Scotland’s SCRT - a mutual, appropriate and values based approach to Social Finance

Scotland’s SCRT - a mutual, appropriate and values based approach to Social Finance

News (UK)

Scottish Community Re: Investment Trust (SCRT) was established 12 months ago to ensure the Scottish third sector is sustained by a financial infrastructure that is consistent with its values and needs. 

The establishment of SCRT was as much a reaction to the way in which social investment is developing in the UK as much as it is was to the behaviour of the mainstream banking infrastructure. 

The 2007/08 financial crisis ripped away the high street bank’s Emperors clothes to reveal a corrupt and speculative approach to money resulting in austerity and cut backs in vital services. The ongoing result of which are having significant negative impacts upon the most disadvantaged in society and those that third sector organisations seek to assist.   

Whilst, the development of the Social Investment infrastructure in the recent past and in particular its seeding of new types of hybrid business models such as ‘Profit with Purpose models or ‘B Corp’ models would appear to have little to do with the traditional voluntary sector and its financial needs.

The SCRT model looks inwardly towards the Scottish third sector for investment and seeks to harness the financial resources of the whole of the sector to meet the financing needs of the sector. 

As such SCRT seeks to influence how organisations, staff and trustees use their money and financial resources to achieve a more equal and environmentally sustainable society.  SCRT is about making money ‘social’ an easy and obvious choice for those within the sector in order to impact directly on the lives of clients and communities as well as positively impacting upon the financial sustainability of the whole sector.  It is a model based on mutuality and the sharing of financial resources in order to retain capital and interest within the sector and magnify its social impact.

To celebrate its first year in operation, SCRT is hosting the ‘Social Finance: Social Investment: Social Banking…what makes them Social’ conference to be held on Thursday 19th November 2015 at the Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh. https://thescrtconference.wordpress.com/

The conference focuses on the growth of Social Finance: Social Investment and Social Banking and asks how we ensure that it meets the demands of the wider third sector and assist it to meet social outcomes. The conference will hear from experts and practitioners from across the globe, and how Social Finance happens in other countries; what we are doing in Scotland and if we can learn from each other.  

  • Social investment
  • UK