Rockefeller grant to support UK-based social stock exchange

Plans to develop a social stock exchange (SSE) in the UK as a means of improving access to finance for social businesses have been given a boost by a GBP 250,000 (US$500,000) grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support research into the feasibility of establishing an exchange.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship at the end of March, Anthony Bugg-Levine of the Rockefeller Foundation said that the research is taking place in the UK because the UK government has a proactive approach to providing a good policy environment. It is therefore more likely that the SSE will succeed there. If established, however, it will bring in companies from all around the world.