Plans for a social investment fund worth up to £30m have been announced by investment house Sarasin & Partners and social lender Bridges Ventures.

The Poverty Relief and Increasing Social Mobility fund, known as Prism, is designed to make investments in charities and social enterprises, and will aim to make most of its investments in asset-locked bodies.

Sarasin representatives said they believe their organisation is the first mainstream investment house to consider launching a social investment fund.

If sector feedback on Prism is positive then Sarasin will be involved in raising awareness of the fund, while Bridges will be responsible for identifying and managing investments. 

Richard Maitland (pictured), head of charities at Sarasin, said at an event earlier this week to promote social impact investment to a group of charitable foundations, consultants and investment managers, that the mainstream investment community needed to become more involved in social impact investment.

“We became involved in this because we were asked to,” he said. “Three years ago we had barely heard of it, to be brutally honest, but there is increasing interest in this area among our clients.

“We received a clear message that if this was going to move forward from just an evangelical few, investment managers needed to get involved in it.”

The fund has received a commitment from Big Society Capital that it will match any money raised up to £15m.

The fund will make investments in property, bonds and quasi-equity – a loan which is based on the success of the charity, and is intended to provide the same sort of “risk capital” finance which a company gets from issuing shares. The fund will aim to make a return of between 3 and 5 per cent, and will have a board of independent advisers to measure its social impact.