Impetus Trust to double investments by 2013

One of the UK’s leading venture philanthropy organisations plans to nearly double the number of social enterprises and charities it works with in the next two years.

Currently the Impetus Trust, which combines grants with pro-bono business support from corporate partners, has 13 active investments in its portfolio. By 2013 CEO Daniela Barone Soares said this would rise to 22.

‘The reason why we are confident we can do this is our own learning, which we have undergone through our own processes,’ said Barone Soares.

She added that she was confident of attracting the additional philanthropic investment and pro-bono support needed because there were quality social enterprises and charities in the Impetus Trust pipeline of investment.

‘If you don’t have a pipeline of investees people look at you and say “what do you need money to fund”, and again if you don’t have a pipeline of great organisations to work with, there is no point trying to get pro bono support,’ said Barone Soares.

She added that, of late, Impetus Trust has actively sought out social enterprises and charities that it wants to work with and it has just hired its first portfolio director to take a ‘strategic’ view of the combination of organisations in the Impetus Trust portfolio.

Impetus Trust recently reported a 40 per cent growth across its portfolio in the number of people helped by organisations it works with and an average growth in income for those organisations of 31 per cent.