Applying for a grant as a CIC or other non-charitable social enterprise

We can only make grants for general running costs or unrestricted purposes to Registered Charities. For all other types of organisation, our funding must be restricted to a charitable purpose. 

To be eligible, social enterprises must provide a business plan explaining how the organisation is, or aims to be, financially resilient with trading as a core part of its income.  

A good business plan should outline how your business model will earn income from trading goods and services alongside an outline of the social and business objectives, resources required, and financial projections and planning. Financially resilient, for us, means that you are able to demonstrate how you are running a profitable organisation based on realistic assumptions around income and expenditure. 

Applications from CICs or other non-charitable social enterprises will be considered ineligible for funding if a suitable business plan is not submitted with the application. 

We will only fund capital costs for CICs or other non-charitable social enterprises where it is a condition of our grant that if any assets we fund are sold, then the funds raised from the sale must be used for the same purpose set out in our grant offer or the funds must be returned to us. 

We can consider applications for: 

• reasonable direct costs of services that address a new or unmet community need, or which provide new ways of addressing issues
• building the organisation’s capacity to develop and run such services
• equipment, land and buildings in line with our rules on capital grants to non-charities 

For CICs or non-other social enterprises, we require a CIC 36 or Community Interest Statement to be uploaded as a supporting document. 

Additionally, to be eligible, a CIC or other non-charitable social enterprise’s governing document should specify that if it transfers assets (for example, if it winds up), it will be to a charity or for a restricted charitable purpose, as such we would expect the organisation to name a relevant charitable organisation. This is also known as an ‘asset lock’. 

We require financial accounts that clearly show income, expenditure and unrestricted reserves. Any income should also clearly identify its source, particularly for grant funding. If annual accounts do not provide such information clearly, it should be provided in a supplementary document. We do not accept ‘micro-accounts’ as commonly accepted by Companies House, as they do not contain all information required. 

It is unlikely that we would fund salaries, core costs, or overheads for Community Interest Companies (CICs) or other non-charitable social enterprises. We are able to fund reasonable direct costs associated with delivering services, which may include relevant staff costs and overheads. All grant expenditure must be clearly and directly linked to a restricted project.  

In line with our eligibility guidance, we expect CICs or other non-charitable social enterprises to have at least three directors (decision makers) who are unrelated. By “unrelated,” we mean individuals who: 

• are not related by birth or marriage
• are not in a personal relationship with one another
• do not live at the same address 

If any members of your governing body are related, you must have a clear process in place to manage conflicts of interest, and we may ask you to provide details about this. For the avoidance of doubt, if two directors are related in some way, we count them as one decision maker. 

A person with significant control (PSC) is someone who owns or controls a company, sometimes called ‘beneficial owners’. Where a company has less than four directors, it must list at least one PSC on Companies House.

To be eligible for our funding, all directors must have equal control and voting rights in the organisation, and this must be reflected on the organisation’s Companies House entry.

The sole exception to this is when a CIC has three directors, all must be named as PSCs with an equal degree of control/influence.