Helping social enterprises take control: The growing impact of enterprise grants

Tim Davies-Pugh Chief Executive of Power to Change and Chair of the Enterprise Grants Taskforce

Tim Davies-Pugh has played a long-term role in shaping the social investment landscape, trying to support organisations that don’t fit the traditional funding mould. As Chief Executive of Power to Change and Chair of the Enterprise Grants Taskforce he has been working with Access to offer grants that allow organisations across the sector to build their own income and take charge of their future.

“I’ve spent years working with organisations that fall through the cracks in the funding system. Often in the social sector if you want to earn your own income you find yourself unable to access funding from either the traditional grant-making world or the commercial investment world. 

“Organisations that put ‘social’ in front of their name - like social entrepreneur, social enterprise, community business - are treated very differently by traditional forms of finance. Their risk profiles go right up and capital becomes expensive. They’re often not entertained by high street banks and are stuck in a system that doesn’t understand their model and doesn’t trust them to succeed.

“But in recent years I’ve started to see a shift in mindset. The Enterprise Grants Taskforce brought this issue into the light. Until more recently, funders have asked organisations how they’re going to survive after their grant ends and everybody’s accepted a rather meaningless answer. But this is a way of organisations being able to demonstrate sustainability and extracting themselves from philanthropic funding.

“Before the Taskforce, enterprise grants were rarely talked about even when funders were using them. There was no shared language, no clear framework, and no sense of collective momentum. Access has helped give the approach legitimacy and showed it’s both possible and necessary to help organisations build income and resilience.

“These grants are so important for people that want to be entrepreneurial and enterprising from day one. They also allow organisations who want to move towards earning their own income to make that transition.

“This type of funding means they’re not reliant on a philanthropic funder to endorse what they’re doing. If they’re earning it, they’re growing their business and they have more say over their destiny. There’s a general feeling that the right organisations appreciate and like this form of finance, because it does actually talk to the way that they want to operate.

“And for many people there’s a real desire to pay the money back because they want it to help someone else. They’re not thinking ‘great, it’s a soft loan and no one will chase us’. They want to prove themselves and put something back in.

“Access has really championed that middle ground, which means funders and organisations now understand grant funding and enterprise don’t have to be at odds and these aren’t either/or decisions. Together, we’ve been able to name the gap between traditional grants and repayable finance, and show there’s a different funding route through it. 

“The Enterprise Grants Taskforce has created space for funders and organisations to connect, learn and build, and there’s a sense now that something bigger is taking root. We held a showcase event back in May and had over 80 people turn up on a hot afternoon in London. We had to bring in extra chairs. And I just think that shows real interest in this movement.

“Some small funders who haven’t really engaged before, and who probably wouldn’t join the Taskforce because it seemed like it was for larger funders, came along and really felt they could participate. That’s a really good marker too. 

“It’s great to see these small organisations grow. One example is a community business and social hub in Liverpool called Kitty’s Laundrette which offers eco-friendly, affordable laundry alongside a welcoming social space for the local community. They were offered a a grant along with a learning and development programme, run by Social for Social Entrepreneurs in partnership with Power to Change. That support has allowed them to turn a development project into a thriving community business. The grant - matched pound for pound to their trading income - helped expand their services and impact, while the peer network gave them the confidence, skills and knowledge to grow.

“But for all the positives, there are still challenges and the funding landscape is full of blind spots. We need to make it easier for organisations to navigate that space and let the money lean into what they’re trying to achieve, not the other way round. Our immediate task now is to gather some really strong examples of how this is all working and get more people to see it as part of their day-to-day funding activity. 

“We do have real potential to change how the sector thinks about power, money, and sustainability. I’m genuinely positive about where things can go in future.”