Investment planning

Investment Planning

Overview

This service relates to all charities, housing associations and social enterprises looking to develop and scale their organisations. It comprises of a suite of products:

Business Planning
Taking a strategic view of the coming few years allows a management team to allocate resources, to make effective decisions and to lead teams of motivated employees. It also enables them to concentrate on the best course of action to achieve a set of defined objectives - whether they are financial, social or dual.

Organisations in the third sector, such as charities, NGOs and housing associations, which are adopting a more business-like model will find business planning useful for addressing cultural change needs and for competing for a wider range of contracts and finance.

Eastside's professionally-produced business plans will consider all aspects of your organisation: strategy, market, human resources, operations, finance and risk among others.
A good business plan will:
• Be customised to a specific audience, whether to funders or to serve as a guide for management and staff
• Be "owned" by management, who will ultimately implement it; and
• Be used to inform action, and so not gather dust in a filing cabinet.

Financial Planning
Financial models enable an organisation to test the viability of a new business strategy, a new department or a merger by assessing different economic scenarios.

Why complete a financial model?

Good financial planning is essential for management teams to clearly understand the viability of a proposal and the things that need to be put in place for it to succeed commercially. As charities, NGOs and housing associations seek more enterprising approaches to offering their services, better financial planning will breed success.

Who could benefit?

Financial models are particularly beneficial for the senior management and boards of:

• Established organisations that have matured and are seeking how to achieve sustainability.
• Established organisations that are developing new social enterprises or businesses, and require investment.
• Community finance institutions and other social investment vehicles.

Investment Raising
Social enterprises, Charities and NGOs that have adopted more enterprising models have greater access than ever before to new sources of finance. Few pursue the opportunities because they simply don't know what's available, who to talk to or how to access the funds. Eastside has a range of strong social enterprise investment networks and proven services, which can open the door to a varied number of social enterprise investment-raising options.
Since start-up in 2005, we have worked with more than 200 third sector clients and raised more than £25million.

Who could benefit?
Eastside offers a direct, targeted approach to securing investors, typically to help established clients secure between £50,000 and £5million of finance. Our successful track record includes raising money through a range of traditional and new sources of investors including:

• Corporate firms
• Government departments
• Philanthropists
• Community finance institutions
• Social venture funds

Eastside's Raising Investment Service:
• An assessment of your current funding needs and options
• Development of an investment strategy, coordinated with your needs as a business
• Review and advice on your funding materials, including your current business plan
• Management of the investment strategy process, including introductions to investors
• Consultant communication and support throughout the fund-raising process, to ensure that the final outcome meets your requirements

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