Blog

29/03/17

Filtering posts by topic

Read about how to filter ACCESS’s blog posts by topic.

05/02/25

Unlocking Revenue Models for Social Enterprises

The Challenge of Financial Sustainability in Social Enterprises Financial sustainability remains a significant challenge for many Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations. While a growing movement encourages VCSEs to diversify their income and adopt a more enterprising approach, making this shift is not always straightforward. One of the key hurdles is confidence in describing […]

31/01/25

Building a stronger social investment ecosystem: Lessons from the Connect Fund

The Connect Fund programme made 133 grants, totalling £5.8m, between January 2018 and February 2024. Grantees included voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations and networks, social investment fund managers, think tanks and researchers, standard setters, as well as new emerging networks. The grants focused on building capacity and knowledge in infrastructure to better support charities […]

23rd January 2025

Unlocking potential – a roadmap for scaling non-profit retrofit services

The drive for energy efficiency in England has never been more critical. As we face rising energy costs and the need to meet ambitious climate targets, retrofitting homes and buildings represents a vital step forward. While much of the retrofit market remains dominated by commercial actors, the charities and social enterprise sector holds unique potential […]

21st January 2025

Slowly but surely: Lessons from our work on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

It won’t come as a shock to those working to improve their equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) practice, but progress is not always straightforward. We recently reviewed the EDI goals we set ourselves in 2023 and in this blog share insights on two specific goals. Undertaking an independent diversity audit looking at the makeup of […]

16/12/24

News from Access – including new open data on the reach of our programmes

ICYMI – update on Dormant Assets There has been a positive update regarding the next tranche of Dormant Assets. The UK government has reconfirmed £87.5 million will be used for social investment over the coming years. You can find all the details here. However, we’re not yet at the final stage in confirming the next allocation […]

16/12/24

Dormant Assets in action

In November 2024, the Government announced plans to allocate an additional £87.5 million to social investment wholesalers, in turn enabling social investors to provide vital funding to charities and social enterprises. This blog looks at the work Access has facilitated as part of the Dormant Assets Scheme so far, ahead of this additional allocation. The […]

12/12/24

Our Cost-of-Living Programme – one year on

Access’s Cost-of-Living programme was launched in September 2023 with the aim of deploying nearly £11 million through 12 social investor partners. The goal was to help the charities and social enterprises supporting communities most affected by the rising cost of living – by quickly scaling up or sustaining their work. One year later, 10 out […]

ACCESS Cookies Policy