Social Finance Foundation

The Foundation was established under the Government’s Social Finance Initiative in January 2007 by the then Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen. With seed capital of €25 million donated through the Irish Banking Federation (IBF) by the country’s banks, the Foundation provides loan funding for community and micro-finance projects that would otherwise find it difficult to obtain financial support from mainstream lenders.

SFF as a wholesale lender operates through intermediaries like First Step.

Enterprise Ireland

The First-Step Enterprise Fund is co-financed through the EU Seed and Venture Capital Fund . The EU Seed and Venture Capital Fund is managed through Enterprise Ireland.

European Investment Fund

First-Step is the beneficiary of an SME Guarantee Facility created within the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP 2007-2013) of the European Community.  This Guarantee is operated by the European Investment Fund on behalf of the Commission.

The objective of the Guarantee is to encourage organisations like First Step to provide financing to micro-enterprises and to mitigate a part of the risk in relation to bad debts on the loan portfolio.