The programme will see Access spend down a £60m endowment over the next decade to support more charities and social enterprises to be able to engage with social investment. This initial consultation phase will run until the end of September 2015, with funded programmes beginning in Spring 2016.

Access was launched in March 2015 to fill gaps in the social investment market which have prevented some voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises from accessing finance to help them become more sustainable.

Seb Elsworth, Chief Executive of Access said: “Our capacity building programme is an important long term resource for the sector, during what will be a significant period of change. We therefore need to gather views from across the sector on what the priority areas for our work should be. We will use online tools to widen our reach, and to regularly share our progress over the coming months. Most importantly, we want this to be the beginning of a longer conversation, which will inform and support the capacity building programme over its 10-year lifespan”.

As well as the capacity building programme, Access is also managing the ‘Growth Fund’, which combines grants with loans for social lenders to offer investments of up to £150,000 to charities and social enterprises (either in the form of a loan or a mix of loan and grant funding).

Those wishing to contribute to the open consultation can complete this online form or tweet using #accesscapacity. 

Check our blog for fortnightly updates on the progress of the consultation from Ed Anderton, our Strategy and Policy Manager.