Celebrating a decade of impact

A Decade of Transformation: Unveiling the Impact of the Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme

Ten years, multiple funders, and almost £10m grants distributed to more than 2,400 organisations. This is big and at the School for Social Entrepreneurs we’re excited to share the results and impact with our partners, Fellows and the wider sector. Thanks to the immeasurable support from funding partners Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Government and The National Lottery Community Fund, this collaborative initiative has reached an estimated 2.1m people across the UK since launching in 2012.

“Excitingly, we now have a proven blueprint, delivered at scale, that demonstrates how capacity building support, coupled with Match Trading grants, helps to grow social organisations sustainably”

Alastair Wilson, CEO of SSE: “What this report reveals is that despite Covid-19 and the Cost-of-Living crisis, social enterprises have become the bedrock of our communities. Often more relevant and resilient than private or public sector services, they are the new glue for many communities. Excitingly, we now have a proven blueprint, delivered at scale, that demonstrates how capacity building support, coupled with Match Trading grants, helps to grow social organisations sustainably, thus helping them achieve impact in perpetuity.”

Countdown

Today marks the launch of a report, conducted by independent evaluation partners AKOU, into the last five years of the programme. It also marks a celebration of the entire decade initiative, culminating in an event in Parliament on January 31st. During the decade we pioneered and grew SSE’s innovation in grant making, Match Trading (piloted in 2015), whilst continuing to support resilience in the social sector throughout turbulent economic times, a pandemic, and cost-of-living crisis. 

Key findings

We’re grateful to AKOU for conducting a rigorous report into the latter half of the programme and are excited to share their methodology and innovative research in the full publication.

We encourage you to grab a cup of Change Please coffee, some Harry Specters chocolate or a freshly baked Breadwinners pastry (all programme graduates) and read the report in full, but in the meantime, we hope you are as excited by the key findings as we were:

• Our social enterprises surpassed the UK SME average 2-year survival rate: 81% vs 73%.
• Those supported by Match Trading grants saw a 41% uplift in income from trading. The results were consistent across different sized ventures.
• Skills development was key to this programme and 99% of participants upskilled in at least one area, such as business development, networking or social impact

Resilient and impactful organisations

At SSE we don’t teach social entrepreneurs how to solve societal problems. Instead, they arrive with their own innovations and ability. Through SSE’s learning programmes, corporate sector mentoring and Match Trading grants, we support these innovators to develop their key skills and increase their organisational sustainability. They in turn are even better equipped to create social, economic and environmental change, long into the future.

Throughout the report, we’re excited to see the demonstrable association between organisations that gain the key skills needed to be resilient and develop, and their ability to survive and thrive, even through tough economic conditions.

Unleashing potential

Claire Dove CBE, VCSE Crown Representative, commends the programme and Match Trading grants:

“Programmes like SSE’s Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme are key to unleashing potential in the UK. Match Trading is an innovative approach that can genuinely support the VCSE sector. Social entrepreneurship harnesses entrepreneurial initiative to confront a social or environmental problem. Rather than admitting defeat, they have instead decided to tackle local issues head-on, empowering communities to take control of their destinies in the process”.

“Programmes like SSE’s Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme are key to unleashing potential in the UK.”

Match Trading – a proven tool to incentivise growth and resilience

The report shows Match Trading, an innovative grant tool that incentivises social organisations to trade more, helps create sustainable and resilient social enterprises. This new way of grant-making shifts social entrepreneurs away from a dependency mindset, enabling them to innovate and grow on their own terms.

Veronica Gordon, graduate of the programme in 2018 (Start Up) and 2021 (Trade Up) explains why she applied and how her organisation Our Version Media CIC benefited:

“Match Trading was unlike any other funding I’d received before. As my social enterprise had to earn and increase our trading income to qualify for the grant instalments, it pushed and challenged me to actively seek ways to do that. I became more pro-active in seeking new partnerships and clients, creating new services, and providing existing clients with new opportunities. All of this ultimately benefited the communities we work with and increased our social impact.”

Sharing and Celebrating

At SSE we will be disseminating findings from the report over the coming months, and putting the evidence in front of the sector and policy makers at January 31st event.

We’d love you to join us in sharing the results. Why not:

• Share this blog and the report on your social media platform.
• Are you an SSE Fellow from the programme? Share with your experiences or let us know – we’d love to hear from you.
• Keep an eye on more blogs and more coming soon and share with colleagues.

Read the report here