Venturesome Fund

Venturesome Fund

CAF Venturesome (http://www.venturesome.org) was founded in 2002 in the UK and is an innovative pioneer of financial instruments for supporting social enterprises - and is an example of the growing market for funding social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship as a fundable activity has grown through new financing provided by not only Venturesome but also the Impetus Trust, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Skoll Foundation and Futurebuilders England. By providing risk capital and customised financial advice to small and medium-sized social-purpose organisations, it aims to build their capacity to achieve lasting social impact. Venture philanthropists supporting the work of Venturesome want to see their money working hard, recycling 4 or 5 times in contrast to the one-off donation of a traditional grant-maker. Venturesome uses investment mechanisms such as underwriting, unsecured loans and equity-like instruments (such as quasi-equity).

Since it was founded in 2002, Venturesome has demonstrated demand for its risk capital approach, the recycling of funds is ahead of target (82% weighted average recovery rate (historical plus expected losses) against 75-80% target. Furthermore, the fund has made a distinctive contribution to growing the UK’s social investment market - 4 years track record of the risk capital model, and leadership of the Social Investment Market Group.