the terms of a grant that describe the circumstances in which you’d need to repay the money.

investment with the expectation of repayment (usually with interest). Debt finance usually takes the form of loans, both secured and unsecured, as well as overdrafts and standby facilities or standby facilities (e.g. bonds or loan notes). Generally, debt financing requires a borrower to repay the amount borrowed along with some form of interest, and sometimes an arrangement or other fee.

a sum of money paid regularly (typically annually) by a company to its shareholders out of its profits (or reserves).

investment in exchange for a stake in an organisation, usually in the form of shares. Each share represents ownership of a proportion of the value of the company and typically provides the shareholder with voting and dividend rights. Equity finance is permanently invested in the organisation which has no legal obligation to repay the amount invested or to pay interest.

is essentially a type of debt structured to act like equity where the organisation's governance is not structured to be able to issue shares.

an arrangement whereby a lender provides monies to a borrower. "Facility" is often used interchangeably with the term "loan". 

the monetary surplus generated by an organisation on an investment. It may be expressed as "not" (i.e. after deducting all expenses from the gross income generated by the investment) or "gross". 

it is possible to have different tiers of investors so that one set of investors accepts that, in the event that the investee suffers financial difficulties, it will lose the money it invested before any of the other investors lose any money. This investor will bear the ‘first loss’.

a collective investment scheme that provides a way of investing money alongside other investors with similar objectives on a pooled basis. This often provides individual investors with access to a wider range of investments than they would be able to access alone and may reduce the costs of investing due to economies of scale. Funds are managed by fund managers for a management fee on behalf of investors.

a loan that does not take security over an organisation’s assets. Because the risk for the lender is greater, interest rates are usually higher than for secured loans.