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Internships
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Consultancy » Fundraising

As social enterprises, charities and NGOs adopt more enterprising models, they have greater access than ever before to new sources of finance and millions of pounds formerly out of reach. Despite the flattening ‘playing field’, few pursue the opportunities because they simply don’t know what’s available, who to talk to and how to access the funds.

Eastside has a range of investment services and can open the door to a varied range of finance for organisations looking to use the social enterprise model.

 

What is social enterprise?

Social enterprises are profit-making organisations which reinvest the majority of their profits for the benefit of their community to tackle social and/ or environmental problems. The model offers a real and lasting solution to major societal problems, such as homelessness, while at the same time generating trading income for local communities. This ensures that social enterprises are less dependent on sporadic funding, and have greater control in the delivery of their services.

Our team is committed to promoting the successful application of social enterprise models and good business practice to reduce grant dependency and increase the scale and impact of organisations in the third sector.

Want to find out more? Ask us about recent successful case studies, see our recent project, Spark, which aimed to ignite social enterprise in the homelessness sector and contact us with your name, organisation name and email address to sign up for the Eastside newsletter.

 

 

Who could benefit?

Eastside offers a direct, targeted approach to investors, typically to help established clients to secure between £250,000 and £5million of finance. Our successful track record includes raising money through a range of traditional and new sources of investors, including from big businesses, the Government, philanthropists, community finance institutions and social venture funds.
Since start-up in 2005, we have worked with more than 70 clients and raised more than £21 million.

 

To access the services, organisations will need to be able to demonstrate that they have a viable proposition and generate both social and financial returns for investors.


Services

Our service will include:

  • Assessing your current funding needs and options
  • Developing a fundraising strategy, coordinated with your needs as a business
  • Advising or reviewing your funding materials, such as your current business plan
  • Managing a fundraising process, including introductions to investors

Our consultants will work alongside your management team and will report to you on a regular basis to ensure that the final outcomes meet your requirements.


Parallel Services

 

Where appropriate, Eastside’s fundraising services will be offered in conjunction with our consultancy services:

  • Strategic reviews
  • Structural reviews
  • Business planning
  • Feasibility studies
  • Financial modelling

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Case study: London Development Agency

Issue:

In 2006-2007, Eastside worked with the London Development Agency to help 21 organisations, mainly social enterprises and black, Asian, minority and ethnic-based organisations to raise finance.

Results:
Eastside raised £2.4million through loans, equity and grants

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Interested in finding out more about fundraising? Please contact our team.

Interested in learning about Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (the former DTI’s) Small Firms Loan Guarantees scheme? Read Eastside’s Guide to the Small Firms Loans Guarantees Scheme, which outlines how to raise loan finance of up to £250,000 through commercial banks.

You might also be interested in our strategic review, business planning, feasibility studies, structuring and strategic review services. Or in reading more about our experience.

Are you interested in pursuing a merger or acquisition? Contact us to find out more about other services we offer on a bespoke basis.