We’re looking for another 20 outstanding social entrepreneurs who are committed to scaling up their social impact. The programme supports ambitious, ‘high potential’ social entrepreneurs to raise investment and rapidly grow their ventures by building a compelling growth story, finding investors, making strategic connections and supporting the entrepreneur during the journey. We are calling for […]

In this guest post, Big Venture Challenge lead David Bartram explains why he thinks language is the biggest obstacle when it comes to getting social investment. Social investment is growing. The amount of investment offered by social investors, with the explicit primary intention of generating social returns, is currently sized at just over £200m, while 89% of […]

The Education Exchange is a series of events that has been created by UnLtd, Ashoka and Hogan Lovells with the aim of bringing together the most pioneering educators and creators from both inside and outside the classroom. We want to move away from the transactional relationships that often typify the early stages of interaction between […]

New types of social businesses need the right financing options. There is investment available to social ventures and the range of options is increasing almost weekly; social impact bonds, local impact funds, crowdfunding and others. There are two key headaches for both social ventures and investors; developing the venture such that it is investable and […]

Applications for Big Venture Challenge 2015 are open. We’re looking for another 40 outstanding social entrepreneurs who are committed to scaling up their social impact. This is the final year of the 3 year Big Lottery funded programme, so this opportunity may not be repeated. The programme supports ambitious, ‘high potential’ social entrepreneurs to raise […]

Big Venture Challenge entrepreneurs who are tackling some of the UK’s toughest social challenges have attracted £5 million of investment 16 months ahead of schedule. One of those to benefit is Alice Lacey, an award-winning social entrepreneur and founder of now>press>play. Her venture provides primary schools with an affordable learning resource that brings the curriculum […]

Cabinet Office celebrate social investment trailblazers Ellie Ward 28th October 2014 Leaders who have helped pioneer the growth and impact of the global social investment market have been recognised in an awards ceremony held in the heart of the city of London. The Omidyar Network and Big Venture Challenge were two of the winners at […]