Social investment 'to transform voluntary sector'

Social investment will transform the voluntary sector over the next ten years, according to one expert.

Writing for the Guardian Professional voluntary sector network, chief executive of think tank New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) Dan Corry shared opinions from the social investment community gleaned at a seminar run this week.

NPC, which works to identify ways for funders and charities to achieve greater impact, asked key players in the emerging field whether this form of investment was a revolution or a bubble.

Mr Corry explained that most believe progress will be slow to start with, with the majority of social investment playing it relatively safe in the initial stage.

But the excitement will come if social investment helps some go-ahead charities really scale up, starts to identify some really innovative not-for-profits and backs ambitious new social entrepreneurs," he said.

"That's when we may start to see real change and it could bring a transformation of the sector over the next decades – one that some will approve of while others shake their heads."

He added that there was a sense of consensus that more investment-ready projects are needed to spur the market into action, as well as a stronger focus on revenue generation.

Because organisations are expected to raise a return in addition to paying back the capital, one important point raised was that this model will not be suitable for every charity, with some likely to stick to grant funded models.

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