Assistance and Business Loans for Ethical Enterprise
Many entrepreneurs are motivated to establish businesses with a social agenda, although they might be in private ownership, or set up with capital raised through issuing shares. Despite being successful ventures, such businesses frequently find it difficult to raise finance from conventional lenders, such as banks, who do not understand the social agenda. LRS set up the ABLE Fund to fill this gap. Loans are normally between £5,000 and £50,000, but larger sums may be available.
The kinds of businesses we will lend to from this fund are those which:
- Have an ethical product or service (fair trade, green transport, renewable energy, fuel economy products, recycling, organics, regeneration, services targeted at under-represented groups)
- Have an ethical, social or environmental purpose
- Are consciously disability led, women led, or BME led
- Create employment opportunities for local people, people with disabilities, young people, and other disadvantaged groups
- Are inner city businesses committed to investing in their community
- Are concerned with property-based regeneration
- Are concerned with affordable housing
- Have a policy to invest a percentage of their profit in ethical, social, or charitable purposes
- Have a strong stakeholder representation but are profit making.