Search Results for: wellbeing poverty

Big Issue Invest reports £37 million of investment into social enterprises and charities at time of crisis

Stuart Mitchell

Big Issue Invest (BII) has launched its 2021-2022 Impact Report. The report revealed that the social investment arm of The Big Issue supported 138 social enterprises across the UK and had £37.5 million Assets Under Management (AUM) as of March 2022*. The report detailed how, in turn, those 138 social enterprises were able to support over 2 million customers across the UK in the same period. 92% of investments made by BII contribute to core solutions to poverty. Investees supported by BII have an average turnover of £5.59m and employ…

MacKenzie Scott $15m gift to VisionSpring will help unlock $1 billion in income for agricultural workers and artisans

Stuart Mitchell

As the global community focuses its attention on the 1 billion people who still do not have the eyeglasses they need to see clearly, VisionSpring announces a transformative $15 million gift from MacKenzie Scott. The gift catalyses the launch of VisionSpring’s strategic initiative Livelihoods in Focus–  a $70 million effort that will create more than $1 billion of new income among tea, coffee, cocoa and artisan workers by 2030. “The gift from Ms. Scott is an incredible acknowledgement of the power of a simple pair of eyeglasses to unlock earning, learning, safety…

In Kind Direct is stepping up support for charitable organisations as cost-of-living squeezes services

Stuart Mitchell

The detrimental effect of the cost-of-living crisis is impacting charitable organisations across the UK as they cannot afford to keep up with the rising public demand and additional running costs for their services. With more charitable organisations experiencing a reduction in income compared to the start of the year, UK charity In Kind Direct are urging more organisations to join their network to get support. In Kind Direct focus on distributing consumer products, donated by companies, to charitable organisations across the UK to ensure that everyone has access to the…

Big Issue Group calls on organisations to back a new specialist recruitment service which will support people who face barriers to sustainable employment

Stuart Mitchell

The Big Issue Group is calling on businesses to back a new UK wide recruitment service called ‘Big Issue Recruit’. The service offers people who are further from the labour market access to their desired job roles by pairing them with personal Job Coaches. In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis and record levels of poverty and inequality, there are now close to 15 million people in the UK trapped in poverty. But while unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years, with 1.26m unemployed people actively seeking…

Investment in social impact increases nearly ten-fold in ten years as social issues exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis 

Stuart Mitchell

Big Society Capital has revealed that the amount of social impact investment in the UK has grown nearly ten-fold over ten years, from £830 million in 2011 to £7.9 billion in 2021.    Data from the social impact investor’s annual Market Sizing exercise – which estimates the value of investments made by UK social impact investment funds since 2011 – shows that the market has seen a steady growth trajectory year-on-year. This continued even after the onset of COVID-19, with a 22% increase between 2020-2021.  The news comes at a time…