises, charities, or community businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As of June 2022, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/news\/canada\/how-to-know-if-you-own-any-of-the-1-8b-in-unclaimed-bank-accounts-in-canada\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bank of Canada announced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that it is sitting on nearly $1.1 billion in dormant account assets. Right now, this money sits idle with the Bank of Canada for 30-100 years depending on how much is in the account. After that, the money is considered forfeited and is transferred back to the government\u2019s spending accounts. Imagine if Canada implemented a similar act to the UK and directed even 10% of this capital to social investment (that\u2019s $110 million)! Evidently, government initiatives, politicians\u2019 support, and advocacy from organizations can help catalyze the adoption of social investment tools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In recent years, the Government of Canada has signaled their support for the social impact market. The launch of the $755 million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/employment-social-development\/programs\/social-innovation-social-finance\/social-finance-fund.html\"><strong>Fonds de finance sociale<\/strong><\/a> has been a major milestone. This capital is supporting social purpose organizations to become investment ready and bring investment products to the Canadian public. At Tapestry, we are supporting many organizations with funding provided through the Social Finance Fund <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Investment Readiness Program. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To stay up to date on funding opportunities and application deadlines, visit the Community Foundations of Canada website <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/communityfoundations.ca\/initiatives\/the-investment-readiness-program\/\"><b>ici<\/b><\/a><b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h3>\u00c0 propos de cette s\u00e9rie d'articles<\/h3>\n<p>Hi, my name is Jasleen Bahia, and I was once an Intern at Tapestry Community Capital. I am now completing my degree in business with a focus on social finance, and I\u2019m currently doing a semester abroad in Europe. While here, I am Tapestry\u2019s Ambassador to the UK.\u00a0This blog series documents my adventure abroad learning about the social finance ecosystem in the UK and connecting it to our growing community investment marketplace in Canada. I am eager to find out what we can learn, replicate and share!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1224 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-1600x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-1600x1200.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-16x12.jpg 16w, https:\/\/tapestrycapital.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_2140-scaled-1-500x375.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cover photo credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uk.coop\/blog\/community-shares-investing-alongside-community-ownership-fund\">Co-operative UK<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1231,"template":"","format":[],"topic":[71],"class_list":["post-1230","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","story_topic-learning-from-abroad"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What can we learn from the UK\u2019s social investment ecosystem? - Tapestry Capital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The UK\u2019s social investment ecosystem is proof of the immense growth potential of community bonds in Canada. 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