Resonance - Twenty Years Of Impact - Report - Page 57
TWO IMPACT
FUNDS LAUNCH
1ST FIRST
THE AFFORDABLE HOMES RENTAL FUND
WORKED WITH 9 COMMUNITY GROUPS
TO DELIVER 38 AFFORDABLE HOMES.
2012
1.85M HOUSEHOLDS
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE MAGAZINE IS
REBRANDED PIONEERS POST
in England are on housing waiting lists6
FIRST FUNDS LAUNCHED
RESONANCE KEY MILESTONES
INVESTMENTS
• COMMUNITY SHARE UNDERWRITING FUND
• AFFORDABLE HOMES RENTAL FUND
• Esmée Fairbairn invests £500K in Community Share Underwriting Fund
• Big Society Capital backs Affordable Homes Rental Fund with £2.5m
PEOPLE
• Simon Chisholm joins Resonance and sets up funds team and establishes
Manchester office
CAROLINE MASON
ESMÉE FAIRBAIRN
We didn’t quit fit!
I can very clearly remember the first time that I met
Daniel. We were in the basement of Portland Place in
London, the home of Sir Ronnie Cohen’s Portland Trust.
It was during the nascent development of Big Society
Capital (BSC).
I can remember that, like me, Daniel didn’t seem to
quite fit! There was a lot of sophisticated articulation about the mechanisms of
social finance but less on the complexity of deploying investment to truly deliver
on good social and environmental outcomes for the future.
I worked with Daniel at Big Society Capital when we he was setting up the Real
Lettings Property Fund. He was creative, committed, expert and completely
determined to make sure that fairness, values and real social outcomes were
central to the fund. This was a new language and a new set of considerations for
those at BSC but, with some reluctance, he got his investment. The feeling back
then was that this was a high-risk investment, likely to fail but worth giving a go.
The other key investment deal that I associate with Daniel happened about
a year later, when I moved to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. To my happy
astonishment, the team at Esmée Fairbairn were very aware of Daniel and saw in
him a different model of social investment, one that we still continue to this day.
We provided a repayable grant facility to Resonance to cushion some of the risks
associated with developing the type of investment products that are co- designed
and where the financing structure comes second. Coincidentally, one of the first
times this facility was used was to underwrite the risk of developing the Real
Lettings Property Fund!
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The underestimation of Daniel Brewer
We have continued to work with Daniel and his team on many different initiatives
and we see Resonance as an exemplar of social investment done well. Working
with Resonance has also given us confidence to co-design more interesting
financing structures and models with other organisations such as a Perpetual
Bond, outcomes-based financing models for nature, the leasing of our balance
sheet and many more.
I have personally learnt a great deal from Daniel over the years; not only about
how to run an organisation with integrity but also about how to use capital and
investment in a truly transformative way. Daniel was working across the spectrum
of capital long before it became mainstream.
Over the years, Daniel and I have been on many panels together, and he has
always argued that aligning profits with social and environmental impacts was,
not only possible, but would become the norm. Over the years, people like Daniel
have been dismissed as worthy and eccentric amateurs in the proper world of
investment. To say that Daniel has been underestimated is an understatement.
Remaining true to purpose
Resonance is now one of the most successful social investors in the UK. It now
manages £300m across twelve funds and is a multi award-winning organisation.
Despite its growth and increasing success, it has remained completely true to
its fundamental belief that investment should, first and foremost, be driven by
positive social, environmental and economic outcomes. The idea of finance as
a mechanism that can achieve much more than shareholder value and avoid
negative impacts is now slowly growing. We see corporates being purposeful,
the investment community beginning to acknowledge the importance of impact,
ESG and Green Gilts tumbling out of almost every asset management firm and
government plans.
My advice to them is if you want to do this properly, professionally and with
integrity then they should be speaking to Resonance.
Source:
6. GOV.UK - Live Table 600: Numbers of households on local authorities housing waiting lists by district: 2021
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