Cultivating Diversity – BME Community Enterprise Toolkit

Community Benefit
is increasingly being used by start-up Community Businesses
Society
because it also allows them to raise capital via a Community
Share Issue – a mechanism which allows community members
to invest their money in the organisation as shareholders. This
legal model also benefits from an “exempt charitable status”,
which means that it enjoys most of the benefits of being
a charity, but is exempt from registration with, and oversight
by, the Charities Commission. The highly democratic principles
underpinning this legal model are also very attractive to those
wanting to maximise accountability to the local community.
It is registered with and regulated by the Financial Conduct
Authority.
can take various forms but is underpinned by the concept of
Co-operative Society
“co-operation” between its members and is highly democratic.
A Workers Co-operative for example is an employee owned
organisation where the workers are both members and
owners, are democratically elected as Directors by the wider
membership, and share in the profits generated. As with
Community Benefit Societies it is registered with, and
regulated by, the Financial Conduct Authority.
was primarily established as a legal form to enable social
Community Interest
Company
entrepreneurs to both control the organisation as a Director
and draw a salary as an employee. They benefit reputationally
from having the status of a “social enterprise” established
primarily for public benefit. Community Interest Companies
can have a large or a small membership and can be limited by
guarantee or by shares. Is they choose to adopt the model
based on shares it is possible for individuals to receive
a proportion of the profits generated by the organisation.
They are registered and regulated by the CIC Regulator.
A table detailing important attributes of the main legal forms for Community Business is
included on the following page:
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