Peter Wanless, BIG chief executive and Peter Ainsworth, BIG chair
The Big Lottery Fund aims to be much less prescriptive and more flexible than it has been in the past, say its chair and chief executive. And it is planning a new 'bright ideas' type programme. Tania Mason reports.
“The easy thing to do would be to just disburse money to good causes, because there are always going to be so many more good causes than there is money,” says Peter Wanless. “But we think we can do so much better than a few random acts of kindness, or even thousands of random acts of kindness.”
The Big Lottery Fund’s chief executive is explaining the rationale behind the funder’s new strategic framework, published today. It’s an evolution rather than a revolution, insists chair Peter Ainsworth, but there’s no denying that the new interest in social investment, however small now, is a departure for the lottery distributor.
Explains Ainsworth: “We want to see if we can help with the rollout of the social investment market which is still nascent but which may have significant potential in the long-term to provide a sustainable source of funding to good causes. We see our role there primarily as enabling conversations, bringing experience to bear, putting people in touch with each other to help the market prove what some people believe it can.”
BIG is already involved in the Peterborough social impact bond, and has agreements with Social Finance to develop three or four more such projects. Wanless adds: “Peterborough is a classic example of where someone has an idea, everyone looks at everyone else and nothing happens until BIG comes along and puts in a slug of money to see if it works or not.”
Another thing BIG will examine in this space is the extent to which organisations that it already funds, are aware of and considering with an open mind, the potential of social investment. “If an additional flow of money can come through and they can take advantage of that then obviously that releases our funds for our core business,” adds Wanless.
“We aren’t the people to come to for lumps of capital for social investment deals, like Big Society Capital and the intermediaries. Where we will focus on social investment in the short to medium-term will be more around co-commissioning, working with public sector partners of one kind or another to get really intelligent opportunities out there, which are sensitive to where and how voluntary sector groups can really add value, rather than being just lowest-cost payment-by-results contracts.”
BIG has not earmarked a particular sum or proportion of funding for social investment, and the amounts spent in the last year prove that it is “still very much a minority sport”, says Wanless.
“But what the board is very clear not to do is underwrite the opportunity for other people to make a financial return,” he adds.