Boosting Community Business London – application form

Below is the application form for Track 1: Start‑up support application form for the Boosting Community Business London programme.

Have you read the application guidance?

Please read the guidance before starting the application. It includes a preview of the questions and there will be information you need before you start the application form.

Read guidance

Application form

If you experience any technical issues whilst completing this form, please contact [email protected]

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Privacy statement

The information captured in this application form will help Co-operatives UK, Power to Change and our funding partner The Mayor of London to review and make a decision on your application for support.

Co-operatives UK is committed to processing information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in line with our privacy policy The personal data collected on this form will be held securely and will only be used for administration purposes. You are welcome to contact us to discuss the data we hold on you at any time.

If your application is successful, we will share your personal details with relevant third parties who will deliver the programme of support. All our third-party support providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our privacy policy and they are only permitted to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

You must tick the boxes below otherwise we cannot process your application for support.

I give my consent for my information to be shared with Power to Change, Co-operatives UK and the Greater London Authority for the purposes of participating in and receiving information about Boosting Community Business London.

I give consent

I confirm that I am authorised to submit this application on behalf of the group / organisation.

Yes

Organisation information

Name of your community business

Job role within organisation

Contact details

Title

First name

Last name

Phone number

Email address

Organisation address details

Address line 1

Address line 2

Address line 3

Postcode

Town/city

Greater London Area

Just Track 1?

Yesno

Social media

Co-operatives UK would like to follow/engage with you on your journey through this process. Please help us do this by providing as many of the below social media links as you can. These links will also help us to assess your application and understand more about your group/business.

Website:

Facebook:

Twitter:

LinkedIn:

Other funding and support

Have you received any other funding or support, or are you currently applying for support or funding, for example from Power to Change over the past 12 months? If so please provide details of the funder and the name of the programme and the values below.

	Funder	Value	Is this funding secured?
1
2
3
4
5

Please only type in a number in the value column. The value field will not accept '£' signs, commas or any other symbols.

Support pathway

Please select one option from the list below. We will review your application and, if successful, we reserve the right to offer a different support package based on the information provided in your application form.

Start up groups and recently incorporated co-ops Support for existing co-opsBusinesses looking to convert to co-operative or community ownership

*Please note: All successful applicants will be asked to pay a commitment fee of £100 - or £75 for members of Co-operatives UK (both figures include VAT)

Support for Existing Co-ops

What type of support do you need?

Is your co-op looking to grow? e.g. strategic development, succession planning, new products or services etc? Is your co-op currently experiencing significant trading difficulties? e.g. Having to make a significant, rapid change to the business that is threatening its survival or having to adjust or ‘pivot’ the business model to respond to changing circumstances

Community business aims/brief description

Briefly describe the community business aims and purpose

Tell us about your community business

Max 80 words

Community business description

Please provide a brief description of your community business and its overarching aims.
How long have you been working on this and what have you achieved so far?
Please describe the project or business that your community share offer intends to support?

Describe your community business

Max 350 words

Products and services

What are your products and services?
Are you planning to take on assets such as land or buildings? Who owns the land or building? Are you planning an asset transfer (purchase) or lease? Is there an Asset of Community Value (ACV)?

How will it work? Products and services

Max 350 words

If your organisation is raising investment to purchase and/or refurbish a building, Power to Change expects the refurbished building to be accessible to people with disabilities and compliant with all relevant legislation. Read our disability inclusion guidance on ensuring your community business is accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities, including being legally compliant.

Customers, users and beneficiaries

Who are the people you are trying to help? Are they from a specific age group, gender, community? What are their needs?
Why are these needs not being met elsewhere? Why is your organisation well placed to meet these needs?
How will your project work to include groups which may, in the absence of such effort, be excluded from participation in your project? For example, people with disabilities.
If your community business is working with a specific group, e.g. people who are long-term unemployed, how does your work affect others in your local area? Do other people in the local area benefit from your work?
Try to be specific. How many customers or users? What are their demographics?

Who are your customers, users and beneficiaries

Max 300 words

Your area

Please provide up to three full postcode(s) that are representative of the areas that your community business is or will be engaging with or working in.
We can only support community businesses located within Greater London Authority areas and where the majority of the beneficiaries are located in specific postcodes local to the Greater London Authority area.

Postcode 1

Postcode 2

Postcode 3

Testing and viability

How have you tested your business idea?
What evidence can you provide? This can be market research, feasibility study or a prototype.
Are you filling a gap in the market, offering something new?
Have you undertaken any community engagement? (pledges, surveys, social media, crowdfunding)
Have you drafted a business plan?
Have you produced financial forecasts, cashflow?

Tell us about the viability, sustainability and/or plans for the growth of your community business?

Max 300 words

Community shares

How much capital do you need to raise and how much of this can be raised through community shares from your community investors?

Max 150 words

Please outline any key development milestones linked to your community share offer plans e.g. planning permission approval, purchase completions

Max 150 words

Do you have an intended community share offer launch date?

Please tell us your community share offer launch date

dd/mm/yyyy

Is there any flexibility with this date?

YesNo

Governance

Who is your core founding group?
How many people are involved with your community business or group?
What are their roles, skills and relevant experience?
How long have you been working together?

Tell us how your community business or group is organised

Max 250 words

Your eligibility

Please complete the following questions to demonstrate how your group meets the four key features of a community business

Please briefly describe how the group is locally rooted

Max 300 words

Please briefly describe how the organisation intends to trade for the benefit of the local community

Max 300 words

Please briefly describe how the group is accountable to the local community

Max 300 words

Please briefly describe how the group will work to benefit the community as a whole

Max 300 words

Impact

Please select which Power to Change impact goals that you will contribute towards. Please select one primary goal and one secondary goal:

Primary impact goal

Secondary impact goal

Support needs

We offer a bespoke support package, which will include some or all of the following:

One-to-one direct advice: Delivered by experienced support providers
Peer mentoring: Working with an existing co-op
Bespoke skills training: Delivered to your group by experienced trainers. It will be helpful to indicate what kind of support you require and how these elements will help you to achieve your intended outcomes.

Please tick which of the following support needs you require (you can tick more than one)

Testing business viability and feasibility	Developing business plan, fundraising
Identifying the most appropriate ownership model, legal structure	Governance arrangements, decision-making
Community engagement/shares	Other (please specify)

Other Please Specify

Max 150 words

Briefly explain how this support will help you

Max 150 words

Bespoke skills training

Tell us how bespoke skills training will help you.

This might involve skills training for your steering group or board around strategic planning, change management, governance, membership, communications, HR or finance etc.

Max 150 words

Do you have a specific organisation or training provider in mind to deliver bespoke in-house skills training? Please provide details regarding the relationship with the training provider you have suggested? Why have you indicated this training provider? How will you benefit from the training?

Max 150 words

Peer mentoring

Do you have a specific mentor in mind to deliver the peer mentoring support?

If you would like to be mentored by an existing community business or have a pre-existing relationship with a community business that you wish to continue, please provide details of the community business here:

Max 150 words

Support providers

You are able to indicate a preferred support provider for all aspects of the support available as part of your application. If your application is successful, we will make every effort to allocate you your preferred support provider. However, we reserve the right to offer an alternative based on availability, geography, skills and experience. Here is the full list of support providers.
Do you have an existing working relationship with the selected provider? You will be asked to select the provider from a drop down list.

Do you have a specific provider in mind to deliver the direct one-to-one support?

Providers

Do you have an existing working relationship with the selected provider?

Please provide information regarding your relationship with the support provider you have selected.

Max 250 words

Support

When do you want the support to commence and over what period?

Max 150 words

Applications are open until midnight on 12th March 2021. Applications will be assessed within 2 weeks of the closing date.

Once we receive your completed application, groups will be contacted by Co‑operatives UK to explore your ideas and ensure that you are eligible. If you are not eligible we will signpost you to other support. This call is an essential part of helping groups to identify the right type and level of support required.

Applicants will hear if they have been successful or not within 8 weeks of submitting this application form.

Number of staff

How many employees, volunteers or members do you currently have? Please only insert numbers, no text. If there are none please enter 0:

Part time staff

Full time staff

Volunteers

Members

Board members

Sector information

What sector does your community business operate in?

Primary trade sector

Secondary trade sector

What is your organisation's legal status?

Charity Number:

Company/Society Number:

In which year was your organisation incorporated:

If you are not yet incorporated, what support do you require to help with this?

Is your organisation 'active'?

By 'active' we mean currently trading.

If you are an established organisation that has been active for two or more

years, please submit a copy of your most recent annual accounts and report.

Covid-19 Impact

How has your organisation and community it serves been affected by COVID-19?

Max 300 words

How did you hear about us

How did you hear about this programme

Other

Supporting documents

You may attach supporting documents, please name these clearly, e.g. Co-operatives UK 2020 Business Plan.

Please upload document:

To upload more than one file please click on 'Add another response'. You can upload a maximum of 30MB in total.

Sign up to receive email newsletters from Co-operatives UK to keep up to date with the latest sector news, advice and opportunities. You can also sign‑up to hear about some of our specific support programmes, from raising community shares to championing platform co‑ops.

What would you like to hear about:

General NewsPolicy & CampaignsTraining & EventsCo-op Advice

Externally funded programmes run by Co‑operatives UK:

Support for new and existing co‑op from The HiveSupport for platform/tech co‑ops from UnfoundRaising funds through community sharesEmployee and worker ownership from The Ownership Hub and #1MillionOwners campaign

Form Submission

If you are happy with the details completed on this form, you can now submit the form. If you wish to check any details before you submit, click the previous page button. Once you have submitted this form you will be sent a confirmation email with a pdf copy of your application.

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If you experience any technical issues whilst completing this form, please contact [email protected]