As consortium partners we share a common aim. The Charity Bank, the Unity Trust Bank, The National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the Northern Rock Foundation all have a strong commitment to social cohesion.  Our five independent Board members all share this commitment. We have experience of dealing with the community and voluntary sector.  

By combining the experience of social banks and charitable grant givers, we are in a unique position to offer advice and practical experience to those who need to take their business development plans further.

We can advise you on loan investments even if you probably wouldn’t get one through traditional high street bank sources. You may have been reluctant to take out loans in the past. We will help you negotiate the terms to suit your individual needs.   

We believe there are many organisations who haven’t thought about loans even though they could be a useful way of financing the expansion of your services.  We are not going to make a loan that we think is not going to be paid back, but we will discuss with you whether a grant element as well as assistance with capacity building, i.e. support, training and advice, will help produce a viable proposition.

We hope this will enable you to take on contracts with local government, health authorities, central government and other agencies. Those contracts or fees, paid directly or indirectly from public funding sources, will give you a regular income flow to pay back your loan. 

For example, an organisation needs £1 million to run a contract for a local authority. We might suggest that we give you £200,000 as a pure capital grant, £500,000 as a commercial loan and the remaining £300,000 as patient capital, where we agree the terms after the money is released. It is about using that range of finance, as well as providing capacity building, i.e. support, training and advice, where it is needed.

Please remember:
• It is a form of investment and will mean that our £125 million goes much further than a traditional grant fund would do.

• It is about designing, with the investee, a tailored package of finance that suits your needs and enables Futurebuilders to recycle funds for long term benefit. 

• It is not about shoe-horning organisations into taking loans against their will.