Investment Benefits

The advantages for a philanthropic investor or donor in contributing to the Bangladesh Social Fund for the financing of social businesses in Bangladesh, rather than seeking to make direct investments in specific SMEs or grants for specific social projects, include:

	Value multiplication as compared to traditional donations: the impact of a contribution to the Fund is multiplied many times, since repaid investments can be re-used to support further social businesses;
	Diversification and control of investment risk by investing across a planned, balanced portfolio; avoid total failure of investment;
	Pooling of resources with other investors; benefit from economies of scale;
	Outsourcing of resource-intensive search, investment, monitoring and pay-back process to the Fund management team; allows investor or donor to focus their limited resources on their core activities;
	Concentrated knowledge and experience in identifying and supporting social businesses; increase success rate of social businesses and maximize the social and economic impact of each invested dollar.
	Business development services for social businesses targeted for investment through Panther social; enhance likelihood of success of the new social businesses investments.

All investment decisions are based on five types of criteria that are used to select the social businesses to be included in the investment portfolio of the Fund. The criteria are summarized below.

Eligibility

	Passed the due diligence process
	Sectoral and/or geographical scope of the Fund
	Commitment to the principles of social business
	Willingness to accept a small equity investment as part of overall investment

Social & Environmental Impact

	Number of jobs created
	Number of customers/beneficiaries and families that will be positively impacted
	Potential for the product or service to make a significant difference
	Affordability of the product or service at the point of delivery
	Scalability and possible replication of the social business model
	Environmental footprint

Financial Sustainability

	Predicted operational surplus within a defined timeframe
	Long-term resilience to competitive pressures, market changes and other foreseeable risks
	Ability to pay back full loan investment within agreed loan lifetime, plus interest to cover risk of default

Management and Governance

	Ability, trustworthiness and integrity of the management team
	High motivation and commitment to the cause
	Willingness to allow a representative of the Fund on the board of the social business

Portfolio Balance

Appropriate mix of sectors, customers/beneficiaries, operators and business models