Our projects

Community Shares Booster

The Community Shares Booster Fund is a funding scheme to support community share offers.

Supporting your community share issue

The Booster Fund has relaunched to support new and existing community businesses in England that are at all stages of a community share issue.

This includes the very early stages of exploring whether it’s the right choice, through planning a community share issue to being ready to launch, or in exceptional cases, recently launched.

The programme is funded by Power to Change and Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, and is delivered by Coops UK, Locality, Plunkett Foundation and Co-operative and Community Finance.

What’s on offer?

Development grants of up to £5,000

 

Match equity investment scheme

 

Pound for pound up to £25,000 in funds

 

Who can apply?

We welcome all expressions of interest from new and existing community businesses. We also have some priorities including:

Disadvantaged, less affluent and under-represented communities, particularly minoritised ethnicities, young people and communities facing systemic inequality
Projects that meet critical needs of their communities – we are particularly interested in project that address climate change issues and digital inclusion

For full eligibility criteria, visit Co-operatives UK.

What can you apply for?

    • Development grants – averaging £5,000, to prepare a community share offer: financial planning, governance support, marketing costs and being awarded the Community Shares Standard Mark.
    • Equity match investment – typically matching £1 for £1 up to £25,000 invested by the Booster Fund, providing the minimum share offer target is achieved.