Figurative: Arts & Culture Impact Fund

Overview

Background and History

The Arts & Culture Impact Fund brings together a mix of public, private and philanthropic investors – Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Better Society Capital, Bank of America, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Freelands Foundation and Nesta. The fund is the world’s biggest impact investment fund for the creative arts.

The fund builds on the success of the Arts Impact Fund, a pilot initiative launched in 2015 to demonstrate how impact investment could transform the arts and cultural sector.

Objectives

The Arts & Culture Impact Fund sets out to achieve several objectives for the arts, cultural and heritage sectors:

• Provide organisations with appropriate and bespoke repayable finance
• Develop the financial resilience of borrowers
• Support organisations to better monitor, evaluate and communicate their social impact
• Attract additional investment into the sector to help organisations thrive
• Promote the wider positive impact the arts, culture and heritage have on society and support more organisations to benefit individuals and communities through their work.

Overview

Funding Available
£150,000 – £1,000,000

Loan Type
Secured and Unsecured

Repayment Period
Until May 2032

Interest Rates
From 5 to 8.5% Representative

Fees
1% completion fee
2% per annum, pro rata holding fee (when funds are held longer than 3 months)
No early repayment fee

Geographic Area Covered
United Kingdom (UK)

Eligibility criteria

Your organisation’s primary activity is in arts, culture and heritage

Your organisation’s core operations or activity should be based in the arts, culture and heritage. For example, a dementia charity using art to engage its beneficiaries would not be eligible to apply for investment. However, a theatre providing outreach performances in local schools to target disadvantaged children would meet our criteria.

Eligible organisations must work in one of the following disciplines:

• Architecture
• Combined arts
• Comedy
• Crafts
• Culture and heritage in the natural environment
• Dance
• Fashion design & textiles
• Film
• Graphic design
• Libraries & archives
• Literature
• Museums
• Music
• Sector support organisations
• Theatre and performance
• Visual arts
• Workspace provider

Your organisation is registered and operating in the UK

• They can only work with organisations registered in the UK and primarily benefiting communities in the UK. Digital organisations will need to demonstrate their primary audiences are based in the UK.
• They do not make loans to individuals, sole traders, partnerships or unincorporated bodies (unless their partners/members are exclusively corporate bodies).

Your organisation has a clear social mission, reflected in its structure and governance

• To be eligible, your organisation has to demonstrate that has a clear social mission. This may include asset-lock and a restriction of the personal gain derived from its work. Charities, community interest companies and community benefit societies with a recognised charitable purpose are eligible for investment. 
• Other incorporated entities, such as companies limited by shares, will be considered based on the strength of their social mission and whether the majority of their profit will be reinvested into that mission.

Your organisation is able to demonstrate measurable social impact on individuals or communities in the UK

When applying, you will need to show how your organisation delivers specific positive outcomes for individuals or communities. The expectation is that a plan will be put in place to evaluate progress towards these outcomes throughout the life of the investment. In general, they expect organisations to have articulated their theory of change either formally or implicitly as well as to have developed (or be in the process of developing) appropriate tools and processes for impact management.

Previous investees

They support cultural and creative organisations across the UK, from grassroots music and arts venues to major theatre and dance companies, museums and heritage sites. Click link above to learn more.