Big Society blogger Gordon Hunter has reservations about social investment plans under the coalition government's master plan.

I’m not so sure about these social investment bonds. Are they a new way to finance Big Society and catalyse social change? Or are they just those tired old loans dressed up a bit?
 
First off, what are they? Think of them as an offer to investors where the broker takes your money for five or six years, lends some of it to charity, then pays you back. You may get a bonus, you may not. 

Bond agents are, typically, registered by that trusted body the financial services authority. They get a commission to cover admin and fees. Marketing costs extra. Brokers buddy up with underwriters: fund raisers or statutory bodies like Liverpool City Council or the Welsh Assembly.  
 
Now we hear that the Big Lottery is investing £11.25m in bonds developed by Social Finance Ltd. Other investors include:  Barrow Cadbury, Friends Provident, Henry Smith, Lankelly, Sainsbury, Paul Hamlyn and the Tudor Trust.

But isn’t the Lottery meant to give money to good causes?

You might think that by backing loan instruments, funders are simply repackaging grants as loans and making life even more difficult for hard pressed charities.  
 
We need to know more, like, how much of the £11.25m of Lottery money goes to agents (besides the usual 7.5 per cent expended on fees and guarantees)?

Gordon Hunter is the founder and director of the Lincolnshire Community Foundation

(Image © Alberto P Veiga)