These national awards, organised by Social Enterprise UK (SEUK), are the biggest celebration of social enterprise in the sector. Shining a spotlight on the leading lights of the social enterprise community, they recognise the outstanding achievements of businesses across the UK which trade for a social purpose, that give back, enrich communities and make a significant contribution to society.
Sponsored by Big Society Capital, the Social Investment Deal of the Year aims to celebrate an organisation that has been part of a great investment deal in the last 12 months that has helped a social enterprise to grow or the movement as a whole to develop and flourish.
Resonance is a social impact investment company that helps social enterprises raise capital from like-minded investors. They also create and manage impact investment funds, which deliver a financial return as well as a targeted social impact, and have worked with over 165 social enterprises and charities, enabling them to raise capital to grow their impact, making a greater difference to the communities they serve. They currently manage 8 funds with over £210m of investment and supported Smile Together in securing £1m funding from Big Issue Invest towards developing our brand new dental facility in Bodmin that would be suitable for all, including vulnerable patients.
Vikki Johnson, Commercial and Operations Manager at Smile Together, who attended the awards ceremony at London’s Guildhall on 4 December with colleague Alison Cane and the team from Resonance, said: “My role sees me manage a number of major commercial projects on behalf of Smile Together and taking on a former grammar school, which required significant building renovation and redevelopment to transform it into a brand new, purpose designed and accessible dental centre for our community certainly took some doing but it’s massively enhanced the clinical environment for our patients and our colleagues. It’s been a tremendous team effort which extends to all the partners who have and continue to support us. To win this national award is a real accolade and we’re so proud that Resonance chose to enter the awards with Smile Together – Ali and I had the most wonderful, special evening. You don’t appreciate the magnitude of these glittering awards nor how important they are to the social enterprise sector until you’re sitting there in such good company!”
Describing Smile Together as “a truly exceptional, pioneering and impactful healthcare provider” Resonance Ltd have blogged about their awards success at https://resonance.ltd.uk/news/news/resonance-wins-national-social-impact-award-with-smile-together
More details of the SEUK awards are at https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/winners-of-the-uk-social-enterprise-awards-2019/ with a link to images from the evening here
