INAISE (the International Association of Investors in the Social Economy) is a global network of socially and environmentally oriented financial institutions.
Created in 1989, INAISE has grown rapidly as the movement of social investors gained importance, volume and visibility in a number of European and non-European countries. Through Inaise, social investors from Norway to South Africa and from Costa Rica to Japan have been joining forces to exchange experience, disseminate information and demonstrate to the world that money can actually be a means to achieve positive social and environmental change.

INAISE members, through their investment policy, foster and promote the development of organisations and enterprises:

• Environment and sustainable development: renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydro-energy; energy efficiency; organic agriculture, food processing and retailing; nature conservation; eco-building; clean technology;
• Social economy: co-operatives; community enterprises; employee participation; employee buy-outs; micro and small enterprise creation and development, especially among unemployed, migrants, women;

• Health-care: health centres; community care; clinics and hospitals; programmes for the disabled; preventive therapies;
• Social development: social housing; community housing; employment generation; social services, community transport; charities; community groups and the voluntary sector;
• Education and Training: school buildings; training courses; organisational development; alternative schools;

North-South: fair trade; small-enterprise start-ups through micro credit programmes; small business training and counselling; crafts, farming, small scaled-industries; Culture and arts: artists; exhibitions, theatre; film; dance; local radios.

Not by money alone

INAISE members do not only differ in the sectors in which they invest. They approach investing and depositing differently from traditional financial institutions. INAISE members go beyond anonymous technical banking. As collectors of deposits, they try to be transparent institutions where people can actually see what happens with their money, creating awareness and involvement. As investors, they try to be more than just providers of money: information and advice comes with finance. The terms and conditions for finance may differ. Social investors tend to be more flexible and creative in finding solutions for not-for-profit projects and enterprises which are short of collateral, but with a high social impact and community support.

International diversity

INAISE members demonstrate a great diversity in organisational and legal structures, size, policies and financial instruments. They include banks, co-operative financial institutions, not-for-profit associations, foundations, venture-capital and guarantee-funds. Through INAISE this richness of experience and variety of instruments becomes available to all who are involved in finding new financial solutions to today’s social and environmental problems. Learning from each others’ successes and failures is probably the most important function of INAISE.

INAISE...  

• encourages and supports international (including North-South) co-operation between investors in the social economy.
• serves as an information desk for organisations and individuals interested in the field of social economy financing.
• plays an active role in representing the movement of social investors,
• disseminates information on its members, new publications, conferences and training courses
• organises and facilitates international conferences
• contributes to and co-ordinates research projects in the field of social economy financing, sponsored by national and international institutions.
• facilitates and co-ordinates joint projects by members.

Structure

INAISE is a not-for-profit association under Belgium law. INAISE is managed by a Board of Directors, which is elected annually by the General Meeting. The General Meeting is composed of the members of INAISE.
Click here to read the statutes (pdf doc)
The daily management of INAISE is delegated to the Executive Secretary who is in charge of the INAISE secretariat in Brussels.

Membership

There are different kinds of members - with different fees. 

Full members are finance organisations and network of finance organisations which carry on investment activity in the social economy and which subscribe to the articles of association.

Associate members are non financial organisations who support or work towards the development of what INAISE stands for and which subscribe to the articles of association. This may include businesses, organisations, public authorities, group of people or individuals.

Admission of new full or associate members is subject to the approval of the Board of Directors.

Annual membership fees are based on the size of the asset base.  The larger the asset base, the higher the fee - See membership fees table

If you want to become a member, please go to "Members" section and fill in the application form on line or send us an email.

Loca Labora is a producer of organic vegetables and spices. It also provides catering and related services. Loca Labora’s policy is to train and employ people facing difficulties in finding a job on the regular labour market, such as the disabled and long term unemployed. As an independent organisation, Loca Labora does not benefit from structural grants. It rather seeks to attract subsidies from different sources. Netwerk Vlaanderen (Belgium) ensures the feasibility of this policy by providing pre-financing facilities. A low interest loan has been granted of BEF 1,700,000.

Didier is an entrepreneur who had to rely for several months on social security. At that time, no bank was willing to provide him with a loan to realise his plans to become self-employed. He then decided to submit his plan to import Brazilian art purchases to Adie (France). Through their assistance he managed to prepare a good business plan and he received a loan of FF 20,000. With this money he was able to buy his first art purchases and to pay for the related transport costs.

In 1993 Triodos Bank (The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Belgium) launched a Windfund in the Netherlands and two years later in the United Kingdom. By the end of 1996, the volume of The Windfunds totalled around DFL 20 million. Finance is provided to 63 turbines, totalling 23.3 Megawatt of wind power. This power is sufficient to provide about 20.000 households with electricity and to save emissions of 30 million kilogramme of CO2 per year.

A small group of monks translates its sense of brotherhood into the provision of care for ill people who are experiencing the last period of their lives. Several of these patients suffer from aids. The monks decided to settle at a farm in Normandy. The farm offers ill people a natural environment which is both favourable to their physical and mental condition. NEF (France) provided the monks with a loan of FF 400,000.

In November 1990 a group of Frankfurt citizens founded a lobby organisation promoting the position of poor and homeless people. The founders of this organisation recognized the fact that a further decrease of social rights is not only harmful to these people, but also to society at large. Undemocratic developments are known to be fed by poverty. ‘We need a broad public movement against the decrease of social rights and to secure social stability, which is the basis for our democratic society’. Ökobank (Germany) provided a loan of DM 80,000.

Tabora Beekeepers is a co-operative of 2.500 beekeepers in Tanzania. They needed hard currency to buy the imported drums required to ship their honey to Traidcraft, a fair trade organisation based in the United Kingdom. Traidcraft had already paid them the maximum advance allowable, so Shared Interest (United Kingdom) stepped in to help out with a direct loan to Tabora of GPB 20,000 which will be repaid when the honey reaches Traidcraft.

Melba Lucy Montenegro was poor but ambitious. The 29-year old mother of three children dreamed of opening a bicycle workshop in her hometown of Cali, Colombia. But when she asked several regional banks for a loan, they refused her request because she lacked any collateral. Then she heard about a group called Women’s World Banking (USA), which studied her business plan and agreed to guarantee up to 75% of any loan she received. With the group’s backing, she found an institution that was willing to lend her USD 3,125. Eight years later, she owns three bicycle repair shops and employs 18 people.

A group of families planned to build an eco-village near Aarhus in Denmark. They developed an integrated environmental construction-approach, including the use of environmentally friendly building materials, waste water treatment and solar energy. Although the families met all economic and financial requirements, no conventional mortgage bank was willing to provide the necessary loans. Then Merkur (Denmark) came in with initial loans and arranged for a joint financing scheme of DKK 5 million with two pension funds. Now the village is developing further with new families joining the project                  

Based on the experience of the mag’s (Mutual Self Managing Cooperatives), a new social economy bank has been established in Italy: Banca Etica. The bank is aiming at financing projects in areas such as social services, health care, employment generation, environmental protection, development cooperation, fair trade, culture and arts. Banca Etica has been assisted by various inaise members.

Both for reasons of employment and environment, it is important to find alternatives to the large scale loss making industrial activities in the new German ‘Bundesländern’. Hof Mahlitzsch, covering a surface of 120 ha, is an organic farm managed by three families. gls Gemeinschaftsbank (Germany) provided a loan of DM 63,000 to a lending-group supporting the farm.

Instant Muscle is a national charity in the uk that seeks to help unemployed and otherwise disadvantaged people to enter employment or self-employment. Instant Muscle is, among other things, running so-called Job Clubs on behalf of the Employment Service. In the setting-up of new clubs, conventional banks could not help and even jeopardised this process. Investors in Society, Charities Aid Foundation (United Kingdom) could help, because the application satisfied two essential criteria- a service to meet a social need, and viability at a preferential rate of interest