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Where our money comes from

Our funds come from a variety of sources, some is public money via Government and some is ordinary people’s money through a scheme which takes unclaimed bank accounts and puts them towards good causes.

By the end of 2024, Access will have been allocated over £165 million to support enterprise development and blended finance programmes in England.  

It’s important to be open and transparent about how we spend money and where that money comes from.

Access Endowment

Access was given a £60m endowment by the Cabinet Office in 2015 to spend over ten years on funding programmes which help charities and social enterprises to engage with the social investment market and become investment ready.

Dormant Assets

To date, Access been allocated £83 million from the Dormant Assets Scheme. 

This includes:

  • £10 million in 2018 to fund a place-based programme working across six areas. Local Access is a joint funding programme, established by Access and B Society Capital, that aims to support the development of stronger, more resilient and sustainable social economies in six places across the country. The £10m is blended with £15-20m of debt from Better Society Capital and an aligned commitment of £8m from Access’s endowment to support social change in specific places.
  • £30 million in 2020 to support COVID19 recovery. This included supporting charities and social enterprises to mitigate and recover the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. £6 million was distributed in the early phases of the pandemic to 70 charities and social enterprises in grants through our Emergency Lending programme, unlocking wider investments of £21 million. A £22 million blended finance programme was also launched in 2020. Flexible Finance for the Recovery is aimed at creating more sources of patient and flexible repayable finance for charities and social enterprises during the recovery phase of the pandemic.
  • £20 million in 2022 to extend support for charities and social enterprises in England through Blended Finance. Through our Enterprise Growth for Communities programme the finance offered will principally be in the form of small flexible unsecured loans to organisations seeking to use the funds to create more social impact. This enables us to reach harities and social enterprises looking to grow or diversify their business models, particularly those unlikely to have taken on social investment before such as smaller organisations or those based in deprived areas. This builds on the work done as part of the Growth Fund (also backed by Dormant Assets via Better Society Capital). The Growth Fund was a partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund and Better Society Capital, delivered by Access through a range of social investors (more below).  
  • £23 million in 2023 to support social investment in addressing the cost-of-living crisis and promoting energy resilience. Launched in 2023, the Cost-of-Living programme targets areas most affected by the cost-of-living crisis and long-term economic decline. The Energy Efficiency Social Investment Programme (EESIP) aims to support charities and social enterprises looking to reduce energy costs, improve efficiency, and support a just transition towards a greener future. 

More here on the Dormant Assets Scheme and how it relates to our work. 

Growth Fund partnership

Access also managed the Growth Fund, a £50m partnership which uses a combination of £22.5m grant funding, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, and £27.5m loan finance from Better Society Capital (originating from Dormant Assets) and other co-investors, to address specific gaps in the social investment market.