The European Venture Philanthropy Association (EVPA) have released findings from their fifth annual survey, polling 108 venture philanthropy and social investment (VP/SI) organisations based in Europe, investing both in Europe and globally, to uncover the latest trends and key data from the sector.

Key findings show that social return is still the main priority for the respondents. An increasing number of organisations expect positive financial returns from their investments. The 108 organisations have allocated €6.5 billion between them since they began their operations, which is a 30 per cent increase compared to the 2013 fiscal year. They also invested an average of €7.8 million, through venture philanthropy or social investment activities.

The majority of European venture philanthropy organisations still have annual budgets lower than €2.5 million – in the last fiscal year, the average amount allocated to VP/SI activities was €9.8 million, which is a 2 per cent increase compared to the previous survey.

The data also reveals that co-investment seems to be a key component of their surveyed organisation’s investment strategy. 63 per cent of respondents have co-invested in the past and 19 per cent said they are interested in doing so in the future. 51 per cent of those who previously co-invested, did so with foundations engaged in other forms of philanthropy.

Alongside these figures, the most commonly targeted social impact themes are economic and social development (receiving 24 per cent of funding), ahead of financial inclusion (19 per cent), education (15 per cent) and environment (14 per cent).  All together, these five themes made up 79 per cent of the total spend in 2015 financial year.

Bernard Uyttendaele, CEO of EVPA, commented:

‘We’re really excited to see this rise in co-investment, which, to us, indicates more collaboration, a pooling of resources, expertise and best practices to ultimately see more impact’.

You can read the report in full here.

Find insights and comments from the 2016 annual EVPA conference here.