Technical Assistance

Technical Assistance (TA) is a grant fund that works with the Growth Impact Fund to increase access to social investment for diverse, underrepresented communities that have historically been excluded by the mainstream (and social) investment sector. It does this by providing funding and support to social entrepreneurs before and during the investment process.

The TA fund provides:

• Support for founders who want to take on investment (we also call this reparation for Due Diligence): To address some of the barriers diverse, underrepresented founders face when accessing social investment, we help bridge the communication gap between how founders think and speak about their business and what social investors need to know to be able to assess their application. This is known as the due diligence process and helps investors identify any potential risks they might face. It’s not too dissimilar to a lender valuation during a mortgage process.

• Wrap-around support after taking on investment (also known as post-investment support): We know that finance is often not enough to address the challenges and barriers that diverse, underrepresented founders face. To help with this, we give investees tailored ongoing wrap-around support to help them handle the complexities of transitioning from an early-stage to a growth-stage organisation.

Why Preparation for Due Diligence?

• Due Diligence is what investors call the process of assessing/evaluating a potential investee organisation to establish the opportunity (and related risks) of investing in them.

• To facilitate this assessment/evaluation investors need certain aspects of the organisation to be captured and formalised, e.g. growth plan, financial projections, impact model.

• If an organisation can’t meet these requirements, an investor is unable to determine their suitability for investment and the organisation is often precluded from investment, regardless of their potential to succeed and generate meaningful impact.

• The TA facility recognises barriers to meeting these initial requirements and provides support to address due diligence gaps.

How Does Preparation for Due Diligence Work?

Due Diligence Preparation

• Technical and financial support is offered to founders who meet GIF’s eligibility requirements but aren’t ready for Due Diligence (DD).
• Key development areas are identified, and a DD Preparation plan is agreed with the founder.
• After the preparation work is complete, GIF reassesses your application and either advances the business to DD or introduces you to peer investors in the sector.
• This support can include a £5,000 - £15,000 budget for services like impact consultancy, development of growth plans and financial forecasts, care support, or capacity costs.
• Pro bono help on financial modelling or pitch deck development may also be provided (or arranged) through the TA facility.

Due Diligence

• Market opportunity
• Business model and product
• Finance and growth plan
• Social impact
• Policies (including DEI)
• Team, Ops & Governance

Who are We Looking to Support?

To be eligible for preparation for due diligence support your organisations must meet the following criteria:

1. Must be tackling inequality in one of our sector focus areas and meet our eligibility criteria (see our apply page for more detail)
2. Have not previously received social investment (other than angel and family rounds)
3. Have a turnover under £350,000
4. Be less than 1 year away from investment (we'll review this once you've applied)
5. Early-stage and revenue generating (we'll review this once you've applied

How to Apply

To apply for the TA fund, you simply need to submit an application for investment. Our team will review your application and see if you’re a good fit.

If you’re specifically looking for TA investment, please add this to the box on the second page of the form that asks, “Is there anything else you would like to share with us about where your organisation currently is in terms of applying for investment?". This will help the team when reviewing your application.

Who we've helped

Living in Fitness

Living in Fitness (‘LiF’) provides exercise classes for older adults (aimed at 60+). The mission is to keep older adults physically fit, preventing disability and enabling them to live independently for longer. The social connection offered by the classes is also important for tackling social isolation and boosting mental health. Since starting with community classes, LiF have expanded their offering to provide online exercise classes and to provide classes for residential homes. Before being approved for RPA investment of £55,000 to invest in staff growth by GIF, the business had been bootstrapping their growth and relying on grants. The founder comes from a racialised community and has lived experience of the positive benefits of exercise to combat social isolation and anti-social behaviour.

How we helped

LiF received TA funding to work on a comprehensive pre-investment support plan which included coaching on articulating social impact, engaging in market analysis, creating a growth and business plan and translating that into a robust financial forecast. Alongside the technical support, the TA team advised and coached the founder throughout the diligence process and focused on building confidence through the investment process.

Patchwork Hub

Patchwork Hub (PH) is an end-to-end employment solution for employers who want to improve their approaches to accessibility and inclusion, providing a full range of services across attraction, recruitment, and retention of talent. PH’s business model has two broad categories – their recruitment platform and Accessible Consultancy, Training & Support services. The founder of the organisation had to give up opportunities that she loved because of inaccessible practices and through her community building work realised that she was not alone in this problem, which inspired her to set up the venture. The founder is female and has lived experience of physical disability. GIF approved a £250,000 equity investment for staff growth as the first and lead investor in a £750,000 fundraising round.

How we helped

PH received TA funding to work on a comprehensive pre-investment support plan which included coaching on articulating social impact, developing strong governance structures, developing a growth plan and financial forecast, and creating a customer acquisition strategy.