Step 1
Register your interest and we will send you the programme guidance notes and the application form.
About the programme
Applications to round 1 are now closed. Please register your interest in round 2 of the programme (March 2027 – February 2028)
Thinking about taking on social investment, but not sure your organisation is ready?
The Social Investment Gateway Programme is a free 12-month support programme for charities, social enterprises and community organisations that want to strengthen trading and move nearer to investment readiness.
You’ll get practical support to grow your trading activity, strengthen your organisation and prepare to apply for and manage social investment with confidence. You may also receive a Match Trading™ grant of up to £18,000 or a repayable grant of up to £24,000 to help you invest in your organisation, support your growth and reward trading success.
The programme is led by the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), a national charity supporting social leaders and community organisations to grow their impact through learning, funding and support. It is supported by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment.
Social investment is repayable finance with a social purpose. It may include mortgages and secured loans from charity banks, unsecured loans, blended finance (a mixture of grants and loans), equity investments and more. It is usually used by organisations to support the growth of a trading offer – developing a trading subsidiary, taking on a building that will generate rental income, opening a café or shop, building capacity to take on a contract, or to expand other trading activities.
You can find more about social investment on our How to use social investment resource, or at the Good Finance website or by attending one of our Unlocking Social Investment workshops.
The programme is practical, supportive and places are fully-funded. You’ll join a cohort of around 20 organisations and take part in a tailored programme designed to help you strengthen your organisation, grow your trading income, and become investment ready. Support includes:
• Initial diagnostic support to help identify areas you need to strengthen in order to become investment ready.
• 9 cohort-based learning sessions tailored to the needs of the group, delivered through a mixture of online and face-to-face sessions.
• Business Support Panels, giving you access to expert advice from SSE, sector specialists and corporate partners.
• Social investment insight and connections, including opportunities to meet a range of social investors through our investment surgery sessions.
• Peer coaching to share challenges, experiences and best practice, and learn from others on the same journey.
Topics on our expert led session sessions will be refined following the initial diagnostic support to ensure the content is tailored to the needs, priorities and challenges of the cohort. Indicative topics may include:
- Developing your growth strategy
- Sales and marketing for growth
- Preparation to scale – systems and process
- Understanding investment options
- Financial management and forecasting
- Maximising profitability
- Governance and risk management
- Impact measurement
- Investor engagement skills
By the end of the programme, our aim is that you will:
- Have a stronger trading base, including a stronger business model, customer base, understanding and reach into markets.
- Have more capacity to manage social investment, through stronger systems, finances and leadership.
- Have the confidence to apply for social investment, and real connections to social investors.
- Have the credibility to demonstrate your impact and show that you can manage social investment and loan finance.
The Social Investment Gateway Programme is open to England based organisations and will support 75 leaders of charities or social enterprises across 4 cohorts:
- Round 2 is now accepting expressions of interest. Two cohorts will run from March 2027 to February 2028
Face-to-face provision for both rounds, will be offered in London and Manchester at the start, middle and end of the programme – you will be asked to confirm your location preference.
Who can apply
The Social Investment Gateway Programme is for organisations that:
About the grant
There are TWO types of grants on offer as part of this programme. You can choose one of these:
A Match Trading™ Grant of up to £18,000 – A grant designed to challenge you trade, but that you can only draw down as your trading increases. The Match Trading grant will be drawn down over 12 months in five instalments.
A repayable grant of up to £24,000 (average grant around £22,000). We are piloting repayable grants. There are 10 repayable grants on offer over both rounds. We want to learn how “repayable grants” might help organisations get into social investment. We will share the risk with you. We want to work with organisations who will learn with us.
You can choose which one you would like to apply for. We will discuss this with you as part of the application process. Both grants are designed to help you invest in and grow your trading activity and can be used flexibly to help you do that.
Programme partners
We know that many groups — especially those led by and for Black and minoritised communities, d/Deaf and disabled people, women, and LGBTQ+ communities face additional barriers to accessing social investment. That’s why we’ve built this programme in partnership with expert organisations:
Voice4Change England
National membership organisation advocating for the Black and Minoritised voluntary and community sector.
Inclusion Unlimited
A disabled-led consultancy that co-designs services and solutions to be inclusive and accessible for d/Deaf and disabled people.
Consortium
The UK’s largest network of LGBT+ voluntary and community organisations, offering specialist knowledge and support to LGBT+ led groups.
We will also partner with social investors including:
The Key Fund
The Key Fund is a pioneering social investor supporting community and social enterprises across the North and Midlands. It provides tailored, flexible blended finance—loans and grants- to support positive community impact, sustainability, and economic regeneration.
Together, we are committed to making this programme inclusive, culturally responsive, and designed around your needs and ambitions.
Frequently asked questions
This programme is a gateway to social investment. You must be intending to grow your organisation through applying for social investment in the next three years. This may still be at ideas stage, and you may still be testing your business model, or need to grow your organisation, your trading base, and your systems before applying for social investment, but there must be a reasonable intention to do this, and it must feel like a reasonable possibility to us.
No, but it might help if you do. Most social investors are really happy to have an initial chat about your ideas over the phone. If the social investor feels you are not ready for social investment yet, that should not stop you applying for this programme.
It depends – this programme is primarily to support organisations that are preparing to take social investment for the first time, but if you feel there are reasons why your organisation needs support now, please talk to us. You are unlikely to be supported if we feel that you have a strong track record of managing social investments. However, if you have had an initial small social investment, but now need a larger investment, or have taken on a mortgage, but now need to grow trading activity, we may look at this.
Yes. We will talk to you about this during the course of your application. We will also need permission from you to talk to your social investor about what support they think you might need. You are unlikely to get funding from us, if a social investor is ready to fund your organisation, but if they feel you need additional support before taking on larger social investment, that is fine.
The Reach Fund, run by Social Investment Business, is a grant programme that provides grants to help organisations supply the final information that social investors need before making an investment offer, such as business plans or financial models. It can be accessed through a referral from an approved social investor, as part of an application for social investment. If you are currently working on a Reach Fund application or have a Reach Fund grant then you can still apply for this programme. We will ask you for permission to talk to the social investor who referred you for the Reach Fund to assess where you are in the process.
Yes, but we will require evidence of purchase and insurance. For vehicles, we will need to see the MOT and any required licences or permits. We will retain an asset register for 5 years and may require some of the funds to be returned, or repurposed in agreement with us, if you sell the asset or cease to use it for social purposes within that time.
Yes. You can apply if you have attended previous SSE programmes and have applied to SSE before. You can also apply if you are on a current SSE programme/have an SSE grant which ends before 1st October 2026 (for Round 1) or 1st March 2027 (for Round 2).
This programme is funded by public funding, and therefore UK Subsidy Regulations apply. We will pay the grant to you under UK Subsidy Small Finance rules. If you have never heard of this, it is unlikely to affect you. If this is of concern, for example, because you already have over £200k of UK Subsidy, please contact us.
The programme is specifically for you as a senior leader of your organisation and the grant is given to your organisation. The person attending the programme should apply and commit to attend the programme. If this person leaves the organisation during the learning programme, then we may agree a replacement at our discretion. If the lead person leaves during the grant or loan period, then we will require an alternative contact. If communication breaks down, there is a risk we will withdraw the grant or require repayment of the loan, so it is important that the organisation remains in contact with us.
If your organisation is run by people who work for or are trustees of SSE or Access, please contact us before making an application to ensure that there is no conflict of interest.
We’re committed to making this programme as inclusive and accessible as possible. If you have any learning, mental health, or physical access requirements – we want to ensure you can take part fully and comfortably. If you’d like to speak to someone confidentially about your needs or possible adjustments, please contact us at [email protected].
How to apply
Step 2
Read the guidance notes and attend an information session (dates to follow)
Step 3
Apply using the online application form provided when you register interest. Complete and submit your application by noon on Friday, 6 November 2026.
Get support
If you need support or have questions contact us at [email protected]
Register your interest
Register your interest to receive programme guidance notes and application form. Please note that registering interest does not mean you have applied to the programme.