The Community Business Fund David Chater, Head of Community Business Funds, Power to Change

Power to Change is: An independent Charitable Trust One Year Old Backed by £150 million endowment from the Big Lottery Fund Working to a 10-year plan Aiming to build ‘better places through community business’:  Funding (Community Business Fund, Wholesale Funds, Inception, Community Shares,Innovation and Infrastructure)  Strategic Programmes (Pubs Programme, place-based pilots, Peer Networking)  Research and Impact Work

What have we done to date?

The Community Business Fund: Currently our main funding programme At least £10 million over the next 12 months Aim of ‘growing the community business sector’  Supporting assets in community hands  Increased stability for fledgling businesses Missing middle of funding (£50,000 - £300,000) Up to 80 grants awarded over the year Round one open now until 1 June Further rounds in July and October

Community Business Fund criteria 1.You must fit our definition of a community business 2.Share our impact goals 3.Have a charitable purpose 4.Operate for public benefit 5.Your project must help improve your business become more viable/sustainable 6.At least one year of accounts 7.Ready to start project within 6 months of grant award 8.Other funding sources 9.State Aid 10.Grant request between £50,000 and £300, Requesting max. 75% building-related capital costs, 100% building related capital costs, and/or 75% revenue costs Strongest applications which meet these 11 criteria will be taken through to detailed assessment stage. Guidance available at business-fund/ business-fund/ You must be based in England and Incorporated

We’ve focused much more clearly on that description for the Community Business Fund – Guidance includes videos and case studies of successful applicants 62% of applicants did not meet our definition of a community business Findings from IGP

Key features of a community business Locally rooted They are rooted in a particular geographical place and respond to its needs, for example high levels of urban deprivation or rural isolation. Accountable to local community They are accountable to local people. This can be demonstrated in many ways – but you must have evidence of regular community influence on your business. Trading for benefit of local community They are businesses. Their income comes from activities like renting out space in their buildings, trading as cafés or selling the produce they grow. Broad community impact They benefit the community as a whole and can clearly evidence the positive social impact on the broader community.

You are rooted in a particular geographical place and respond to its needs, for example high levels of urban deprivation or rural isolation. What does locally rooted mean? Granby Four Streets was started by local residents after failed regenerati on projects

You must have evidence of regular community influence on your business including, but not limited to: membership, voting rights, leadership drawn from that community, community shares, regular consultation, surveys, polls... How can you evidence we are accountable to the local community? Members of Bamford Community Society own the local pub and have a say in the business’s direction

You are a business – start with the business model. Your income comes from activities like renting out space in your buildings, trading as cafés or selling the produce you grow. What does trading for the benefit of the local community mean? Burton Street Foundation trades by letting out space to local community groups, and reinvests profit into community activities

You must benefit the community as a whole and can clearly evidence the positive social impact on the broader community. If you are, in part, focused on supporting a particular group you need to also show the wider community benefit. What does having a broad community impact mean? Community bakery Homebaked engages with local unemployed, socially isolated people including NEETs and the elderly. It also provides wider community activity and pride in the neighbourho od

Charitable Purpose and Private Benefit As a Charitable Trust ourselves, we can only use our funds in line with our charitable purpose. So your project must demonstrate it has a charitable purpose at its heart and is for public benefit. Our charitable purpose does not include advancement of religion. So we aren’t able to fund projects that are primarily aimed at that We don’t only fund charities. But for other types of organisation our funding may come with additional conditions (such as asset locks on buildings that are purchased) to ensure it is used charitably. Any private benefit from the project must be incidental

Impact Measurement Applicants will need some support and challenge to think through which impact area is right for them, and how they measure progress against it

Thank you Applications Helpline unity-business-fund/