[Closed] Social Enterprise/Charity

contact your local cvs

Depends a lot on what you'll actually be doing - as in what your group's activities are and how you'll receive and handle money. Will you be receiving donations from the public or do you simply need to have a non-profit structure in order to be able to apply for funding. There are quite a lot of newer non-profit structures you can look at as well as 'charity' (which is much more strictly defined these days), such as 'Community Interest Company'

The [url= http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ ]Charity Commision[/url]website assumes that you are not a lawyer I think. Most of what you need will be on there.

(Being vague on purpose, to keep idea a bit secret.)

Wouldn't be donations, but would apply for grants. People can pay to become members, and can then access services/equipment for a fee.

It would be non-profit, run mainly by volunteers with hopefully (eventually) a paid staff member.

Idea would the to roll out nationally eventually, so other groups can set up something similar in their local areas.

This is from my partner (works in the social enterprise sector and formerly involved in training programmes for NCVO):

NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) has lots of guidance on organisational structure. Try http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sfp/index.asp?id=2225 to start with. Or http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sfp/index.asp?id=2222 (this page has a link to agencies who can support you 1:1)
You can find your local CVS (council of voluntary service) from www.navca.org.uk
You should also be able to contact Business Links (government initiative) who are meant to be able to support Social Enterprise but whom often aren’t fully geared up to the specifics of social enterprise so try your luck

Hope that helps

Thanks for the links and thoughts everyone.

My wife has been involve in setting up something similar, so I can get lots of info from her, but I wanted to make sure I was seeing every angle, not just the bits she'd seen. She also suggested speaking to our local CVS (now exciting called [url= http://www.darlingtoncvs.org.uk/ ]eVOLution[/url]!), so it looks like they might be our best bet.

"a bit secret"!. I bet we could pretty well write your business plan. 😉

"a bit secret"! I bet we could pretty well write your business plan.

If you could, that would be awfully kind.

Mike - if you're incorporating a company, let me know and I might be able to help (don't know anything about chairities though!).

Tom

Thanks Tom.

Hi Mike

We set up as a company limited by guarantee then went for charitable status. That said you need to be very careful about how and why you are doing this. Will this formation be restrictive and what are the other avenues open to you: Community Interest Company(CLG/CLS) Industrial Provident Society etc etc.

[url= http://www.bateswells.co.uk/Files/Publications/sec_keeping_legal_complete2b.pdf ]Clickety Click[/url] 'Keeping it Legal' by Bateswells will give you a good idea of what you need - it also comes with good working examples.

The company limited by guarantee works well enough. We have a board of trustees(non-exec Director) who meet on a regular basis and as long as there is no proven mis-dealings then their liabilities will amount to a small amount (usually £10)

Depending on the social area you intend to work in there is likely to be models already out there. If there is simply type in their company number (if they have one) into Company House website and then order their Memorandum and Articles of Association. Why not even ring the company themselves and explain what you're up to - they may even help.

If you need any more advice I'm happy to help

TS

I knew asking on STW would get results 🙂 Thanks for all the help so far.

The firm I run is a social enterprise in the world of community waste and recycling if that's of any help? If you can give me an idea of the sort of social aims you're looking for I'll try and point you in the direction of half decent examples.

TS

Since it's not much of a secret anyway 🙂

[url= http://www.velodarlo.org/about/ ]http://www.velodarlo.org/about/[/url]

[i]a film crew and photographer from the Media Group are following a group of teenage girls [/i]

Tis sounds rather sinister, otherwise good stuff. I expect more Mundo chat, I must admit! 🙂

O.K. My guess is some form of worker's co-operative along the lines of

[url= http://www.liverpool-bicycle.co.uk/ ]Liverpool Bicycle[/url]

or

[url= http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/comms/srv.a4d?f_pg=about.htm ]Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op[/url]

Like I said plan carefully as in a CLG and a Charity may all sound very grand but we have two sets of audited accounts to pay for each year. That said as a Charity we can then access more funding (restricted) streams.

TS

Liverpool Bicycle seems closest to what we're doing.

We'd like to keep it focussed on encouraging girls coming toward the end of their time in secondary to ride bikes. There's been a really good take-up locally from the under-14s, but then they just stop riding. ideally, the girls themselves will help with decision-making, but with a group of adults keeping the org more stable (since the girls will generally be involved for a couple of years, before going off to uni or wherever).

Taking a look through Bateswell's Guide a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) run as a Co-op may function well and allow everyone a say on how things are run.(Not sure if 'under-age' groups can be included or not!)

As Matty_H said NCVO may be a good start point. Our lot the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) used to provide legal advice free and even used to bring in company formation specialists - see how you get on with them.

cheers
TS

tankslapper's link looks to be really useful (I've just skimmed it).

One of the key concerns these days is the li9miting of liability, which is where a separately incorporated entity (whether company (shares, guarantee, CIC, etc) or limited liability partnership) becomes attractive.

I'm doing similar work right now for my cycling club (on the basis that I'm a corporate lawyer, so companies are my business), though the objectives are slightly different, as it only needs to maintain a not for profit - rather than charitable - position.

You should make BD provide some of the tax advice...!

Anyway, happy to help. Just mail me when you need any input.

But you can still maintain a charitable position outside a charity as long as you enshrine it within your constitution? So a LLP CiC etc etc although not necessarily a charity can have the charitable function embedded.

Dunno. Not an expert on charity law. No doubt someone somewhere in the organisation I work in is, but i don't intend to find them right now.

The key, I think here, is getting some advice from the CVS on the structure most suitable for your project. Once you've done that Mike, come back and between us we'll knock something together for you...

Wow, lots of great advice, thanks.

(I've been given http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1077475650 as a link via Twitter too, so thought I'd post it here as a kind of bookmark.)

Further reading

Starting Point Guide

An indepth guide to setting up a social enterprise, produced by Social Enterprise London.
Available to download, free of charge, at

A business planning guide to developing a social enterprise

A PDF guide produced by Forth Sector.
Available to download, free of charge, at

FORTHSECTOR.ORG.UK "http://www.forthsector.org.uk/docs/New_BusPlanGuide.pdf"

Starting a co-operative

A PDF guide produced by Co-operatives UK.
Available to download, free of charge, at http://www.cooperatives-uk.coop/live/images/cme_resources/Public/ots/Starting-a-Co-operative.pdf

Set up a social enterprise

An online guide developed by Business Link.
Go to http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1077475650

Setting up and financing a social enterprise organisation

An online guide developed by the Department of Health

Go to http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/
PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/Browsable/DH_074313