Briefing One: Points from the literature

Our previous study into charities and social investment on behalf of the Charity commission, flagged a need to improve mutual understanding between investors and investees. Our starting point for new research was to review existing literature and insights.

In this first briefing we share our observations, argue for more detailed market segmentation in social investment research and for more effort to integrate social investment research with wider charity and charity finance research. We also suggest that for smaller charities, social investment is a means to deliver on their mission and not a goal in its own right. It was really helpful to use NCVO’s small charities almanac for its great breakdown of smaller charity stats.