Governance of Blending Funding

Tender description

"We require desk-based research to be carried out to summarise the key attributes of the various legal entities and/or corporate structures that are available to partnerships. This work should describe the features of the various legal structures and what that means for the ability to blend funding from a variety of sources i.e., access public funding, raising capital investment, partaking in ecosystems markets, ability to stack or bundle benefits. The research should consider and discuss the implications of the different structures for managing public goods. Specifically: How do the structures share risk/liabilities and equity between sectors; what works for environmental public goods and what lessons can we learn from past failures. Are there examples of debt-based/repayment models working for environmental public goods? What are the opportunities and risks of debt-based models? What is the relationship between purpose and legal structure - what structures are used in common or community ownership models? Numerous examples exist of how partnerships use various corporate structures both within England and internationally, such as projects associated with the Green Recovery Challenge Fund (GRCF), Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF), or those such as Natural Course, Water Resources East (WRE) and WRE's work with The Nature Conservancy on the Norfolk Water Fund, Business Boards associated with Catchment Partnerships (such as the Cameo Partnership), and some of the Test and Trials projects being run under Defra's environmental land management scheme. We are also interested in understanding governance approaches used in other sectors (i.e., energy, digital) that could be transferrable to the environmental sector. Research should be summarised in a report describing the different corporate structures generically and by referencing case studies. It should also include a summary of the learning from different corporate structures used across the case studies to understand what works well where, and at what scale, and whether membership across the public, private and third sector is an essential factor of success. Project Deliverables: A report describing the different legal structures, and their pros and cons relating to their ability to blend funding in simple, non-technical language that is accessible for a range of local stakeholders. A review and summary of case studies, to include a breakdown of the legal structures, range of partners, and power structures between the different parties. Summaries of any interviews held with project managers involved with the case studies. Presentation materials summarising the main findings (for example, infographics and/or slide decks with pictures and diagrams). "