The Growth Impact Fund releases its first bi-annual learning report.
Project
Radically redesigning social investment for underserved founders
The challenge Investment needs a radical redesign. New evidence is highlighting the barriers that underrepresented founders face. The Adebowale Commission …
Growth Impact Fund: Our approach to continuous learning
A deep dive into the continuous learning approach we helped develop for the Growth Impact Fund.
The case for change: why we need a fund dedicated to under-represented founders
Why the Growth Impact Fund was set up and its case for change in the social investment sector.
Back to the future: Redesigning social investment to deliver what we promised
In this blog we share our views on how social investment can be brought back to the future and re-designed …
Comment: Social investment needs to re-establish its true north
In this joint response to the Adebowale Commission on Social Investment report, UnLtd, Big Issue Invest and Shift confirm their …
Project
Building eBay’s support for social entrepreneurs
The Challenge Shift have helped us from the inception of eBay for Change to ensure that we are building the …
Funders’ Collaborative Hub: the new role that is emerging
Nick Stanhope shares how the Funders’ Collaborative Hub’s role has evolved as it seeks to inspire and support greater interdependence, collaboration and collective action amongst UK grant funders.
Project
A Design Lab for foundations and philanthropy
The opportunity Philanthropy and grantmaking is under increased scrutiny, at a time when the role of foundations and their resources …
Open enquiry: How can we multiply the collective impact of funding for youth mental health?
Shift’s Nick Stanhope shares the new open enquiry for youth mental health funders from Foundation Design Lab
Getting out of debt: Solving the equity equation for social innovation
Kicking off a series with Pioneers Post, Shift’s Commercial Director shares our own experience accessing social investment.
Beyond Demand: the social sector’s real need for patient capital
We’re publishing brand new social investment research that reveals a significant funding gap in the social sector. Here, Commercial Lead …
Research
Beyond Demand: the social sector’s need for patient, risk-bearing capital
Research conducted by Shift in partnership with CAF Venturesome, Unltd and principal funder Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
Introducing the Foundation Design Lab
How can we make more collective progress when funding single organisations?
Introducing the Digital Fund — and a different way of funding digital
Introducing the Digital Fund support team
Building the Ecosystem: an alternative to building the next new thing
Roles, collective assets and putting people at the heart of ecosystems. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
Research
Unlocking More Philanthropic Capital for Social Investment: An Exploration of Best Practice
Improving the financial support for social entrepreneurs who are using non-traditional business models and structures
Improving the financial support for social entrepreneurs who are using non-traditional business models and structures
Alongside more traditional charities, a new generation of social purpose organisations has emerged, and the social entrepreneurs behind them are …
Changing Mindsets: Revenue, Markets, and Competition- Are these still ‘dirty words’ in the Charity Sector?
As the lines between profit and purpose continue to blur, charities face some tough questions about how they should respond …
5 Principles of Continuously Improving Social Impact
Confidence, great data, living breathing plans, design skills and consensus. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
Scale with Care: 6 Ways Early Stage Social Innovation Gets Killed Off
Assumptions, failure, targets and flexibility in scaling social innovation projects. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
From Gordon Gekko to Grant Funding: leveraging the full spectrum of capital to solve social problems
Research
Driving continuous improvement: Insights from funding social tech
Commentable version here. Report giving a set of 5 insights and 8 practical recommendations on how funders and social organisations can …
Project
Improving the social investment landscape
The challenge The UK’s social investment landscape is evolving, but there remain many challenges and barriers to its potential as …
Driving continuous improvement: lessons from funding social tech
There is one question that dominates our work at Shift and has done for the last 8 years: how do …
5 Lessons in Developing Social Tech Ventures
Digital technology plays a powerful role in the response to social problems. Its doesn’t provide the answers to everything and, by …
The Question That Tech-for-Good Funding Should Care Most About
Grant funding has a vital role to play in social technology innovation. It can support the higher costs and …
The Next Frontier for Social Impact Investment
Featured in the Huffington Post
The Next Frontier for Social Impact Investment
Social Impact Investment is explored by Nick Stanhope.
Successful commercial entrepreneurs have to prioritise building two types of value within their ventures: user value and financial value. The job of creating value for users is hard. It relies on a profound understanding of the intrinsic motivations of the target audience. It requires the time, investment and experience…
Shift’s development process for social ventures
Nick and Tori explain the process that shapes and structures Shift’s work designing social ventures. As part of our three year partnership with the Nominet Trust, we have intended to codify and share this process more explicitly, both for our own benefit and in the hope that other mission-driven designers and social entrepreneurs find it useful.
Why Social Entrepreneurs Need to Be Better Than Their Commercial Counterparts
Featured in the Huffington Post
Why Social Entrepreneurs Need to Be Better Than Their Commercial Counterparts
Successful commercial entrepreneurs have to prioritise building two types of value within their ventures: user value and financial value, but social entrepreneurs need all three.
5 reasons why business models suit behaviour change
Business models don’t suit every social mission. As Dan Pallotta says in his March 2013 TED Talk, “social business needs …
Real corporate responsibility is about making less money
2012 wasn’t a good year for corporate responsibility. As society continued to reel from the effects of the global recession, …
He Has Done a Lot for Charity
Last week’s Livestrong 15th Anniversary event in Austin, Texas, looked like an odd occasion. Everyone there seemed pretty sure that …
Too important to make lots of money from
I’ve had lots of e-mails, tweets and a few calls from journalists asking for a bit more explanation on something …
Funding Historypin
Sincethe launch of Historypin in New York July this year, we’ve been blown away by people’s response to it…