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Financing the future economy: How community businesses can access the right finance to achieve their ambitions

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This report provides an overview of the finance and funding landscape for community business, outlining the challenges in accessing the right type of finance at the right time, and situating access to finance within the wider policy context.

Category

Policy publications

Topic

Financing the future economy
Jessica Craig

Jessica Craig

Policy Officer

DOWNLOAD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report draws on what Power to Change has learned from funding, supporting and advocating for community business since 2015 about the challenges community businesses face in accessing the right types of finance, at the right time, to sustain and grow their businesses.

It highlights the range and complexity of the sources of finance used by community businesses to start up, grow and sustain their businesses, and the relative challenges and opportunities that these present.

It also situates access to finance within the wider policy context and provides recommendations on how funders, investors and government at all levels can unlock finance for this vital sector to create a fairer and more sustainable economy.

Our learnings from this report

The ability to access the right forms of funding and financial support at the right time is a crucial part of the development of any business, and community businesses have readily identified funding as a key component of confidence and future business growth. For all community businesses, having a financially sustainable footing influences their confidence about the future, as well as their ability to withstand successive external challenges while continuing to strengthen their communities
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