Programme

The Acquiring Business 4 Good (AB4G) programme works across the Third Sector delivering mergers and acquisition support. One of our key areas of support is to assist social enterprises and charities to acquire profitable private businesses. We also support organisations looking to work together, develop partnerships or merge, either within the Third Sector or cross sector.

The Big Lottery in Scotland funds free AB4G programme support to Scottish social enterprises, development trusts, community businesses and charities, as long as the organisation is a member of Social Firms Scotland. We do also have a range of chargeable services supporting Merger and Acquisition activity in the Third Sector for work we do in the rest of the UK. (Read more about AB4G services here.)

The Scottish Government funded Social Firms Scotland to research the use of business acquisition by social enterprises in Europe and Australia (Read more about this here). The report from this research formed the basis of the AB4G application to the Big Lottery‘s Dynamic and Inclusive Communities Fund. The programme delivery is funded until June 2012 in Scotland.