form a community interest public limited company (plc)
convert an existing company to a CIC
convert a charitable company to a CIC
convert an industrial and provident society (IPS) to a CIC
convert a private company to a community interest plc
convert a plc to a community interest plc
change or specifying an asset-locked body in the articles of association
alter clauses in the articles of association
alter the object statement of a CIC
change the status of a CIC to a community interest plc
convert a CIC to a charitable company
convert a CIC to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
convert a CIC to an IPS
arrange the voluntary dissolution of a CIC
file an annual CIC report and accounts online or by post
It includes links to the appropriate forms, model constitutions (including the memorandum of association and articles of association) and model special resolutions”.
This is an invaluable guide to anyone thinking of starting a CIC to deliver community facing business activity – the whole designed to be for community benefit, rather than personal profit.
SocEntEastMIds offer a range of supportive services and supplies to help you achieve your community business aims. We deliver them at no charge.
”Humentum is the leading global nonprofit working with humanitarian and development organisations to improve how they operate and to make the sector more equitable, accountable, and resilient. Funders for Real Cost, Real Change (FRC), a collaborative of private foundations, commissioned this research and report to gather evidence on the extent to which international donor funding covers the real administration costs of national NGOs…”
Thought provoking ideas from Humentum…external link.
This provocative and challenging report, from the organisation Humentum, makes a strong case for a continued imbalance in the allocation of funding, the imposition of power structures and the seeming immutable nature of the funder and funded relationship.
Although focused on the international/NGO sector, some of the key research findings, and recommendations by Humentum, could equally apply to the most modest community projects at home. Are we understanding our own detailed cost needs as a project, are we asking our funder for the full cost recovery amount and is our funder advancing enough funding, which is unrestricted, to best flexibly serve both delivery and sustainability of our project/cause over time?
The Humentum report quests for a funding context, where funders need to realign their relationships, making them more equitable, and that all parties become more accountable inside that interactional relationship.
It argues cogently from the NGO voices heard that what is needed is…
• a stronger long-term partnership approach that directly addresses the challenge of the unequal power dynamic inherent in the funding relationship.
• longer-term funding agreements with a significant component of general operating support to enable NGOs to become more sustainable, including building up unrestricted reserves.
• better cost coverage of all the administration costs associated with projects, including items such as start-up and closure costs, with less reluctance to fund salary costs.
These deficits in relationships and sweep in grant making result, for Humentum, in the starvation cycle. Humentum argue that for grantees to break out of this constricting and distorting cycle, then funders need to apply a change of approach. Namely, to offer…
a) full cost coverage
b) means by which grantees can contribute to unrestricted reserves
c) support to strengthen grantees’ cost recovery capabilities.
There is to us, thinking again about the local project context, an irony in the application of a grant, which may result in great creative, expertise and community development lift for a local project, which at the same time, because of traditional funding methodologies, powers the deliverer of the grant aided umbrella project into an inability to work for sustainability, skills uplift and cost recovery management to ensure that ‘starvation’ does not occur.
In conclusion, the Humentum paper makes three key recommendations…
Funders should commit to consistently covering a full and fair share of all associated administration costs.
Funders should directly fund grantees to strengthen their financial management, cost recovery and fundraising capabilities, and provide unrestricted funding to build reserves.
Funders should systematically collect data on the extent of adequate cost coverage. This data should be used to drive internal accountability and motivate funders to provide their full and fair share of administration costs in restricted funding agreements.
Could the Humentum research transform the funding landscape, wherever the context? It’s a provocative paper…
The SEEE toolkit has six distinct sections, designed to help smaller organisations to understand their impact. By methodically gathering evidence, reflecting on it and transposing the information into useful data presentations.
Giving the information and responses, which we all collect in the social business sector, an organised and accessible face.
Using the toolkit you will work through themes around information collection, engagement, conversations, outcomes, data processing and organised planning and dissemination.
The toolkit is not free, but your licence enables up to five people in the organisation to collaborate and contribute to process. As well have access to all the worksheets you create on the toolbox system to move your information project forward.
