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Community
Interest Companies
Community interest company will be
a new type of company, designed for
social enterprises who want to use
their profits and assets for the 'public
good'. Still in its consultative
phase, the government has signalled
a strong interest in pursuing the
community
interest company model in its
reform of charity legislation.
Most of the WuC projects have indicated
an interest in adopting a social
enterprise or community co-operative
model. For more information visit
the Development
Trust Assocation's website or
Community
Action Networks.
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Service
provision
A WuC project's evolution into a
social enterprise requires it to develop
some form of trading arm to provide
services to residents and small businesses
in the local area. These services
tend to be concentrated on the following
activities:
- Online business directory
- Community website/portal development
and generating 'community content'
- Community portal advertising
- E-democracy initiatives for community
consultation
- Community ISP for dial-up or Broadband
- ICT training courses
- Digital video editing
- E-government services online
- Consultancy services
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Charging
policy
The project must take into account
a number of factors before settling
on its charging policy. The most important
is whether or not to charge at all
for the services provided, although
this tends to bring a reliance upon
securing large public sector grants
to subsidise and underpin the projects
core and non core activities.
If it is determined that the project
will charge for the services it provides,
this must be clearly communicated
to service users in publicity material
and user agreement documentation.
A copy of the actual charging policy
should also be available from the
project upon request.
The income that can be derived from
charging for services can then be
factored into the income/expenditure
projection, as part of the business
plan. However, each chargable service
needs a cost/benefit analysis to determine
iof the project can affords to provide
the service by recouping internal
costs.
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Business
plans
Funders can be quick to expect the
project develops a business plan outlining
the range of services to be provided
and setting out charges to end-users.
Yet the projects do need time to grow
and for a degree of 'community ownership'
to occur through the setting up of
some form of social enterprise or
community business.
On the path to sustainability, the
project must have undertaken the following
steps:
- Established itself in the community
as an ICT project
- Recruited and trained a project
team, with some volunteers able
to help out
- Delivered an access to ICT platform
and technology infrastructure
- Developed a vision of the services
it can and will provide (or at least,
market test)
- Developed a draft/final business
plan
Covering a three year peiod, the
business plan tends to contain the
following elements:
- identifies the target community
or areas and any expansion plans
- evidences the need for ICT in
the context of government policy
and local regernation
- maps existing or planned ICT provision
("ICT Audit")
- highlights a consultatative approach
with the local community
- describes the nature of the core
services on offer
- details the charging policy for
those services
- includes and income/expenditure
forecast to assess the 'break even'
point
- identifies a range of public sector
funding opportunities
- highlights public and private
sector partnerships
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Fundraising
strategy
The fundraising strategy for the
WuC projects tends to be based around
accessing public sector funding -
especially ESF and ERDF and neighbourhood
renewal funding. Click here
to view a recent presentation
to WuC projects at a seminar on sastainability.
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Useful
Documents
A guide
to doing a business plan (PDF,
zipped 158kb) sets out in full what
needs to be done to produce a business
plan.
A sample
draft business plan and strategy (PDF,
zipped 171kb) provides a detailed
analysis of the scope and activities
of a new project.
A technical
support business plan (Word, zipped
20kb) demonstrates the need for support
and the ongoing business case.
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