Transparent Social Investment Market (UK0045)

Social investment blends financial return and social impact. Both investors and the end ventures they support need clarity on the financial and social return they are achieving. Actions to increase this clarity will lead to greater transparency (across metrics of impact), accountability (as more citizens can see the effectiveness of public services) and participation (as more ventures can access public service contracts, and more citizens invest their money for social impact). As of 2013, Cabinet Office has:
- set up, under the UK’s Presidency of the G8, the first Social Impact Investment Taskforce, with the aim of bringing greater consistency across the international field
- supported Inspiring Impact; this programme, coordinated by New Philanthropy Capital, aims to make high quality impact measurement the norm for charities and social enterprises by 2022 – the first year of the programme developed a Code of Good Impact Practice
- worked collaboratively with partners in the sector to create the UK’s first Social Investment Readiness Charter, setting out five principles through which to support the market linked with leading sector organisations to establish the Market Stewardship Research Group, which delivers an ongoing and publicly available research agenda
- supported the creation of a Social Investment Trade Association , which, as part of its work, will encourage social investment intermediaries to be more navigable to potential investees (such as social enterprises and charities) through more transparent and open
communication of market data.