Flexible Finance Fund Application Form

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The Flexible Finance Fund provides a package of loan and grant funding to support UK Black and Racially Minoritised charities and social enterprises based in England to help them to grow, take on assets and become more resilient.

The fund is delivered by Social Investment Business in partnership with Create Equity and The Ubele Initiative.  It is supported by the Government guarantee scheme – Growth Guarantee Scheme.  
 
Flexible Finance offers:
  • A blend of loan and unrestricted grant. 
  • Loan amount: £50k to £1.5m (exclusive of grant). 
  • Unrestricted grant amount: £50k to £200k (50% to 100% of the loan amount, capped at £200,000). Paid alongside the loan. 
  • Repayment terms of between 1 and 6 years. 
  • Optional additional restricted grant funding to help address/ strengthen specific areas of weakness/s identified during the funding assessment e.g. governance, financial management and organisational development. Only available for those in receipt of the blended loan and grant funding. 

The Flexible Finance Fund is for UK Black and Racially Minoritised led charities and social enterprises that meet the eligibility criteria.  

Am I eligible? 
  • Based in England.  
  • Black and Racially Minoritised-led: 51% or above of the organisation’s board and senior management team must be from Black and Racially Minoritised backgrounds. 
  • Legally constituted and a registered charity or social enterprise*. 
  • Primarily constituted for social benefit and improving people's lives or the environments in which they live, within England. 
  • Operating for at least two years. 
  • Minimum turnover of £200k in the last financial year. 
  • Not subject to any insolvency proceedings e.g. winding-up, administration, insolvency, bankruptcy. 
  • No previous repayable finance: Your organisation must not have received repayable finance of greater than £25k. This excludes Bounce Back Loans. 
*This includes any UK Charity, Community Interest Company or Community Benefit Society, or if none of these then must comply with the BSC Governance Principles. 

Before completing this application, please ensure that you: 
  • Have reviewed the eligibility criteria and fund guidance. 
  • Have the authority to submit the application on behalf of your organisation. 
  • Can clearly explain how the funding will support your organisation. 
  • Have the information and supporting documents required to complete the application. 
You will be asked to provide the following supporting documents:
  1. Two sets of Financial Accounts (showing figures for 3 years). 
  2. Your latest set of Management Accounts. 
  3. Ideally a 24-month cash-flow forecast (minimum of 12-month required) covering your financial year period. 
  4. Any additional supporting information that may help us assess your application (optional).  

If you do not meet the eligibility criteria for the Flexible Finance Fund, your organisation may still be eligible for support through one of Social Investment Business's other funds.

To explore alternative funding opportunities, please visit: Social Investment Business Funding Programmes. 

Our funds include a range of grants, loans and blended funding products designed to support charities, social enterprises and community organisations at different stages of their journey. 

You can save your progress at any time and return to your application later. Simply tick the Save my progress and resume later checkbox at the top/bottom of the form. To go back to a form you have previously saved, please click the Resume a previously saved form link at the top/bottom of the page.

If you have any questions about the Flexible Finance Fund or need support, please contact us at loans@sibgroup.org.uk or call +44 (0)204 591 2400 
to leave a voicemail for the Loans Team and a member of the team will get back to you.

Further information is available at www.sibgroup.org.uk.

Page 2


To be eligible for this fund, you must be able to tick to confirm that your organisation (the legal entity applying for this funding) meets each of the below eligibility criteria. We will verify this information at assessment and may request additional information/ evidence from you.  

If your organisation does not meet each of the below, you are not eligible for the fund. Please do not continue with and submit this application.
















If you are not eligible for the Fund i.e. you couldn’t tick to confirm your organisation meets each of the above criteria, you may find the below links useful for other funding opportunities.   

https://www.sibgroup.org.uk/funds   

https://www.goodfinance.org.uk/latest/post/funding-and-investment-guidance   

https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/finance-hub/ 

If you have any further questions, please email us at: loans@sibgroup.org.uk 

If you are based in/ operate in Northern Ireland, we suggest getting in touch with local funder Community Finance Ireland. You can email them at hello@communityfinanceireland.com. Please mention that you were referred to them by the Social Investment Business. 

Page 3

Partner Details


Take a look at our Partnerships Directory to learn more about each Delivery Partner.
Information About You
Please confirm your key contact details so we can keep in touch about this application. 







Organisational Details

I.e. The exact name registered at Companies House/ other regulator.



Note: eligibility criteria on eligible charities and social enterprises. Unincorporated associations will not be eligible.


Companies House

Financial Conduct Authority: (Mutuals Register)


Charity Commission

Note: eligibility criteria – must have been actively operating for at least 2 years.





The postcode must be in uppercase and the correct format, for example, M2 1BB, CB2 1QA or BS32 0BQ.









Please just enter a whole number (no commas or symbols). Please enter 0 if the answer is none.

Please just enter a whole number (no commas or symbols). Please enter 0 if the answer is none.

You will not be eligible for this fund


Note: eligibility criteria on eligible charities and social enterprises i.e. social asset lock. Organisations with no asset lock will not be eligible.

You will not be eligible for this fund


Group = when one or more companies are owned/ controlled (directly or indirectly) by a single parent company. If your organisation is part of a group structure, please answer yes.



Note: you must have had a turnover of at least £200k and not more than £45m. Please just enter the turnover as a number (no commas or symbols).

Please just enter a whole number (no commas or symbols). Please enter 0 if the answer is none.

Please just enter a whole number (no commas or symbols). Please enter 0 if the answer is none.

Please just enter a whole number (no commas or symbols). Enter 0 if you do not have volunteers.





Note: To be eligible for this fund, your organisation must already generate (or be about to generate) more than 50% of its income from trading. This criteria applies as at the date your loan is paid. Registered charities or further education colleges are exempt from this criteria. Trading activity = trading/ commercial activity that generates turnover (whether or not with the intention of making a profit). A not-for-profit organisation is a trading business for these circumstances. Organisations that receive the majority of their income from donations would not be eligible. Trading income = income from the provision of goods and services i.e. income from sales, fees, contracts, and service level agreements. It does not include pure grant awards, gifts, or donations (and gift aid), unless this income is in direct return for a good or service.


Note: This excludes Bounce Back Loans

How diverse is your organisation's board and senior management team?

We are collecting data on equalities to better understand the make-up of the organisations this fund will support. 

We have a commitment to ensuring that we fully represent the diversity of the sector in our funding. The data will also feed into wider on-going Programme reporting and learning.

People who assess their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled.

SIB considers organisations that have over 51% of their board and senior management team from Black and Racially Minoritised communities as eligible for this fund.  

What percentage of your board and senior management team are:





Completion of these questions is encouraged but voluntary.

Page 4

Funding Request

Please just enter whole numbers, without £, or other symbols





We understand that the money can be spent on different things. Please choose where the majority of money will be spent.





Please note the average assessment time is 4-6 weeks. This question is an indicator of how quickly you need the funding and not how quickly we will process your application.

RLS = Recovery Loan Scheme ; CBILS = Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme ; CLBILS = Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme Group = when one or more companies are owned or controlled (directly or indirectly) by a single parent company. If your organisation is part of a group structure, you must consider all companies in the structure when answering this question.


Page 5

Supporting Information 
Please upload the supporting documentation required for this fund. The information provided will be used to verify your application and support the assessment process. Failure to provide all mandatory documents may delay the review of your application.

Accepted file formats:
  • Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
  • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
  • PDF (.pdf)
  • Image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .png)
Unsupported file types, including ZIP files, executable files (.exe), and other archive formats, cannot be uploaded.

Each file must be no larger than 25MB.

The maximum total size of files uploaded to this form is 35MB. This limit applies to the combined size of all attachments, not individual files.

If you experience any issues uploading your documents, please contact loans@sibgroup.org.uk for assistance.

Important: We strongly recommend saving your progress before uploading any files to avoid losing any information entered on the form.






Page 6

Declaration
By submitting this application, you confirm that the information provided is true, complete and accurate to the best of your knowledge. You also confirm that you are authorised to submit this application on behalf of the organisation.

By applying to this Fund, you consent to the sharing of your information with Social Investment Business, its delivery partners, funders, investors, and their advisors, agents, contractors, auditors and relevant service providers where necessary for the administration, assessment, management and monitoring of the fund.

Your information may also be shared with the British Business Bank (BBB), the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) Guarantor (or any successor scheme), and their advisors, agents, contractors and auditors where required for compliance, reporting, monitoring, audit and other fund administration purposes.

Your data will not be shared with any other third parties and will only be used for purposes relating to the administration, assessment and management of this Fund and any resulting funding.

All data sharing and processing will be carried out in accordance with applicable data protection legislation.

The full privacy policy of The Social Investment Business is available at:
As you were unable to confirm that your organisation meets all of the eligibility criteria on page two of this form, you are not eligible to apply for this fund. Please do not continue with this application. If you believe this is incorrect or have any questions, please contact us at enquiries@sibgroup.org.uk
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