About us
Our mission is to strengthen community businesses
What we do..
Connect community businesses to support, resources,
and ideas to improve resilience and impact
Support community business innovation
Improve understanding of what community businesses
need and can provide
Advocate for more community ownership and
greater community power
To change...
More impactful and resilient community businesses
Growing understanding of and support for community businesses
A more diverse, equitable and inclusive sector
And achieve...
This will contribute to:
Community businesses to addressing
society’s challenges
Funding and support for community
businesses
Growth of the community business sector
Our vision...
businesses that give them the power to
change what matters to them: making an
ever- increasing contribution to a fairer
greener economy, empowered communities,
and transformed places that are better to live
and work in for everyone.
Built on our values...
We are collaborative.
We are informed.
We are bold.
We are open.
We are authentic.
Our mission is to strengthen community businesses
At Power to Change, our mission is to strengthen community businesses to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges at a local level, including the three biggest challenges of our time: climate change, digital transformation and social inequalities.
In the next five years, using strategic funding, trusted partnerships, rigorous research, policy insight, and a strong network of remarkable community businesses who are changing the world one day at a time, Power to Change will be a catalyst for the whole sector, creating the ideas, evidence, and exemplars that can make a case for others to back community business. Ultimately, we will amplify the efforts of community businesses and put them at the heart of a fair recovery.
We apply five values to everything we do:
We are open: We will seek partners and allies beyond the community business sector to better help the community business model go mainstream, and will be open about our learnings as we test and discover new approaches to community-led resilient places.
We are bold: Our plans are ambitious, and we will continue to enter markets where we see community businesses could thrive, and boldly speak to decision makers alongside community businesses.
We are informed: We will continue to work closely with community businesses and be informed by their lived experience and needs. We will approach new challenges with fresh eyes and take an evidence-led approach before rolling out solutions.
We are collaborative: We will continue to work with existing partners and new ones, drawing on each other’s skills to achieve what we couldn’t do alone.
We are authentic: We will integrate the priorities that we have for community businesses into our own practice. We will aim to advance dignity, justice and belonging in our own organisation, become climate positive, actively embrace digital transformation, and continuously build our own capacities in many areas.
Power to Change was set up in 2015 with a £150m endowment from The National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) and was due to close in 2022. Responding to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we realised that community businesses needed us more than ever. We received a further £20m from NLCF which enabled us to set out a new five-year strategy to continue supporting the sector.
Open
Bold
Informed
Collaborative
Authentic
Our impact on our grantees
£100m
2600
67%
11,300
1,724
If you would like more in-depth information about our work this is where to start…
Community businesses and high streets: ‘taking back’ and leading forward
This report takes a strategic look at the role community businesses can play in addressing the challenges of UK high streets. It considers how community businesses can succeed in high streets, what they can contribute, and what support they need to make a long-term difference to restore ‘pride in place’ in struggling town centres.
Annual report 2021
Our 2021 annual report reviews the seventh year of Power to Change’s operations. It covers the grants we made and our future plans, alongside a financial review of 2020 and our statutory accounts.
Young People in Community Business: Stories of Change
Community businesses can transform the progressive social intentions of younger generations into meaningful and sustainable community action. This report showcases the many ways young people came to be and are involved in community businesses.
Take Back the High Street: Why now is the time for a High Street Buyout Fund
This paper puts forward the concept of a High Street Buyout Fund – an agile fund which will purchase high street buildings and transfer these into community management and ownership.
The ‘Year Zero’ reporting approach
New report exploring the ‘Year Zero’ approach to understanding the impact of Power to Change’s investment
READ ABOUT
COMMUNITY BUSINESS
