Final Piece of £8.45m Secured for Northern Impact Fund 2

The fund is open until 2027 to social and community enterprises, charities, and co-operatives operating in the north and the midlands, with investment available from £5,000 to £150,000.

It follows the success of the first Northern Impact Fund 1, which ran from 2016 to 2022 and supported almost 200 organisations, with over £9m of funding.

Key Fund, a social enterprise itself, provides flexible loans alongside grants to help enterprises start up or grow, with the aim of them becoming more sustainable in trading and impact terms.

Matt Smith, CEO of Key Fund, said: “The Northern Impact Fund is based on a core long-standing product we’ve been delivering since 2002 and is hugely popular, which is why we have secured another round of funds to invest. It’s in demand because it’s so straightforward, with a grant attached, that really helps organisations to grow their trading activity whilst preserving social impact.”

The grant element is designed to offset the cost of social impact, while enterprises use the loan to focus on the development or growth of trading activity. The fund is designed to support a business at all stages, from cash-flow, working capital or asset development and purchase.

Matt said: “The grant helps de-risk growth, and can be a transformative step-change for a business.”

Veterans at Ease, a North East charity benefited from the first Northern Impact Fund.

It was facing huge demand for its services, providing counselling to armed forces veterans, but struggled to secure funding and faced closure. It decided to establish a charity shop trading arm to generate income to fund its charitable work, and also provide volunteering, training, and employment opportunities to veterans.

The Northern Impact Fund 1 provided the initial grant and loan investment to open the first shop in Whitley Bay in 2018. Key Fund provided a further £100k investment in December 2021 to expand. It now has six shops in the North East, Tees Valley, and Norfolk.

Key Fund is one of the largest regionally based social investors in England. It was founded in South Yorkshire in 1999 to stimulate locally led regeneration in response to the collapse of the coal and steel industries. It began as a grant giving organisation, before launching a pioneering blended fund in 2002. In the last 24 years, Key Fund has invested £76.6m in over 3,100 organisations with £483m of impact.

Matt added: “We’ve developed a lot of investment funds over the years, many with lots of flexibility built in, but the Northern Impact Funds are undoubtedly the most in demand, and have been for many years due to their simplicity. The grant element is provided up front and is not tied to performance or awarded retrospectively, so provides certainty for applicants; they know exactly how much they are repaying and when, from the start. It embodies what Key Fund is about, making sure that we are clear and providing the right money at the right time – this is our central mission.”

The Northern Impact Fund 2 has been made possible by support from a collaboration of funders: Access - the Foundation for Social Investment, Better Society Capital, Barrow Cadbury Trust, The Places Foundation, the Regional Growth Fund with Unity Trust Bank, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and the Mercer’s Company.

Key Fund works across all sectors, from green energy, health and social care, employment, education and training, housing, the Arts, and sports and leisure.

To find out more, or apply for the Northern Impact Fund 2, go to thekeyfund.co.uk