Recently, the AFIN team attended another virtual study visit, organized with support from the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Financiers (FEBEA) and hosted by the Community Finance Ireland. Federației Europene a Băncilor Etice și Alternative (FEBEA) și găzduită de Community Finance Ireland.
Community Finance Ireland is a social financing institution from Ireland, established in 1999 in Belfast. During more than 22 years of activities, the entity has worked with many capital providers, helping social enterprises, sports clubs and NGOs to grow and make an impact in the community. Active involvement in these sectors showed immediate results, Community Finance being the fastest growing social finance institution in Ireland and in the United Kingdom. Numbers speak for themselves. Since its establishment, the institution has provided more than 72 million euros in loans. During 2016-2020 alone, Community Finance funded 170 sports projects (worth around € 16.2 million), 133 community projects (€ 10.3 million) and 25 social enterprise projects (with an estimated value of EUR 4.4 million).
Cifrele vorbesc de la sine. De la înființare și până în prezent instituția a acordat împrumuturi de peste 72 milioane de euro. Numai în perioada 2016 – 2020 Community Finance a finanțat 170 de proiecte sportive (cu o valoare de aproximativ 16,2 milioane de euro), 133 de proiecte comunitare (10,3 milioane de euro) și 25 de proiecte ale întreprinderilor sociale (cu o valoare estimată de 4,4 milioane de euro).
Beneficiaries
Community Finance Ireland has three categories of organizations they work with:
Sports clubs the help them improve conditions, procure equipment, etc.
Community projects including for charities or religious organizations
Social enterprises capacity building of the human resources, rural growth projects, etc.
The institution offers long and short - term loans as well as bridge loans, of values ranging between 10,000 and 600,000 euros. "What makes us different is the fact that we tried to provide consultancy services always having in mind the customer’s line of work and analysing things keeping in mind the social and community specificities of the project, and how robust the organization is"said Donal Traynor, CEO Community Finance Ireland.
For more information about Community Finance Ireland, please access their site: https://communityfinanceireland.com/
Useful resources and information: https://communityfinanceireland.com/publications/
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The study visit took place within the AFIN – Romanian Alternative FINancing Institution Dedicated to Social Enterprises VP/2019/015/0035 project, financed by the European Union through the European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” (2014-2020).
