Community Ownership Fund – next round 31st May to 12th July 2023!
The fund helps communities to:
- take ownership of a physical community asset at risk, such as land and buildings, which benefit local people
- renovate, repair, or refurbish an asset to make it sustainable for the long term
- set up or buy a community business
- buy associated stock, collections, or intellectual property
- move a community asset to a new, more appropriate location within the same community. This might be because a different location offers better value to continue the asset, or because the venue is in itself an asset of community value
- develop new assets where these relate to saving, preserving, or relocating a past or existing asset
You need to be-
- an incorporated voluntary or community organisation or a parish, town and community council
- registered in the UK
Common legal structures of organisations we expect to apply include:
- Charitable incorporated organisations (CIO)
- Scottish charitable incorporated organisations (SCIO)
- Co-operatives including Community Benefit Societies
- Community Interest Companies (CiC)
- Companies limited by guarantee.
You can apply for funding if the asset you want to save-
- is at risk of loss without community intervention
- can be run viably and sustainably in community hands for the long-term benefit of the community
- if already owned, the asset requires essential renovations to be sustainable for the long-term benefit of the community
Funding- how much?
- You can apply for up to £1 million for all asset types, but it is expected that most awards will be for up to £250,000 of capital funding
- apply for revenue funding of no more than £50,000 or 20% of the total capital funding applied for, whichever is smaller
- you must be able to ‘match’ the capital grant from the Fund at the required match funding rate
- you must be able to show that capital grant funding and match funding will be spent within the 12 months following the date you are offered funding (indicated on the offer letter)
Please see all the details on the Government website here:
There is some information from the Plunkett Foundation here about applying to the Community Ownership https://mycommunity.org.uk/community-ownership-fund
This includes some free training on the 24th May on how to raise the necessary match funding