The Value of Post-Investment Technical Assistance in a Crisis

An internal evaluation of a £1m programme (2020-2021) of grants for business support during Covid

This report examines the learnings from a rapid programme to offer grants for business support for organisations that had received investment from the Growth Fund, to help them cope with the pandemic that arrived suddenly in 2020 and had disrupted their trading models.  Over £940k was passed to 14 social investors to distribute, and 106 charities and social enterprises benefitted (average size of grant £7.4k).  The evaluation found that the programme was strongly beneficial to both investee charities and social enterprises, and also to the social investors themselves in managing their own capacity challenges at a difficult time.  Whilst not the right tool in all cases, at a time where many organisations simply needed cash to survive, the evaluation data shows that the vast majority of those accessing business support felt that it was significantly beneficial to their path out of Covid, with most organisations reporting that they were financially stronger post-Covid compared to pre-Covid, in many cases as a direct result of this support.