Somerset Social Investment Programme

Grant details

Grant size:Funding up to £40,000, blending an unsecured loan with grant funding. The loan will have a fixed interest rate.
Apply by:September 2025
Decision in:Late October, 2025

Who is it for?Local groups looking for social investment.

What is it for?To grow income from selling goods or services.

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We offer blended loans and grants so social enterprises and charities can grow the income they earn from selling their goods or services.

 We can offer this thanks to funding from Somerset Council. As the money is repayable, we’re able to reinvest it, by ‘recycling’ it into new investments.  

What is blended finance?

The Somerset Social Investment Programme (SSIP) offers blended finance. This means you get funding which is a combined loan and grant. You’ll need to pay the loan part of the funding back to us, but not the grant. The funding is usually offered as two-part loan and one-part grant, but the final split is decided on a case-by-case basis.

You can ask us for blended finance from £10,000 up to a maximum of £40,000 so you: 

  • can purchase equipment or property
  • have working capital while you grow
  • can bridge a shortfall for a short period.

Our blended finance includes an unsecured loan. This means your social enterprise or charity isn’t at risk of losing any of its assets. We can’t fund start-up costs, but we are able to invest in the earlier stages of your business model, especially where other lenders may not consider investing.

The grant element of the funding will be restricted, and you’ll need to use it to support your investment idea. It can’t be used for general running costs.  

How much will it cost me?

The interest paid is fixed for the duration of the loan. This is normally 6%, repayable over 5 years. The first year’s repayment is often interest only. There will be an administrative fee added to your loan, which is 1% of the value of the loan and is added onto the total owed. As part of the application process, we’ll create a draft schedule of repayments for you.  

For example, if you take out a £30,000 investment from SSIP over 5 years:

(1) £20,000 is repaid, plus 6% interest. In the first year you’ll repay £101 a month. For the next 4 years you’ll repay £474 a month. The total you’ll repay over the 5 years is £23,983.

(2) £10,000 is awarded as a grant, and doesn’t need to be repaid.

This means you’ll receive a £30,000 investment at a total cost of £23,983. 

Which groups can apply?

You’ll need to meet our minimum standards to apply for any of our funding programmes. For our Somerset Social Investment Programme, you’ll also need to meet the additional requirements:

  • The organisation must be incorporated. We’re unable to accept applications from unincorporated community groups
  • You’ll need to have filed at least one set of annual accounts and have an income at least double the amount you’re applying for
  • You’ll need to be able to show that you’ve tested the business case, provide financial information to show that it can become a viable trading model and that you’ll be able to repay the loan

Our minimum standards cover things like:

  • the types of groups we can give a grant to and how we expect them to be run
  • how we expect those groups to manage their finances
  • how those groups keep people safe.

All of our minimum standards are on our FAQ page, where you can also find lots of information about applying for funding.

When do we have to apply?

This funding programme is open all year round. There are 4 deadlines during the year. The current deadline is September 2025, with decisions made in late October, 2025.

What can blended finance be used for?

Our blended finance can be used for capital, working capital or bridging finance.

Capital: Purchasing equipment or property to enable growth. 

Working capital: Paying for staff/capacity within the team to grow trading.

Bridging Finance: A short term loan to ‘bridge the gap’ for when you want to buy something, but you’re waiting for money to become available. For example, this could be because you’re waiting for something to be sold.  

How are decisions made?

Your application will be assessed by one of our consultants who are experts in social investment. They’ll read through what you’ve written, look at your supporting documents, and check places like the Charity Commission or Companies House, and your website. We may ask for references or seek views if other organisations as part of the process. They’ll work closely with you throughout the application process.

A recommendation will usually then be made, and a panel will make the final decision. Most of our panels include some of our Trustees as well as some independent members.

How do I apply to this programme?

We ask all applicants to talk to us before applying, to make sure social investment is the right option. If you are invited to apply to this programme we will need to see a detailed business plan. That should include the following: 

  • Details of key people within the organisation
  • Your current trading model with information on your trading history
  • Your business proposition – how will the investment help to build your trading model
  • Costed set of projections (profit and loss, cashflow forecast) including where the investment will be used to create growth
  • Social impact statement
  • Market analysis
  • Marketing plan
  • Risk register

Please note, we may ask for more information on a case-by-case basis.  

If we feel your business plan needs more work, or additional planning needs to happen, we may be able to offer some support around this.  

Alongside your business plan, we’ll ask you to fill out a short application form.  

We will then take this to our Loan Committee.

We’ll let you know when we need you need to submit your application by. We’ll also invite applicants to present in front of the Committee.   

How will you monitor the investment?

If you’re successful in applying for funding from this programme, we’ll work closely with you throughout the life of the investment. We’ve broken this down into two aspects: 

Going concern 

We’ll request quarterly management reports from you, to ensure your organisation is financially secure.  

Social impact 

Our investment programme is designed to support organisations that benefit their communities through different trading models. We’ll ask for updates on the project and quarterly management reports. Once a year we’ll have a monitoring call or visit with you to talk about the impact of the investment.

We’re an open and friendly team. You can come to us at any point to discuss your investment and chat about how things are going.  

The legal responsibility 

The loans we offer are unsecured. This means we don’t take security out on property or assets owned by your organisation. However, late or missed payments may mean you’ll receive a penalty fee.

We ask all organisations who are offered an investment to sign an agreement with us. This agreement will outline the terms and conditions of the funding and our expectations of you. In this document we’ll also share our promise to you as a social lender. We’ll go through this as part of the application process.

Here are some things you need to know before getting in touch with us: 

  • Early repayments without prior communication with us will incur a penalty fee
  • Changing the monthly repayment amount before agreement from us will result in a penalty fee
  • Repayments are expected to be set up via Direct Debit on or around the 15th of the month 
  • Failure to repay the loan in the set-out agreement may impact other applications for funding to us

Book a call to discuss

Get help with this funding programme

If you’d like to find out more about this funding programme, want to ask us any questions, please get in touch. You can also book a time to chat to us online using the link below.

Amelia Thompson (She/Her)
Senior Programmes Manager
Working days: Mon - Fri

Grant details

Grant size:Funding up to £40,000, blending an unsecured loan with grant funding. The loan will have a fixed interest rate.
Apply by:September 2025
Decision in:Late October, 2025

Who is it for?Local groups looking for social investment.

What is it for?To grow income from selling goods or services.

Book a call to discuss

Eligibility quiz

Check if you’re eligible to apply for our grants & funding.

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FAQs

You can find our minimum standards and everything else you need to know about applying on our FAQs page.

Browse our FAQs