Nick Glynne, CEO of Buy It Direct and a member of the Si3 Investment Committee, tells us how UJIA’s Si3 – Social Impact Investing in Israel – is transforming the way of giving.
For decades, charitable donations to Israel followed a familiar model: heartfelt giving to charities with the money given as grants to worthy causes. But Si3, UJIA’s innovative investment initiative, aims to offer an alternative. It brings together philanthropy and enterprise, deploying donations as investments in social enterprises in Israel that generate both measurable financial returns and social impact.
The idea is simple – social impact businesses who require funding pitch for an interest-bearing loan, and equity deals are subjected to a thorough due diligence process. The experienced members of the Si3 Investment Committee evaluate the proposal and then vote on whether to make the loan. Finally, the decision is ratified by UJIA Trustees, and funds are dispersed, ready to make a real difference to lives.
It’s a rigorous process matching financial scrutiny with measurements for social good, and the goal is to build a more self-sufficient, resilient Israeli society – one where support from the diaspora isn’t just charitable, but empowering. By investing in companies focused on social impact whose aim is to support neglected communities, particularly in Israel’s periphery, Si3 offers donors the opportunity to do good and have their funds recycled for future projects.
A great example is She Codes, a thriving social business that trains women from disadvantaged communities to write computer code and then helps find them employment within the tech space. She Codes needs money to train students, but the beauty of the model is that it then charges the successful candidates when they find employment, in a similar manner to UK student finance. To fund this initial cash shortfall, She Codes successfully applied for an interest-bearing loan from Si3. In other investments, the initiative’s funding is used to meet a cash flow gap until the government or private companies pay out to the social enterprise.
This model aligns the values of Zionism with social responsibility and equity, while ensuring transparency and accountability. It appeals to business-minded individuals who are seeking higher levels of efficiency and social impact in their charitable giving. It is such an innovative and successful way of giving that, before the events of October 7th, it had become a key method for UJIA to engage donors and direct funds in Israel.
The brutal Hamas attacks and the war that followed changed everything and awakened a sense of emergency. The need for immediate humanitarian relief – food, shelter, trauma support, and security – suddenly became paramount. Si3 was adapted to ensure support reached where it was most needed in the first few months of the war. However, soon afterwards, as civil society began to achieve a sense of routine in the new ongoing emergency, we saw how nonprofits and other social enterprises began using business models to address social needs of the day. Since the attacks, the initiative has used a specific allocated pool of funds to make emergency-related loans, with two in particular relating to loans to funds that are helping keep businesses afloat.
As Israel will hopefully soon transition from war to the rebuilding of the country, Si3’s approach will be more critical than ever. The initiative offers a framework not just for rebuilding infrastructure but for restoring dignity, opportunity, and sustainable resilience. UJIA is giving in the short term to save lives, but in the long term, it is investing in helping people flourish.
Si3 may have been born in a time of peace, but its vision of using an evergreen fund to build a thriving, inclusive, and self-reliant Israel will prove even more relevant in the aftermath of conflict.
