The East London Bond, creating a real legacy for East London
13 April 2010
We are inviting our supporters to join other high profile companies including Wates Group Ltd, Apax Foundation, Vitabiotics and Winterflood Securities to invest in the East London Bond which will transform lives by creating a sustainable legacy in East London. To date, with their generous support and others, £1.6m has been pledged to the Bond but there's further to go.
Companies and individuals can invest by purchasing a bond which they will receive back in full in five years time. Your support will enable the Bromley by Bow Centre and Community Links to step up our work. In practical terms helping more vulnerable adults and young people to; learn new skills, find work or set up in business, to break out of ill health and poverty and to play a meaningful role in the Olympics and other new developments which are transforming East London. Your support will help make this happen.
At a time when recession has squeezed the budgets of donors - but increased the need for funds to help those who are most vulnerable - the charitable bond mechanism provides an innovative solution. It allows individuals and companies to use their capital to support charity without giving it away.
The Bond works like this: around 20 per cent of the money raised by the East London Bond will go immediately to charity. The other 80 per cent is loaned to a housing provider to develop affordable housing. After five years the housing provider repays the loan with interest, taking the fund back to its original 100 per cent level, and investors get all their money back.
The combination of a high-value yield for charity and security for the investor was one of the key factors that led Wates Group Ltd to make the first pledge of support for the East London Bond. Paul Drechsler, chairman and chief executive of Wates, explains:
"Wates is proud to have pledged £1 million in the East London Bond" says Paul. "We're strongly committed to supporting the communities where we work and live and the Bond is an effective and high impact way for us to do that. As the first investor in the East London Bond our ambition is to inspire confidence in other potential investors and see many more companies follow our lead."
The East London Bond is an investment in the future of East London.
