A new independent evaluation by Ecorys, finds that our Community Finance Resilience Fund successfully met its objectives, strengthening the resilience of the community finance sector and enabling the continued provision of affordable credit during the cost of living crisis.
The evaluation also highlights strong practice in the Fund’s design and delivery and identifies lessons to inform future programmes.
Between 2024 and 2026 the Fund deployed £6.2m to 47 community finance organisations. Collectively these organisations:
- lent over £209 million in loans in 2024/5
- served over 100,000 unique customers each year
- continued to reach people who are often excluded from mainstream financial services
Why we launched the Fund
We launched the Community Finance Resilience Fund in December 2023 in response to the mounting pressures faced by the community finance sector as the cost of living crisis deepened. Developed in consultation with community finance providers themselves, the fund aimed to preserve and scale affordable credit provision while building organisational resilience across the community finance sector.
Headline impact:
Between 2024 and 2026 the Fund deployed £6.2m to 47 community finance organisations. Collectively these organisations:
- lent over £209 million in loans in 2024/5
- served over 100,000 unique customers each year
- continued to reach people who are often excluded from mainstream financial services
What the evaluation found:
The Ecorys evaluation confirms positive impact across three interlinked areas:
- The preservation of affordable credit provision during the cost of living crisis
- Some evidence of the scaling of lending activity to meet rising demand
- Strengthened organisational resilience across the community finance sector
In addition, the evaluation reflects on the delivery of the Fund, celebrating effective practice and highlighting lessons to support the design of future programmes
‘[Without the funding] we would have had a much larger deficit on our profit and loss, which would’ve made raising funding even harder and we’d have restricted our lending because in effect it gave us cash that we could lend… it would have been a really serious kind of situation.’
– Community Finance Resilience Fund grant recipient
To accompany the full evaluation we’re publishing a summary report that captures what went well, what we learned and how recipients used the funding to make an impact.
