RBS empowers social enterprises to accelerate community impact

RBS supported social entrepreneurs to access finance through the independent charity, RBS Social & Community Capital (S&CC). The S&CC lends to community-based organisations that traditionally struggle to access finance through mainstream channels. RBS S&CC has approved lending of over £5m since 2012 to community lenders and social enterprises, helping them to increase community impact.

One organisation to benefit has been Clydesdale Community Initiatives Scotland (CCI Scotland). CCI Scotland promotes social inclusion through creating work opportunities in landscape construction for individuals with a range of support needs. Thanks to a loan from S&CC, it has been able to develop and grow its operations, including funding the creation of a new bespoke facility.

Niall McShannon, Managing Director at CCI Scotland, said:

"We were very fortunate that we were able to access significant funding and with the assistance of RBS. We’ve now been able to create a world-class enterprise and inclusion facility.”

Inspiring Social Enterprise has also worked with partners who have supported and championed social enterprises in the UK. Tim West, a social enterprise expert and former journalist, founded the SE100 Index to address the need for social enterprises to demonstrate the scale of their community impact through data. With the support of Inspiring Social Enterprise, the NatWest SE100 Index expanded from an annual survey into a sophisticated website that captures the live data of 1,400 social enterprises.

This data is then used to demonstrate that social enterprises can deliver robust returns and financial success, as well as track the way in which social enterprises achieve their double bottom line: social impact alongside profitability.

One social enterprise to benefit from the NatWest SE100 Index is Pinkspiration, which up-skills young people for the construction industry while rebuilding empty spaces and unoccupied shops across the UK. So far, Pinkspiration has trained 3,500 young people, with 70% progressing into training, employment or start-ups.

Lisa Marie Brown, Founder of Pinkspiration, commented:

"Being a part of the NatWest SE100 Index has raised awareness of our business, helped us network with like-minded organisations and been a great way to promote our work.