Profit with Purpose Shows the Way Ahead: Investment available for businesses that save people and the planet.
Celebrating 20 years of investing in enterprises that put people at the heart of their business, Key Fund has announced £5m of finance is now available for communities across the North.
The ‘alternative bank’ is inviting people who want to scale up or set up a social enterprise to access the blended grant and loan finance offer as it marks 20 years of investing in 2020.
One such enterprise – Doncaster Refurnish - backed by Key Fund has a huge environmental impact saving furniture from landfill, while alleviating poverty and offering training and employment in the area.
Matt Smith, CEO of Key Fund, said: “Social enterprises are simply businesses with a social or environmental mission at their heart. With 20 years’ experience, we know what works, how to support social entrepreneurs, and how to sustain businesses. Over the years, this movement has grown and is now at the forefront of tackling society’s biggest challenges, from homelessness, addiction, loneliness, poverty and inequality to the environment, with community-led green energy schemes, projects tackling food waste, and recycling enterprises.”
To date, the anti-poverty organisation has invested £54M in social enterprises – businesses that put people and the planet at the heart of their enterprise.
Over two decades, Key Fund has given business support and finance to over 2,500 organisations, enabling 1,354 safeguarding 2,171 jobs and creating 520 new businesses across the North and the Midlands.
All the businesses Key Fund supports have been turned down by mainstream banks or lenders. 80% of investments are in businesses that operate in the top 30% most deprived areas on the indices of multiple deprivation.
Matt said: “Against a backdrop of austerity and rising inequality, local people are taking control of the issues that matter to them with real passion. Social entrepreneurs are remarkable individuals working at the coalface of their communities, offering very real solutions to endemic problems. They transform lives.”
For more go to: thekeyfund.co.uk
Doncaster Refurnish
Doncaster Refurnish is part of a disadvantaged area's continuing efforts to pull itself out of the miserable aftermath of pit closures. It is one of Key Fund’s first ever, and longest-standing clients.
CEO Andy Simpson has a true grassroots perspective on Doncaster and its problems. He left school at 16 with few qualifications but a strong work ethic. He became a labourer, learned plastering and was offered a job with the council.
Alongside the day job, Andy volunteered with the council’s youth service - and helped to set up Adwick Drug Awareness Peer Training before joining the council’s social inclusion team, helping difficult children in failing schools. At Highfields Community Partnership Andy helped the community to set up a range of small businesses and community projects. In 2003 he went to work with Refurnish.
Refurnish collects, restores and sells furniture to low-income families, and works to alleviate poverty, as well as benefit the environment. It offers employment and training to those on the margins of their local community, and rehabilitation and integration opportunities for prisoners due for release from Hatfield Prison, as well as placements for young offenders. It also offers handyman and support services to those in need, and a number of charities in the area.
“With every Key Fund investment, we’ve received we’ve grown and done something bigger. It’s enabled us to spread the risk a bit in financial terms and take on a challenge. Every time we’ve grown, we’ve recruited more staff. Currently we’re at 58 staff; 98% of whom were unemployed before they joined us. Turnover is £1.3m,” Andy said.
Refurnish are now looking to raise substantial finance to purchase a large retail outlet in a highly disadvantaged and area of Doncaster.
“On top of that we have projects working with schools where people with special educational needs or disabilities come in and work with us on work experience placements or to increase social interaction.”
Constantly evolving to meet local need, they recently set up 'Expressions' a women’s group, who came together with anxiety issues. They remanufacture and upcycle products from Refurnish's own waste stream using upholstery skills and paint techniques; maximising resources and diverting more products from landfill and delivering practical hands on courses and boosting the confidence and sense of well-being for all those that participate.
In addition, they have also set up Reuse BDR (in partnership with FCC Environment and Doncaster Rotherham and Barnsley local authorities) in the deprived area of Conisbrough where they divert reusable products away from 14 waste recycling centres and create a wider community benefit.
On average, Refurnish makes 13,500 collections of bulky household waste collections every year.
“It’s hard to put any meaning on the numbers,” Andy said. “For me personally it’s about the people and seeing their personal journey as they strive to move forward.”
Andy has said Key Fund listens with ‘their hearts as well as their ears’.
Testimonial
“Key Fund - they’re brilliant, aren’t they? Without those investments over the years, we’d still be in the doldrums, I think. It’s not just about the financial investment it’s the support the Key Fund gives you, if they see someone doing something complementary, they’ll make that referral to you. So, it’s a learning curve with reduced risks.”
Spotlight on:
Jordan Bratby, 29
Jordan has worked at Refurnish for almost 8 years. Suffering with cerebral palsy, he found it difficult to find a job. He had had a couple of opportunities in retail and an office but struggled to get recognised through having a disability. He was referred to Refurnish by the Council for an apprentice programme that we had developed and was part funded by the Key Fund.
“There isn’t an administrative job at Refurnish I haven’t done” Jordan said. “I started out doing vehicle data processing and then I progressed a bit more and started doing contract admin, and then auditing. Now I’m the Office No2 and heavily involved in all contract and finance administration.”
Where does he think he’d be if it wasn’t for Refurnish?
“I hate to think to be honest. Refurnish was the first place to not see the cerebral palsy and to give me a real chance, cerebral palsy was never an issue, and it’s still not. I daren’t think where I’d be. I've gained qualifications through Refurnish and through my own study and I know that if there’s anything I’m interested in doing, we will make it happen. Refurnish are really good at. Growing people.”
Jordan is thriving and owning the environment. He is so dependable and the font of all knowledge.
“I’ve had difficult times, as everyone else, and I always will, but you’ve got to get on with it. Yes, I have cerebral palsy but I don’t let it hinder me and Refurnish actively accommodate and support my needs, as they would for anyone.
He enjoys working with diverse colleagues, many with their own challenges. “They’re all striving for the same thing, to be successful really. Looking at everyone I’ve worked with, we’ve all got our different stories but we’re all blending in and working together and improving ourselves. Refurnish sees the person and they spot potential where others would not even look."
Jordan has plans to continue to develop within the organisation and is currently finishing off a computerised accounting course. “For me, I like that when you finish your day, you feel you’ve done something to be proud of with the added benefit of helping a lot of others who are in need of our services on the way."