Do you have an inspired idea that could make a real difference in your community?
Our Community Development Team are here to help you turn your idea into reality. We will work to enable you to have an effective and robust group ready to start, grow and thrive.
What do you want your group to do? What does your community want and need?
Charitable Purposes
To be a charity, an organisation must have purposes (or ‘aims’) all of which are exclusively charitable. A charity must also operate for the public benefit. The Charity Commission will need to be satisfied that any group wishing to register as a charity meets both these conditions.
It is important to do some in depth work on your purposes (or ‘aims’) before you apply to become a charity but also if you are becoming an unincorporated (Not regulated by the charity commission) as this sets boundaries for your organisation and allows everyone involved, including your stakeholders, to understand your work, objectives and values.
The Charities Act 2011 defines a charitable purpose, explicitly, as one that falls within 15 descriptions of purposes for the public benefit.
Detailed guidelines on purposes can be found on the Charity Commission website on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charitable-purposes/charitable-purposes
Choose a name for your organisation.
Write a mission and vision statement which aligns to your group’s aims or purpose.
For example:
Community People’s vision statement is: ‘Active Strong and Connected Communities.’
Community People’s mission statement is to: ‘Provide high-quality support to community groups, businesses, and individuals so they can make positive, lasting impact in and for their communities.’
Useful Links:
Is there a demand/need for what you want to do?
How do you know the service is needed?
Many groups and organisations are set up because of a person’s/a group of people’s lived experience. Lived experience is a powerful concept that acknowledges and respects the value of direct and personal encounters of a specific challenge or condition. It is rooted in asset-based approaches, which recognise strengths in communities and individuals, rather than a starting point of what is wrong. Funders like National Lottery Community Fund and Paul Hamyln Foundation demand that the voice of the communities is central to all the work they fund.
This is a big word which you might hear a lot.
Co-production is about people coming together to find a shared solution or achieve a joint aim. It’s about moving away from “doing to” a group of people towards “doing with.” If you can do co-production, it is a very powerful tool to achieve change.
These are some great toolkits available to help you plan your journey:
Are there any other local groups who are already doing what you are proposing?
It might be a better idea to join with another group that aligns with your vision and mission and values. Also you may not get funding if another group in your local area is delivering the same or similar work to you. With increasing demand for services, funders are keen they don’t duplicate work and waste precious resources.
Choose the best structure for your organisation
You need to choose a structure that fits with how your group will operate.
These are the most common structures:
Other structure options:
Do you intend to earn a wage?
If you are thinking about earning a wage from the services your group offers then you must take this into account when choosing a structure. Earning a wage is possible if you use a CIC structure. However, CICs have limited funding options as funders favour community groups and charities with a trustee board or committee.
This is the legal document that states your organisation’s aims and says how it should be run. Templates are available for different the structures and the Charity Commission has a preferred template for forming a CIO here.
Creating your trustee board or committee
To govern your new group, you will need to set up a governing body.
It is important that Boards and Committees are representative of the communities they serve by recruiting and retaining trustees from a diversity of backgrounds and lived experiences.
Community People is working to diversify its own Board, as part of our DEI strategy. We will also be launching a programme of free DEI training in November 2024 for all our members and the wider West Sussex VCSE sector. This will include sessions for Chairs and CEOs, Community Leaders embedding DEI at the heart of governance.
Think about the skills and experience required and recruit accordingly. You could undertake a skills audit.
You will need a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer as a minimum but based on our experience we would always advise at least 5 people.
In your governing document you can say how long trustee appointments should last, and whether trustees can be reappointed after their term ends. Otherwise, there are no set limits.
When recruiting your first board of trustees, aim to stagger the lengths of the first appointments so that the trustees tenure doesn’t all change at once.
Useful Links:
In order to get any funding, pay for insurance or volunteer expenses a new group will need a bank account. You should set up an account in the name of the organisation and it is sensible to have at least two signatories who are unrelated. You must also get insurance for your organisation. The type depends on your group and your activities.
You can start to raise funds for your group as soon as you start the registration process to be a charity or CIC or if you have your committee and governing document set up for an community group.
There is a lot of digital information out there which can be overwhelming.
These are our recommendations of great websites which have a wealth of information for setting up a group: