Fundraising for a Community Interest Company

kit

Hiya.

I have a bit of a challenge on my hands so am looking for some advice!

I need to raise just under 300k. :eek:
We are a community interest company currently setting up an employment project for people with Aspergers Syndrome. This is in the form of a specialist IT consultancy.

I am applying for all the usual grants etc but need to start thinking of raising money and awareness a bit more locally.

Can I pick your brains for ideas? I am thinking along the lines of collecting items like milk bottle tops, old mobiles or similar to start with. I am the only employee of the company so I dont have much time to arrange anything more time consuming at the moment!
I have seen the post re old jewellary collections but am not sure it a CIC will be allowed to do it as we are not a charity as such.

Any help, advice etc etc etc gratefully received. :T

Savvy_Sue

kit wrote: »

I have seen the post re old jewellary collections but am not sure it a CIC will be allowed to do it as we are not a charity as such.

Can't see why not, the main thing is not to describe yourself as a charity if you're not!

I'm not sure you'll make a lot of money from mobile phone collections etc, although possibly if you got a LOT of publicity through local newspaper? Trouble is, every charity shop seems to be asking for them, plus schools, colleges, and charities without shops.

Have you skimmed the stickies at the top the Small Biz & Charity Organisers board? There's a few there which might be helpful with grants etc. Are you going to make use of volunteers? If so get in touch with your local Council for Voluntary Service and see what backup they can give.

And of course see if the NAS will offer advice and ideas if you haven't already approached them ...

Good luck! Let us know when it's going, DS1 is an Aspie ... and half way through a degree in computing!

lucylandy

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kit

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Can't see why not, the main thing is not to describe yourself as a charity if you're not!

It would seems there are strict rules on this... as I have found out today. A company I contacted will not help us raise money cause we are not a registered charity

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm not sure you'll make a lot of money from mobile phone collections etc, although possibly if you got a LOT of publicity through local newspaper? Trouble is, every charity shop seems to be asking for them, plus schools, colleges, and charities without shops.

Good point - will rethink.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Have you skimmed the stickies at the top the Small Biz & Charity Organisers board? There's a few there which might be helpful with grants etc. Are you going to make use of volunteers? If so get in touch with your local Council for Voluntary Service and see what backup they can give.

And of course see if the NAS will offer advice and ideas if you haven't already approached them ...

The stickies have been a great help - thanks!
I have full support of the NAS - in fact they are letting me share their office until I get up and running!

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Good luck! Let us know when it's going, DS1 is an Aspie ... and half way through a degree in computing!

I dont anticipate we will be up and running for at least 6 months to a year but if you PM me your email address I will be happy to keep you updated!

Thanks for your help :beer:
Hope your DS does well in her studies..... I have no doubt that she will!

Savvy_Sue

kit wrote: »

It would seems there are strict rules on this... as I have found out today. A company I contacted will not help us raise money cause we are not a registered charity

It is true that for some grant making trusts and organisations they will not help you if you are NOT a registered charity. However, there are others who don't mind. I don't know what the changes to charity legislation mean in relation to CICs but it would be worth looking into how easy it would be to register as a charity at some point.

kit wrote: »

I dont anticipate we will be up and running for at least 6 months to a year but if you PM me your email address I will be happy to keep you updated!
Thanks for your help :beer:
Hope your DS does well in her studies..... I have no doubt that she will!

DS is a he, (Dear Son) but apart from that, he should be fine. Although he says he's very stressed with work at the moment, but that he'll be better once term ends. Suspect he left everything to the last minute as ever!

fengirl_2

CIC's are specifically barred from registering as charities. I wonder who recommended that you use this vehicle for this project in view of the fact that you need to raise money in order to start it up?

ddudgeon

300k is a huge amount to raise, I wish you much luck. I recently worked with a charity that did a huge fundraiser at the Serpentine for a climate change charity. Unfortunately we did not raise a lot of money on the night, but through many follow up meetings, we were able to get the money we needed. Have you thought about trying to get corporate sponsorship from companies in the technology sector?

kit

fengirl wrote: »

CIC's are specifically barred from registering as charities. I wonder who recommended that you use this vehicle for this project in view of the fact that you need to raise money in order to start it up?

I think we were told that we cant register as a charity as we will be trading. Charities are not allowed to trade as such..... charity shops are classed as a company who raise money for the main charity to avoid the whole trading thing. (so i am lead to beleive anyway!)

kit

ddudgeon wrote: »

300k is a huge amount to raise, I wish you much luck. I recently worked with a charity that did a huge fundraiser at the Serpentine for a climate change charity. Unfortunately we did not raise a lot of money on the night, but through many follow up meetings, we were able to get the money we needed. Have you thought about trying to get corporate sponsorship from companies in the technology sector?

Good idea..... I had thought of something similar but that sounds better! Thanks :T

Savvy_Sue

kit wrote: »

I think we were told that we cant register as a charity as we will be trading. Charities are not allowed to trade as such..... charity shops are classed as a company who raise money for the main charity to avoid the whole trading thing. (so i am lead to beleive anyway!)

I think - and fengirl probably knows better than me! - that the distinction would be between a charity set up with charitable objects, and an organisation set up to trade. If your primary object is trading, then that would probably rule out registering as a charity at this stage, but the new legislation that's been 'coming' for a while might alter that.

Historically many charities have registered as both a limited company and a charity, in order to limit the liabilities of the Trustees (who become company directors).

ahai1

Here is some information on CICS from answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/community-interest-company?cat=biz-fin. You are right some organisations will not let you apply for grants or fund raise with them unless you are a charity but I know that http://www.recyclingappeal.com raises money for organisations from Epilepsy Resarch UK to the Labour Party. The key thing is to search for the organisations that will let you raise money with them. I know from talking to people in the charity and non profit sectors that it is harder for non profit organisations which are not registered charities but it can be done. I think that http://www.buy.at work with non profit making organisations as well as charities.

I have seen from experience whether you plan to or not fund raising will take up a lot of your time and in some cases because you are not a charity a lot more of your time. I am going on the assumption that you don't want to spend much time on it as you are busy setting up the CIC the reality is that I have seen people who think they are not going to spend much time on the fund raising and rely on one organisation to provide all their funds. When that organisation cuts back they will go down the pan as they don't have a fall back posiiton. The forms are lengthy as they require a lot of information. Also I don't see you raising that much money in a year. Even some medium sized organisations have trouble raising that much in a year.

The reality is as I have said too many people don't consider fund raising as very important and put it in a list of chores to do and this is one of the reasons why organisations fail. I have been to an AGM where a local organistion complained about grants been cut back but the new manager is going to get around to applying for grants from other organisatons and making the organisation more effiicent. It has been more then a year and nothing has been done.