15 Sep 2015
First BIG Potential Breakthrough Evaluation Report Released
BIG Potential Breakthrough has the capacity to transform how Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations approach investment opportunities, improving their chances of being successful. It is now the most significant investment readiness fund in the country. The Big Lottery Fund and Social Investment Business prioritise the process of evaluation and believe it is vital that the lessons learned are shared with the wider market and help to shape the programme going forwards.
The first BIG Potential Breakthrough Evaluation Report has recently been published and is available to view in full here. The report aims to make social investment better through the process of being transparent and sharing experience.
The initial results from the data analysis provide some interesting findings in relation to the effectiveness of the programme, the nature of VCSE organisations and the current state of the VCSE sector in relation to investment readiness. Key findings from the report include:
• 3,898 VCSEs have registered on the BIG Potential Breakthrough website
• The average grant awarded is £31,248 per organisation
• Nearly £1 million of grant awards have been made
• Engagement issues remain with disability-led VCSEs not being engaged sufficiently
BIG Potential Breakthrough is still at an early stage but this first evaluation is important in making sure that the investment readiness programme continues to develop and adapt to the needs of the VCSEs it seeks to fund. It is hoped that VCSEs will continue to scale up their operations via this funding model; enabling them to grow their impact on their communities and beneficiaries significantly. Building on this, and future evaluations will help in understanding whether this is providing optimum support for VCSE organisations to raise investment and scale up their social impact.
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