Charity Financing is Mainstream News

Scope today announced its plans to use its property portfolio to create a "leveraged funding" package of donations, loans and tax breaks. This may not be big news for the sector where, more and more, this type of funding is business as usual.  But what is interesting is the fact that the story has been considered newsworthy by mainstream media.  It is a front page story in the Financial Time, it was featured on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning and also appeared in the Independent.  The Saturday Money Guardian this week also featured a front page article on community interest companies and their role in renewable community energy schemes.  In both of these cases, the banks mentioned are Charity Bank, Triodos Bank and Unity Bank rather than the usual mainstream contenders.  This is great news all round and shows the value of keeping congruency of mission throughout the entire project process rather than treating the financing element as something separate.  Let us hope that it brings confidence and hope to other mission driven organisations in their quest to weather the economic storm approaching.