Everyone’s an investor: What are community shares?

The team who rescued Stretford Public Hall near Manchester explain how they raised vital funds by selling community shares. Want to set up your own share offer? Our top tips make essential listening. Show Notes If your group is just starting off and wants to get your community share offer off the ground, it’s worth applying to the Community Shares Starter Fund. You can receive up to £6,000 extra funding from Power to Change. Search for ‘Crowdfunder community shares starter fund’ to find out more. If you’re a bit further along in your community business journey and want to launch your community share offer, the Community Shares Booster programme offers development grants of up to £10,000 and equity match funding of up to £100,000. Community pubs, housing, energy projects and many more have already benefited. Go to www.communitysharesbooster.org.uk for more information. It’s Social Saturday on 13 October, a great opportunity to remind your customers that buying products and services from community business does good too! List your community business on the Social Enterprise UK map and get tips to make the most of the campaign. Remember to use the hashtag #SocialSaturday2018 Join us at an upcoming the Community Energy Conference on 19 October - The Energy Transition: Top-down v Grassroots, where Power to Change will be talking about its upcoming community energy programme finance and support for community energy. Talking of November, have you booked your tickets for the Locality Convention yet? Over 400 people will be sharing tips, getting inspired and exchanging knowledge about all sorts of community businesses on 7th and 8th November in Bristol. Hopefully, we’ll see you there! To find out about any of these events the best place to start is the power to change website, powertochange.org.uk Links https://www.stretfordpublichall.org.uk https://www.uk.coop https://locality.org.uk/events/convention/ https://www.fordhallfarm.com www.communitysharesbooster.org.uk https://locality.org.uk/events/convention/ www.Powertochange.org.uk https://twitter.com/thecbfix www.wearefieldwork.com Access a transcript of the show: https://www.powertochange.org.uk/community-business-fix-community-shares-episode-transcript/