What Our Partners Say
CAN Social Investment Partners |
 "I applaud the Breakthrough Social Investment Fund as a visionary innovation that will enable more social enterprises to flourish and improve the lives of countless people. It is crucial for social enterprises to have access to the right kind of finance when they need and a full range of funding options available to them. The Breakthrough Fund is an innovative model that operates similarly to venture capital investment. It enables social enterprises to access this type of finance along with advice and guidance from established professionals." Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector |
 "The issues facing a large corporate are not so dissimilar to a 50-person social enterprise looking to scale up. You need focus. You need experience. You need confidence. Importantly - you need to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit but you do need a different mindset and set of skills to scale-up." Adele Blakebrough MBE, CEO of CAN |
 "In our day job, we back entrepreneurs, people with energy and vision. We found social entrepreneurs who do exactly the same thing but with a social context and that really had some resonance with our values and we were excited by that. What really got us going was Adele (Blakebrough) and CAN. They are what we would consider a window on the sector. They are the experts as far as we are concerned. Our people are involved in these enterprises and find it pretty rewarding. The challenges are not the same, but they are similar to the challenges are businesses are encountering in our day job. That is important for us: we want to do it." Damon Buffini, Managing Partner, Permira |
| "Working with a social entrepreneur is about two-way learning and sharing of experience. They are creative, bold enthusiastic and deeply involved in all aspects of their business." Permira executive |
The Breakthrough Social Entrepreneurs |
 "Breakthrough is allowing us to deploy the best business methods to achieve far-reaching social results." Ulla Barlow, Law for All |
 "Permira's contribution is incisive challenging but with a lightness of touch that makes that work very accessible." Gordon D'Silva, CEO Training For Life |
| "The biggest lesson so far is not be afraid to strip back to basics and uncover what we are really about." Moira Swinbank, CEO Timebank |
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"Our business is becoming more responsive, more professional and is planning its future from a stronger base." Colin Crooks, CEO Green-works
Invest /(invëst) vb: devote (time or energy or money) to an undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result.
The Social Investment Team |
| Denise Vergot Holle CFA, Social Investment Director d.holle@can-online.org.uk 020 7922 7751 Denise's Biography |
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Richard Kennedy, Social Investment Manager |