We invest in charities and social enterprises that have ambitious growth plans, and that will benefit from the Impetus venture philanthropy approach. This involves a high level of engagement so it is essential that the organisation both wants and needs Impetus support. We only invest in a limited number of new charities and social enterprises each year and we undertake thorough due diligence on all potential investments.
How we work
We do not, under any circumstances, offer funding alone. We only support charities and social enterprises through our venture philanthropy package of management support, strategic funding and specialist expertise. Read more about our venture philanthropy model and our package of support.
To know if your organisation qualifies for our package of support, please refer to the eligibility checker.
What we fund
Please look carefully at our selection criteria, which applies to all applicants:
- Coverage: Impetus backs charities and social enterprises that are working with significant numbers of economically disadvantaged people.
- Ambition: We support charities and social enterprises that have the ambition to effect far-reaching change for the economically disadvantaged.
- Outcome focus: We seek charities and social enterprises that deliver outcomes addressing challenging issues such as long-term unemployment or reoffending. We focus on outcomes relating to increased educational attainment, skills and employment. Organisations we back have a commitment to monitoring and evaluating their outcomes.
- Talented chief executive: We seek chief executives with the vision, energy, enterprise and determination to motivate their teams to deliver ambitious plans that aim to help more people move out of poverty. Quality of leadership is an important factor in our decision making.
- Distinctive and good prospects for sustainability: We target our support at charities and social enterprises that are distinctive and have strong prospects for success and sustainability in their sector.
- Supporting the whole organisation: We provide funding and expertise to support the development of a whole organisation and not just a particular project or activity.
Structural criteria
- A registered charity or social enterprise
- Turnover £250k+
- Operational and with audited accounts for at least three years
- HQ and significant portion of management in England. The majority of organisations supported by Impetus operate only in the UK; a small number operate internationally.
Exclusions
Organisations in the following categories:
- focusing on animals, culture and heritage rather than people
- umbrella organisations/networks
- services are conditional upon the acceptance, profession or observance of a particular religious position
- substantially/exclusively working in the areas of research or advocacy
- seeking funding for a particular project/building?
Eligibility checker:
If you think you satisfy the selection criteria above, the first stage is to complete our eligibility checker and submit a brief expression of interest. We will contact you if we want to pursue your application further.
Read more about our current portfolio of charities and social enterprises.
As an organisation, we’re on a different planet now than we were at the beginning of this relationship.
Jenny Rogers
Chief Executive (former), Leap Confronting Conflict