24 March 2020
Nesta Launches Impact Investment in Arts and Culture
Repayable loans of up to £1,000,000 available to support the UK’s arts, culture and heritage social enterprises.
Supported by Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Big Society Capital, Bank of America, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Nesta, the Arts & Culture Impact Fund provides substantial impact investment in 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.
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.
Eligible organisations must:
- Be registered and operating in the UK. Digital organisations will need to demonstrate their primary audiences are based in the UK.
- Have core operations or primary activity in the arts, culture and heritage
- Have a clear social mission, reflected in its structure and governance
- Be able to demonstrate measurable social impact on individuals or communities in the UK.
Repayable finance between £150,000 and £1,000,000 is available with a repayment term of one to ten years and interest rates ranging between 3% and 10%.
The following fees apply:
- 1% completion fee
- 2% per annum, pro rata holding fee (minimum holding period is six months)
- No early repayment fee.
Applications can be submitted at any time.