Resonance is a South West based social investment intermediary, who advise on, and manage, a number of social investment funds.
Resonance works with social enterprises and charities to help them raise capital from like-minded investors. They have a range of investment funds to support work that is tackling social issues including homelessness, poverty, community-led projects, health and wellbeing and education.
Impact
- Challenge
As a social investment intermediary with thin margins, they have little resource to develop new social investment products.
- Impact goal
In line with our approach to social investment, this investment meets our objective to influence the social investment market by building a more innovative social investment market. It will also help us to achieve our goals in Creative, Confident Communities.
- Local economies work better for the people who live there
- Priorities
Ben Smith, Head of Social Investment, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
We have a longstanding relationship with Resonance: we were the first investor in their first fund, making a £500,000 commitment to the Community Share Underwriting Fund, which went on to attract over £3 million in investment. The fund in turn managed to unlock over £30 million of capital into community-led projects nationwide.
In July 2018, we made a repayable grant facility available to build on an existing repayable grant made in March 2014 for product development. Drawdowns of up to £75,000 are used as match funding to fund product development. If a product comes to market, we are repaid from management fees raised. Over £700,000 has been drawn down and resulted in three successfully launched funds: the National Homeless Property Fund, Real Lettings Property Fund² and the South West Social Investment Tax Relief Fund. In total, these funds have unlocked around £140 million of investor capital for social enterprises from nearly 100 different investors.