Scottish third sector lender Social Investment Scotland (SIS) has won a prestigious award from the Cabinet Office for its pioneering work on the SIS Community Capital Fund.

SIS scooped the New Social Investors Award at the Cabinet Office Social Investment Awards, which took place on Tuesday 3 May 2016 in London.

Now in its second year, the Awards, run in partnership with Cabinet Office and NatWest and supported by Prime Minister David Cameron, hope to encourage other investors to get involved with social investment, supporting charities and social enterprises so they can continue making a difference to millions of lives across the UK.

In a growing market for social investment, SIS saw off fierce competition from other market entrants to win the award for its work on SIS Community Capital. The fund was the first of its kind in Scotland to use Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR), aimed at unlocking money from private investors by offering them both a tax-related incentive and a social return on their investment.

SIS Community Capital, which divested last month, raised £400,000 from 27 private investors with seven social enterprises receiving investments of between £25,000 and £100,000.

Commenting after winning the award, Alastair Davis, chief executive of Social Investment Scotland, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have been recognised on the national stage for our work on Community Capital. From the design of the fund to the recent divestment of funds, the team over at SIS has worked tirelessly to make sure that this was a success. This award is testament to that hard work and, more importantly, their dedication and passion for social enterprise.

“As an organisation, we are committed to continue finding new ways of unlocking investment to connect more capital with more communities across the country. SIS Community Capital has opened up a whole new stream of investment and hopefully we can build on that early success over the coming months.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Social investment has the potential to transform lives and these awards, now in their second year, celebrate forces for social change in our country. Whether it is helping prisoners turn over a new leaf upon release, reducing youth unemployment or tackling poverty, these projects are using finance to get to grips with some of the most difficult social problems facing us here and around the world.”