Resonance - Twenty Years Of Impact - Report - Page 5
1 FOREWORD
“I REALLY STARTED
TO UNDERSTAND
THE CORE BUSINESS
OF RESONANCE,
WHICH IS HOUSING
FOR THOSE IN THE
GREATEST NEED.”
4
The pupil
I am very pleased to have been invited to compose
this foreword to Resonance’s 20th anniversary
report because it was Resonance that got me into the
business of impact investing in the first place, some
eight years ago. So, the pupil gets to introduce the
master teacher, quite an honour for me.
I am currently deputy chair of the UK’s Impact
Investing Institute, which was set up more than
two years ago to promote impact investing in
the UK, with financial support from several UK
Government departments and some fifteen financial
services providers. The Institute’s origins lie with
an advisory group commissioned by the Cabinet
Office and led by Elizabeth Corley, then chair of
Allianz Global Investors. That advisory group wrote a
substantive, even transformational report, published
in November 2017, that was sufficiently wellreceived at the Cabinet Office that they responded
by requesting that Elizabeth lead an implementation
taskforce to seek to convert some of the
recommendations into reality for the UK’s growing
impact investing market. That taskforce operated for
over a year before deciding to institutionalise itself
as a more permanent source of advocacy for impact
investing, and the Impact Investing Institute was set
up in November of 2019.
Resonance was instrumental in shaping SITR
I was only invited to join Elizabeth’s advisory group
in 2016 because of the modest amount I had learned
about impact investing while I was head of UBS
Wealth in the UK and Jersey (from which I am now
retired). My unit’s sustainability and philanthropy
people had locked onto a pioneering investment
initiative called Resonance Bristol SITR (Social
Investment Tax Relief) Fund (now Resonance
South West SITR Fund), which proposed to use
an impact-specific form of tax relief to support
investment in charities and social enterprises that
were seeking to improve people’s lives and support
community institutions in Bristol. Resonance had
been instrumental in shaping SITR at its launch
by Government in 2014, and were now one of the
leading users and advocates of the new scheme.
It was Resonance Bristol SITR that introduced me
to Imperial Sports Ground, which makes sport,
leisure and recreational facilities available to all
...Bristol 24/7, a community interest company
that is the leading media outlet in the South West,
but also works with other organisations to create
impactful community projects... Raised in Bristol, a
social enterprise that provides childcare and early
education for children in community spaces. In
addition to advocating for the Fund with my UBS
client advisors, I also made my own investment,
and so for the last six years have participated in
the growth and challenges of social enterprises in
the South West. And of course, when Resonance
later launched the Resonance West Midlands
SITR Fund two years later, I also invested, and am
now earning and learning from social enterprises
such as Wildgoose Rural Training, which provides
access to the rural environment for people with
learning disabilities and mental health issues...
Jericho Foundation, which provides employment
opportunities and training for people who have
experienced severe disadvantage, and Gro
Organic, which designs educational programmes
based on the outdoors and growing food.
The core business
In the following years, while working on projects
with the Institute and its predecessor organisations,
I found myself intersecting repeatedly with
Resonance because they operate at the heart of
impact investing in the UK, and at nearly £300
million in assets under management, are one of the
most significant dedicated impact asset managers in
the UK.
When the taskforce gathered support for a set of
proposals to reform Social Investment Tax Relief, we
found Resonance, and especially Daniel Brewer, to
be an authoritative partner and passionate advocate.
But it was only when I worked with the Institute on a
ground-breaking piece of research on the relevance
of social housing investments for UK pensions
that I really started to understand the core business
of Resonance, which is housing for those in the
greatest need. Our study, ‘Is there an investment
case for social and affordable housing in the
UK?’ posed that question to UK pension funds and
found few of them prepared to embrace the types
of socially impactful and financially responsible
investment opportunities offered by Resonance
and others. But after our report was published, I was
delighted to see that Greater Manchester Pension
Fund did indeed see the value of specialist housing
provided by responsible asset managers, and was
a cornerstone investor in Resonance’s National
Homelessness Property Fund 2, to be followed, I
expect, by other local government pension funds.
My next significant advocacy and research project
at the Institute, in collaboration with The Good
Economy, culminated in ‘Scaling up institutional
investment for place-based impact’, which laid out
a logic and a guide for pension funds to invest with
intention in investments that delivered financial
returns, while contributing to the economic
resilience of local communities. And in this area,
also, we had much to learn from Resonance, which
was cited a number of times in the report as a
leader in place-based impact investing suitable for
institutional investors.
But I am not solely a director of the Impact Investing
Institute. I am also a director of the Schroders BSC
Social Impact Trust, an £85 million investment
trust set up as a partnership between Schroders
and Big Society Capital to provide access to highimpact, private market investments, in a form
that permits ordinary investors to participate, in
any amount, through its listing on the London
Stock Exchange. The Trust draws on Big Society
Capital’s unique experience in sourcing the highestimpact investments in the UK that also meet the
requirements of market investors for a competitive
risk-adjusted return. The Trust focuses on a very
small number of funds managed by dedicated
impact asset managers, and yes, as you likely
guessed, Resonance is represented there, in this
case through its Real Lettings Property Fund. The
Fund is a collaboration with homelessness charity St.
Mungo’s, and provides housing for vulnerable people
moving on from temporary accommodation.
Resonance generates some of the highest
quality impact reporting
Although impact investors put a high premium
on measurement of impact, it is often difficult to
gather comprehensive and conclusive impact data.
Resonance generates some of the highest-quality
impact reporting in our sector, and I appreciate
the model it provides for others. But there are
always going to be gaps in impact reporting, and,
as an investor, I feel a compelling need to believe
in the motivations, culture and commitment of
the organisation doing the investing, so that I
know that they are doing the right thing when
no one is measuring. My eight years interacting
with Resonance and its people, as pupil, investor,
colleague, collaborator and client, have given me
that confidence.
In the following pages, you will hear from a wide
variety of voices who have been travel companions
on Resonance’s twenty-year journey - partners,
collaborators, supporters, investors, and in particular
you will hear from those who have benefited directly
from the firm’s investments in place- based social
entrepreneurship or housing for those exposed to
homelessness. Most of us have tried to contribute
something to Resonance’s mission, but almost all of
us have been net beneficiaries of the commitment,
wisdom and experience of Resonance and its people
over the last twenty years. For my part, I am deeply
grateful for my association with Resonance, and am
looking forward to the next twenty years with them.
JAMIE BRODERICK
5