Organisations and individuals recognised for impact they have had in communities across the UK
Champions of locally-based finance for microenterprises rewarded at 12th February Awards Ceremony in Bristol, featuring BBC Breakfast’s Steph McGovern
[Image: Steph McGovern at the Awards ceremony, photo Chris Hughes]
The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, in partnership with the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA), celebrate excellence in community finance. Total prize money of £65,000 was presented to the winners at the awards ceremony on 12th February in Bristol.
The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards winners:
1. IMPACT AWARD Winner of £20,000 prize: Five Lamps
2. INNOVATION AWARD Winner of £20,000 prize: Co-operative & Community Finance
3. COMMUNITIES IN PARTNERSHIP AWARD Winner of £20,000 prize: Big Issue Invest
4. MICROENTREPRENEUR Winner of £5000 prize: BetterYou
Two other Awards were made to outstanding individuals in the community finance sector:
5. OUTSTANDING LOAN OFFICER AWARD Winner – Shamima Begum, Fair Finance
6. CDFI HERO AWARD Winner – Pat Conaty
Profiles of the winners of The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards are below.
Ben Hughes, Chief Executive of the CDFA, said:
“Locally based community finance providers – CDFIs – are providing their customers with invaluable access to finance and to support – and we were thrilled to be able to recognise and reward some of this support through the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards.
“We were overwhelmed with outstanding applications to the Awards from CDFIs that are using innovative and creative ways to provide finance to their local communities.”
Bob Annibale, Global Director, Citi Microfinance and Community Development, added:
“This is the first time we have brought the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards to the UK so to have such quality, diversity and wide geographic spread of entries is truly impressive. It’s a real testament to the commitment and growth of the UK’s CDFI sector in recent years.
“The awards are an exciting opportunity to showcase the individuals and organisations that are changing lives, boosting economies and energising neighbourhoods. Their achievements were celebrated at the final of the first UK Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards.”
Profiles of the winners of The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards:
1. IMPACT AWARD
Winner of £20,000 prize: Five Lamps, www.fivelamps.org.uk
Judges’ comments: “Five Lamps is transforming lives and raising ambition for families, businesses and communities in the North East.”
Five Lamps, which delivers social, economic and financial inclusion services to over 25,000 customers per year, has won the Impact Award category of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards for bringing positive change to people’s lives, to communities and enterprises.
Five Lamps’ customers live in the most disadvantaged communities in the North East of England and North Yorkshire. This year, Five Lamps plans to deliver around 15000 personal loans, 2000 loans to help unemployed people into self-employment, 250 business loans and 150 Home repair loans. In addition, over 1200 young people will be receiving financial education; over 100 long-term unemployed people will progress into employment; the team will work with 200 families, handle over 3000 applications, and make 2000 awards to individuals in crisis, fleeing domestic violence etc; they will provide positive activities for over 350 young people, including over 100 with special needs; 20 families will be prevented from repossession of their home; c35 long-term empty properties will be refurbished and brought back into productive use and over 2000 aspiring entrepreneurs will be supported via mentoring and workshop activity.
The other businesses shortlisted for this Award were:
· Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), www.befund.org
· Fair Finance, www.fairfinance.org.uk
· Key Fund, www.thekeyfund.co.uk
· Lancashire Community Finance, www.lancashirecommunityfinance.co.uk
2. INNOVATION AWARD
Winner of £20,000 prize: Co-operative & Community Finance, www.coopfinance.coop
Judges’ comments: “Enabling community ownership through innovative lending and investment funds.”
Co-operative & Community Finance (C&CF), a specialist fund supporting community-owned ventures of all kinds including renewable energy projects, community pubs and shops and supporter-owned sports clubs, is the winner of the Innovation Award category of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards and £20,000 prize.
Co-operative & Community Finance, which lends to employee or community owned social enterprises throughout the UK, including co-operatives, community businesses, development trusts and businesses developed from the charitable and voluntary sector has won the Innovation Award category of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards for excellence and innovation in delivering affordable community finance.
Co-operative & Community Finance was established 40 years ago. Last year it launched a Community Shares Fund, an innovative fund for communities carrying out a share offer; the Fund has already worked with 19 communities that have gone on to carry out successful share offers.
The other businesses shortlisted for this Award were:
· London Rebuilding Society, www.londonrebuilding.com
· My Home Finance, www.myhomefinance.org.uk
· Parity Trust, www.paritytrust.org.uk
3. COMMUNITIES IN PARTNERSHIP AWARD
This award celebrates partnerships that have improved access to finance.
Winner of £20,000 prize: Big Issue Invest, www.bigissueinvest.com
Judges’ Comments: “Pioneering methods to tackle poverty and inequality by enabling social housing tenants to improve their credit rating.”
Big Issue Invest (BII), part of The Big Issue Group, one of the UK’s most trusted social brands, has won the Communities in Partnership Award category of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards and a £20,000 prize. BII is a social enterprise, established in 2005 to help scale up social enterprises and charities. By providing loans and investments, not grants, from £50k to £1m. Its mission is to back sustainable social enterprises and ventures that help tackle poverty and inequality.
BII and Experian have worked together since 2007 to tackle the financial, digital and social exclusion challenges faced by millions of social housing tenants in the UK.
Launched in 2012, the Rental Exchange tackles financial exclusion by enabling social housing tenants to build a credit history, through sharing rent payment data. Currently, millions of social housing tenants are excluded from affordable credit and lower cost services, such as utilities and insurance, as they have no means of proving their creditworthiness.
The partners have engaged with over 150 social housing landlords representing over two million tenants. To date 200,000 records have been analysed that have demonstrated:
20% of social housing tenants have credit scores just below a typical mainstream lender’s pass mark. By adding rental payment data, scores will be pushed into a higher bracket giving around one million people potential access to mainstream lending.
Up to 66% of social housing tenants who currently fail electronic identity checks to qualify for a range of basic, but vital services, have the potential to pass identity checks if rental data is added to their credit history.
Other international markets, including South Africa, Italy and Spain, have shown interest in the project because of the potential benefits of improved access to finance.
The other businesses shortlisted for this Award were:
· Enterprise Loans East Midlands (ELEM), www.first-enterprise.co.uk/small-loans
· Enterprise Northern Ireland (ENI), www.enterpriseni.com
· Scotcash, www.scotcash.net
· Wessex Resolutions, www.wrcic.org.uk
4. MICROENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Winner of £5000 prize: BetterYou, www.betteryou.uk.com
This award recognises the success of an outstanding microentrepreneur who has benefited from the support of a CDFI (Community Development Finance Institution). The award celebrates excellence in the areas of employment creation, innovation and creativity, business growth, community impact and financial performance.
A prize of £5,000 was presented to the winner, BetterYou.
Judges’ comments: “BetterYou has gone from strength to strength following the support it received from its local CDFI, Enterprise Ventures Business loans Ltd (EVBL). Andy Thomas and Robin Whitbread are pioneers in innovative health products, who have brought jobs to Sheffield and seen huge growth in turnover.”
BetterYou are pioneers in the development, production and marketing of innovative health products targeted to the specific needs of modern diets and lifestyles.
The idea for the business was born from the personal experience of Andy Thomas. Andy relied on conventional medicine for his asthma. After meeting a biochemist he became interested in why existing supplements did not perform well and started work to develop a more effective means of magnesium supplementation.
Robin Whitbread joined Andy to set up BetterYou in 2007. It initially focused on magnesium oil, and went on to expand its product range, developing other vitamin supplements. The company has worked closely with Cardiff University in the development of its range and believes that any new product must be backed by research to prove it works. The Department of Health has approved the DLux vitamin D spray, which GPs and hospitals can recommend to patients.
The Sheffield-based company is proud that all its products are devised and manufactured in the UK. With a team of 14, BetterYou is now thriving. Its range is stocked by most major retailers and it has developed a growing export arm, with distribution partners in Kuwait, Scandinavia, South Africa and Benelux.
This growth has been made possible with loans from Finance Yorkshire, a scheme managed by Enterprise Ventures Business loans that provides funding for businesses across Yorkshire and Humber to start and grow. The loans have enabled BetterYou to research, test and launch new products, getting ahead of competitors.
BetterYou has enjoyed three successful years of 70% growth in turnover. Its most recent financial year saw profits rise by 147%.
The other businesses shortlisted for this Award were:
· DH Lawrence Bistro, www.nottingham.ac.uk/dhlheritage/visiting-us/the-dh-lawrence-bistro.aspx
· Moo Bar, https://www.facebook.com/moobarpenrith
· Birdcage, www.birdcage-skipton.org.uk
2 further Awards were made to outstanding individuals in the community finance sector:
1. OUTSTANDING LOAN OFFICER AWARD
This award rewarded the efforts of an outstanding individual who delivers loans to people or businesses. It celebrates the work of a member of a CDFI team who has provided invaluable help and support to clients. The winner was Shamima Begum, Fair Finance.
The shortlist was: Tony Banks, Enterprise Answers; Shamima Begum, Fair Finance; Carl Dixon, GLE OneLondon; Valerie Jarrett, Foundation East; Alistair Johnstone, Social Investment Scotland; Margaret McLachlan, Lancashire Community Finance, Chris Walters, MSIF
2. CDFI HERO AWARD
This award recognised the efforts of an individual to improve access to finance and support the CDFI sector. The winner was Pat Conaty.
The Winners of the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards, in partnership with the Community Development Finance Association (CDFA) were announced at the awards ceremony on 12th February in Bristol.
About the awards
The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards celebrate the innovative and important work of community finance in supporting financial inclusion and economic growth. The awards will recognise excellence in community development finance institutions (CDFIs) that provide finance which changes lives and transforms neighbourhoods. The awards will also recognise the achievements of outstanding microentrepreneurs that are bringing wealth, services and jobs to communities across the UK. It is a collaboration between the Citi Foundation and Community Development Finance Association. Further details are available at www.cdfaawards.org.uk
About the Citi Foundation
The Citi Foundation is committed to the economic empowerment and financial inclusion of individuals and families, particularly those in need, in the communities where we work so that they can improve their standard of living. Globally, the Citi Foundation targets its strategic giving to priority focus areas: Microfinance, Enterprise Development, Youth Education and Livelihoods, and Financial Capability and Asset Building. The Citi Foundation works with its partners in Microfinance and Enterprise Development to support environmental programs and innovations. Additional information can be found at www.citifoundation.com.
About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
About Citi Microfinance
Working across Citi’s businesses, product groups and geographies, Citi Microfinance serves 150 microfinance institutions (MFIs), networks and investors as clients and partners in nearly 50 countries with products and services spanning the financial spectrum – from financing, access to capital markets, transaction services and hedging foreign exchange risk, to credit, savings, remittances and insurance products – to expand access to financial services for the underserved. www.citimicrofinance.com