Application guidance

Before you apply, we would strongly encourage you to think about our areas of interest to see if you are able to make the case for at least one area. Your application is likely to get preference if you are able to help us meet our priorities.

Successful applicants will be strong matches for our robust eligibility criteria. We are looking for up to six of the best, most promising examples of sustainable, community regeneration projects in England to be pioneer investees of the new era of the Communitybuilders Fund.

Key priority areas of interest

We are particularly interested in receiving applications from organisations that:

• are based in areas of high deprivation like the 20% most deprived areas in the Index of Multiple Deprivation
• can demonstrate a high degree of un-met social need in their neighbourhood and have a specific plan in place to meet these needs. This might include areas that have suffered in the recent riots in 2011
• already have or plan to raise financial community contributions as part of their overall funding requirements. 

Partnership or hub and spoke anchors are eligible provided that:

• There is a community based, third sector lead partner to act as accountable body for the investment.
• The partners between them meet all the basic criteria More than 50% of the local anchor services are provided by organisations that have been in existence for at least a year.
• A statutory body, such as a parish or town council may be one of the partners provided that they do not receive any of the funds or have a controlling vote.
• The focus for sustainability is on the anchor services to the community and not just one or more of the partners.
• Community control applies to the anchor services delivered.

• We are aiming to grow the Fund by making the highest standard of investments in partnership with a diverse range of quality co-funders.
• We want to work with co-funders to support community anchors and are willing to fund between 20-50% of any individual project.
• We are willing to act as both the first and last brick in a funding package.
• Adventure Capital Fund (ACF), who own the Communitybuilders endowment will be actively looking to grow the fund and maximise the impact of the endowment by leveraging money from other investors, foundations or even philanthropists. 
• The Communitybuilders Fund has a strong track record of working with other funders to build investment packages that are tailored to the individual needs of community organisations. Here are some of the other funding organisations we have worked in partnership with in the past 

• We expect to make commitments worth in the region of £2.5m but the exact amount will depend on the quality of applications we receive and the specific requests of the organisations we choose as our initial investees.
• We will offer further funding next year and will look to learn from the experience of this initial funding round, ensuring we are responsive to sector feedback.
• Although in this window we are offering loan funding to well-established organisations, next year Communitybuilders will be offering feasibility grants to organisations looking to develop their enterprise plans.

In each investment we make we are looking for some key performance indicators.

Increased use of facilities by local people and increased / improved facilities and or services for local people

This measure refers to facilities provided by the community anchor organisation, and includes meeting rooms and conference facilities, cafes/restaurants, office space, care services, sports and leisure facilities, and the numbers of users of these facilities. 

The standard measures for this indicator will be:

• the numbers of different people (e.g. expressed as a percentage of the local community defined by the community anchor) who make use the facilities at least once over a year.  This standard measure can be supplemented by additional analysis, e.g. type of user, repeat use, length of use and type of use. We will be looking for a minimum 10% increase for this indicator but for larger investments we will expect to see more significant increases. Within this measure we will also ask organisations to identify the potential for increased use of facilities by local people from (self-identified) “hard to reach” groups. This will be expressed as the number of different people from hard to reach groups (which may be BME groups, elderly people, young people etc according to local circumstances) and which may also be expressed as a percentage of that section of the local community) who make use of the facilities at least once over a year.
• the number of new facilities/services being provided for local people or the improvements being made in existing facilities. This measure will be agreed at the time of the investment. It might be an increase in existing service provision, new service provision or improvements in existing services provision as a result of new refurbished premises.

Increased evidence of community involvement in the work of the organisation

This measure refers to work carried out by the organisation to involve all sections of the local community in its activities and the services provided. This can be evidenced by:

• support provided by the investee to other local organisations (e.g. community groups, voluntary agencies, social enterprises and local businesses).  The support can take various forms, e.g. start up assistance, business advice, provision or office or workspace, meeting room and conference room hire, grant aid, etc. 
• number of local people supporting the work of the organisation through volunteering, membership, acting as a Board member

The standard measure might be the number of such organisations receiving at least one type of support from the community anchor over a year, broken down by the following categories: social enterprise, other community or voluntary group, private business. Or the measure might be the number of volunteers an organisation has and expects to increase following the investment. As with the previous indicator we will be looking for a minimum 10% increase for this indicator but for larger investments we will expect to see more significant increases.

Increased financial strength of the organisation

This measure refers to the potential for an organisation to increase its balance sheet strength and income generating potential through the implementation of the project for which it is seeking an investment.

The standard measures for this will be:

• increased annual turnover
• increased value of assets held
• increased unrestricted reserves

No standard increase will be set for this measure as we recognise that the potential for increasing the financial strength of an organisation will be dependent on such factors as the assets held by the organisation and the new income streams they are seeking to develop. The % increase expected for this indicator will set at the time of the investment decision.

Leverage

This measure refers to the additional funds raised by an organisation towards the overall project costs.

This measure will be set at the time of the investment and will depend on how much additional funding the organisation needs to raise.

Specific internal Key Performance Indicators

These refer to indicators for the Fund overall and will include:

• Low write off rate
• Organisations that go on to receive commercial finance
• Leverage / co-investment
• Increase in income/turnover and asset base. These will be linked to the equivalent KPIs set for individual investments with the aim of demonstrating success in making investments to help organisations become stronger and sustainable.
• Overall customer satisfaction levels

To help you work through the Communitybuilders indicators please use the balanced scorecard

Balanced scorecard

Guidance to balance scorecard