NAME
Community Resilience Fund
PARTNER
Sustainable Finance Initiative,
Foundation for Shared Impact,
Social Investors Club, Dream Impact,
HKCSS Social Enterprise Business Centre,
Hong Kong General Chamber of Social Enterprises
NEW URBAN VERSIONS
Purpose Capital
DATE
2020
TYPE
Infrastructure innovation
Enabling social enterprises to thrive in uncertain times
OVERVIEW
The Community Resilience Fund (“CRF”) was set up by Social Ventures Hong Kong (SVhk) and Sustainable Finance Initiative (“SFi”) in April 2020 as an affordable bridging facility to provide emergency zero-interest loans to social enterprises (SEs) in Hong Kong that have funding needs for the short term amidst a very weak economy devastated by COVID-19. The longer term vision is to test and pilot new social finance options and reinforce resilience for longer term value creation in the impact ecosystem.
SVHK’s ROLE
SVhk as an operator to manage, monitor and distribute funds while provide capacity building and fundraising support
HIGHLIGHTS / PARTNERSHIPS
The power of collective action
The CRF brought together the collective expertise of over 20 partners across philanthropic, impact investing, impact incubation, commercial and legal spaces to mobilise a cross-sector collaboration from design to implementation. The CRF reached over 200 SEs and providing financial and extra-financial support to almost 20 expressing interests across Hong Kong’s impact ecosystem
High-engagement model for longer term resilience
The CRF focuses on the provision of extra-financial support above and beyond initial funding to address the unique needs of individual enterprises such as 1:1 business clinic sessions and network referral to ensure long term resilience
IMPACT
“In February our sales dropped by 90% and we did not have sufficient cash flow to pay our employees. Without the support of CRF, we would have been forced to shut down.”
– CRF applicant
“Our business dropped by more than 70% since COVID-19. The CRF helped us handle our fixed costs including rental charges and further our online promotion to continue and deepen our impact to Hong Kong.”
– CRF applicant
