Resonance - Twenty Years Of Impact - Report - Page 52
C £4M DEAL: BEYONDAUTISM
c. £4m secured to purchase and redevelop a property into a school for 56 children with autism
2010
C 250K CHILDREN
have autism in the UK8
THE FIRST AUTISM STRATEGY FOR ENGLAND
Fulfilling and Rewarding Lives, was published with the vision to ensure that ‘all adults
with autism are able to live fulfilling and rewarding lives within a society that accepts
and understands them’
IN THE NEWS...
• The iPad was released and Instagram launched
• David Cameron becomes UK prime minister, forming a coalition with
the Liberal Democrats
• An explosion in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland results in a volcanic
ash plume in the atmosphere over northern and central Europe
RESONANCE KEY MILESTONES
CONNECTIONS
• Daniel from Resonance and Howard Sinclair from St Mungo’s connected.
St Mungo’s had 60 landlords and 120 properties and needed more. Their
first discussion was a considerable trigger towards the development of the
Real Lettings Property Fund and their connection also led to Daniel meeting
Simon Chisholm.
INNOVATIVE
• The National Lottery Community Fund provided St Mungo’s Broadway with
a grant to pay for the development of the Real Lettings Property Fund. This
was the Next Steps Programme’s most successful grant. They provided
£85,000 to see how much private capital could be unlocked and the fund led
to investment of £57m initially - over £250m now.
48K HOUSEHOLDS
in England in temporary accommodation3
KAREN SORAB
BEYONDAUTISM
Successful, but too small for commercial banks
In 2000, I founded a charity to educate children
with autism and by 2008 we were running a highly
successful school in South West London, for eighteen
children of primary school age. We were oversubscribed
with families seeking places for their children and
also acutely aware of the lack of provision for those of
secondary school age. We desperately wanted to expand
but we were at an impasse. We had a sound financial track record and impressive
credentials, our school was judged Outstanding by Ofsted and we were
considered to be innovative leaders in pioneering a new approach to educating,
understanding and accepting those with special needs, especially autism.
However, we were operating out of a small, rented, rapidly aging building, our
existing beneficiary numbers were low at eighteen, as an organisation we were
considered too small in size to be of interest to the commercial banks and it was
clear that it would takes us decades to fundraise the kind of sums we would need
to expand. We needed help to get us to the next level and on 6th May 2008, at the
first ever Good Deals Conference, I found that help in the shape of Daniel Brewer.
Speed dating for enterprises
The Good Deals event was organised by Social Enterprise Magazine (now
Pioneers Post) and was the first event of its kind for both those who needed to
find finance to help their social enterprise develop and grow, and those seeking
to invest in innovative ideas for creating social change. Before attending this
event, I knew nothing about social investment, but I learnt more in that one day
than I had in the previous two years of attending every fundraising conference,
workshop and training course available.
During the conference there was a “speed dating” round where investees, who
signed up, were given two minutes to pitch their social enterprise to potential
investors. Investees were randomly allocated to two-minute slots with four
potential investors and one of the organisations I was allocated to was Resonance.
“I THINK THE FUTURE
FOR IMPACT INVESTING
AND RESONANCE IS VERY
BRIGHT.”
Help and support throughout the process
My pitch to investors was good, but we were nowhere near investment ready
and this is where Dan’s knowledge and expertise came to help. He helped me to
secure a grant from the Adventure Capital Fund to fund our investment readiness
action plan and a feasibility study into the potential costs associated with the
acquisition and redevelopment of a future premises. He helped us to generate
five-year cashflow forecasts predicting the likely growth of the charity and our
ability to fund investment. After we found a building we thought suitable, Dan
brought in the professional experts to make sure our cost projections were
accurate, he secured interest from and meetings with a wide range of willing
social investors.
He helped us to create an investment pitch book and he accompanied me to
every investor meeting. Daniel guided us through the investment process, and he
supported us when we made difficult decisions about the kind of investment that
would work for our organisation. Thanks to Daniel, in 2008 we secured c. £4m in
social financing and £250,000 in grant funding which we used to purchase and
redevelop a property into a school for fifty-six children with autism, which we
called Park House School. Daniel stayed involved throughout the construction
period and was also instrumental in getting the design team to work at risk on the
project until planning was granted, and the purchase completed.
The next stage
Once the redevelopment of our new school was complete, Daniel stayed in
touch and would regularly check in to see how we were doing. The new school
was thriving, very successful and full and we had outperformed every financial
forecast. Before we acquired our new school in 2009 our turnover was just over
£800k, by 2014 our turnover was just over £3m.
We had throughout this period continued to lease our original site on Garratt Lane
and our youngest students were educated there. In 2014, we got the opportunity
to acquire this site and we once again to turned to Dan to help us work out if this
was the right thing to do, how much it would cost and to raise the finance.
He helped us to secure an Investment Contract Readiness Fund Grant to fund
a feasibility study into the acquisition of the site, the demolition of the existing
building and the proposed new build school. When the financial projects were
good and the project looked viable, Dan helped us negotiate with various banks
and finance houses and guided us through a complete re-finance to include
additional borrowing to purchase the new site and build a new school. Thanks to
Resonance we had our second school and the ability to grow again.
A lasting impact
Today we have two schools, both judged Outstanding, Park House (Age 4 to
11 years) and Tram House (11 to 18 years) educating 117 pupils. We also have a
separate Sixth Form College, currently in rented buildings but urgently needing
to find new premises, educating twenty-two pupils and three Post 19 Hubs
educating thirty-one students age 19 to 25 years. We run a thriving outreach
programme and a highly successful Early Years Programme, which between
them reached 110 families and worked across ten Local Authorities and we run
extensive training courses. Our online content was accessed and downloaded by
over 3,000 people. We employ 270 staff and our annual turnover is £8.5m. We plan
to extend our services nationally so that we can reach more people with autism.
All of this was made possible by Resonance. Over the last twenty years Resonance
has demonstrated a lasting impact on society by supporting a wide range of social
enterprises and creating several successful investment vehicles to fund support
for vulnerable communities.
I think the future for impact investing and Resonance is very bright. More and
more investors want their money to support organisations that have verifiable
environmental, social and governance impact, I think the industry will grow and
Resonance will be at the forefront of that growth.
KAREN SORAB
Source:
8. BMJ 2013
52
Source:
3. UK Housing Review 2018 - Homeless households in temporary accommodation in England
53