Unlock the door to extra finance for your SME or social enterprise
Business finance is traditionally a man's world, yet in South Yorkshire two women are playing a vital role heading up two organisations which help new and existing small businesses and social enterprises access funds to assist their growth.
The work of Angela Allison and Ann Oldroyd has allowed many small businesses and organisations prosper by assisting them to unlock funding which may otherwise have been beyond their reach.
Over the years the pair has delivered tailored financial and practical support in the form of grants, loans, nvestment and advice to thousands of businesses and organisations, while ploughing millions into the economy and creating jobs.
Angela moved to Doncaster in 2008 as executive director of Donbac Ltd., to step up the provision of micro finance for small businesses in the area.
Donbac is a community Development Finance Institution and Enterprise Agency founded over 25 years ago, and is now a key provider of advice and micro finance helping new and existing businesses. Donbac provides loan funding to businesses in South Yorkshire up to £50,000 and in just over two years has provided access to £2million investment creating and safeguarding 350-plus jobs.
Angela said: "We understand the needs of SMEs and are able to identify with the funding difficulties they experience. We help many businesses with viable plans which are unable to get the support of their bank due to lack of security or poor credit history." Angela has worked within the business support and investment arena since the early 1990s in both the public and private sectors in the UK and abroad.
Working as a partner in a private sector consultancy firm assisting businesses with pre- and post-investment for many years, Angela understands the needs of both clients and the funding organisations. Consequently many Donbac clients now benefit from packaged deals where Donbac is one of a number of funders. Using her skills abroad, since 2005 Angela has also worked in Turkey assisting the capacity building of the business support infrastructure, introducing quality standards and competency assessment for advisory staff.
Ann Oldroyd, is the chief executive of the Sheffield based Key Fund, established in 1998, specialising in supporting fast-growing socia enterprises, providing a mix of flexible grant, loan and equity packages to voluntary and community organisations, charities, co-operatives, social entrepreneurs and social enterprises. The Key Fund provides tailored development finance, and its mission is to break down barriers to accessing finance, enabling organisations to help people and communities to reach their full potential.
Since 1999, the Key Fund has awarded over £24million in over 2,000 organisations and £10million in existing/new social enterprises, helping to provide over 6,500 training opportunities, enabling 130 new business start ups, the creation of 780 jobs and safeguarding another 622 jobs.
South Yorkshire-born Ann joined Key Fund Yorkshire when it first started lending in 2002, becoming its first CEO two years later. Her previous career was spent in resource management, including periods in manufacturing, agriculture, HM Services and education. She is also a director of the Community Development Finance Association and an investment panel assessor of the Social Enterprise Investment Fund.
Last month Angela and Ann were key players in a consortium of eight Community Development Finance Institutions which bid to the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF programme to create a new £1 9.5million regional fund to support SMEs and social enterprises. Ann said: "Our two organisations work extremely closely together and we are delighted to be able to attract new funding into the region for our clients."
For more information contact Donbac on 01302 341070 or Email: info@donbac.co.uk
Further information for social enterprises contact:enquiries@thekeyfund.org.uk
