Dormant Assets allocation now confirmed

Access is a wholesaler of grant subsidy into social investment funds and other initiatives.  This means that we do not fund charities and social enterprises directly – we fund the social investors and other intermediaries that do. If you are a charity or social enterprise seeking social investment please visit goodfinance.org.uk for information. 

In our last Dormant Assets update blog on 18 August we published:

• The outcome of the Dormant Assets consultation that we ran during June and July
• A draft Investment Policy

At the time, we explained that we were waiting for the Government’s Policy Direction. This formally commits the £87.5m of Dormant Assets money to Access, and that once that happened we would finalise the Investment Policy and open to applications. 

Open to applications from social investors and intermediaries

This Policy Direction has now been issued by Government. 

We are delighted to confirm that we are now open to applications. 

This allocation from the Dormant Assets Scheme is the culmination of a huge effort working across social investment and the broader community that supports community-based charities and social enterprises. We are hugely grateful for collective efforts over the last few years to make this a reality and are excited to continue partnering with others to grow socially-driven and community-based enterprises in underserved places and communities

We welcome applications from social investors and other intermediaries who want to fund or support charities and social enterprises in England through blended finance, enterprise grants or pre and post investment support. 

How to apply

Today we have published the following documents: 

• Our finalised Investment Policy (there have been very minimal changes since the draft version, but all changes are summarised on page 3)
• Application forms and application guidance documents for different application stages

We would encourage organisations who are interested in applying for funding to read the Investment Policy and the Application Stages Guidance first and then to reach out to us for a chat before you embark on the application process. This is so that we can: 

• answer any questions you may have about the Investment Policy or about what may or may not be eligible – or a strong enough strategic fit – for us to consider funding
• talk you through the application process and help you to decide which application stage might be the right starting point for you
• understand your ambitions and how we can best support you through the process (including talking you through the optional co-development support that we can offer if this is of interest)
• talk to you about typical application timelines and understand whether you have any preferred timeframes in mind at this stage 

We would also welcome conversations with any organisations that may be interested in co-funding enterprise grants or blended finance activity with us. 

If you would like a conversation but do not yet have a Relationship Manager at Access, please email us and we will be in touch. We look forward to speaking to you soon.