Charities need to do more mergers, acquisitions and resource sharing to make themselves more commercially bankable to lenders, says Jonathan Lewis, outgoing chief executive of Social Investment Business, who is to head an NHS social enterprise spin-off in August.

Lewis, who was discussing ways to increase social investment, told civilsociety.co.uk that charities and social enterprises needed to work very hard to make themselves attractive to commercial funders.

“Last year, according to the Young Foundation, there was half a billion pounds of social investment and 55 billion pounds of commercial investment,” said Lewis.

“If charities and social enterprises are serious about making their society-changing solutions more pervasive, they have to make themselves more attractive to commercial lenders. They can’t expect lenders to come to them. Charities and social enterprise have to think very hard about how to make themselves commercially bankable, so, for example, resource sharing, mergers and acquisitions, that sort of stuff.”

Lewis also said that more money would stimulate the social investment market, along with more companies like 3SC, which worked like Serco and allowed charities and social enterprises to bid for the largest contracts.

Commissioning also had to change, Lewis said:

“Commissioning has to be less like something written by Franz Kafka, and more enquiring and outward-looking, to go and find the best solution. It should not be an extremely complicated maze which only those with the best resources are able to work their way through.”

Lewis, who led Social Investment Business for three and a half years, is leaving to become chief executive of service provider Bromley Healthcare which has broken away from the NHS. Lewis said it is a very natural move:

“I think I am staying within the same world. It is an organisation driven by social purpose. So it’s quite natural move from where I am.”