Community Business ReBoost Fund

Aims/priorities: Grant funding and matched equity investment are available for existing community business, with charitable purpose, that are based in England to prepare a community share offer to support their recovery from coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. The funding is intended to support community businesses to raise community shares capital that can support their recovery, pivot or expand the business in response to coronavirus/COVID-19.

Who can apply? Support is available to community businesses for projects that have a charitable purpose and are for the public benefit. The programme is aimed at existing community businesses in England. Power to Change defines community business as having the following key features:

Locally rooted.
Trading for the benefit of the local community
Broad community impact.

To be eligible to issue a community share offer, applicants must be incorporated as one of the following:

Community benefit society.
Co-operative society.
Charitable community benefit society.

Grant amount: The following support is available:

Development grants – between £3,000 and £5,000 to prepare a recovery community share offe and be awarded the Community Shares Standard Mark. The grant should be approximately 10% of the community share offer target.
Match equity investment – typically matching pound for pound up to £25,000 invested by the ReBoost fund. The investment is expected to support at least 12 share offers between November 2020 and April 2021.

Application process: The guidance notes can be found on the Power to Change website on the Community Shares Booster Programme webpage. There is a two-stage application process:

The first stage is to complete the online expression of interest (EOI). This can be done at any time. Applicants will initially receive a phone call to discuss their EOI and pathway choice. EOIs will then be assessed and applicants will be notified of the result within two weeks.
Those who are successful will be invited to fill out a full online application.

Deadline: The deadlines for applications are: