Across England community businesses are bringing a new sense of prosperity and pride to local people. Yet many find it a struggle to access the finance they need. Power to Change is committed to addressing this need. Through the fund, Power to Change will award grants between £50,000 – £300,000 to community businesses in England. 
To be considered for funding through the Community Business Fund your project and organisation must be incorporated, based in England, and will need to be able to clearly evidence how you meet each of the 11 criteria below:
1. Power to Change only funds community businesses
A community business is often set up to tackle a local issue that the community faces together. There are many types of community business. What they all have in common is that they are accountable to their local community and that the profits they generate flow back into the community to deliver positive local impact.
2. Be incorporated
The Community Business Fund will only fund incorporated organisations. This means that your organisation is recognised as a legal entity in its own right, rather than as a collection of individuals.
3. Share our impact goals
Power to Change will only fund projects that will share one or more of these seven impact goals:
1. Reduce social isolation
2. Improve health and wellbeing
3. Increase employability
4. Create better access to basic services
5. Improve local environment
6. Enable greater community cohesion
7. Foster greater community pride and empowerment
4. Charitable purpose
You must have a charitable purpose at the heart of the project you’re asking Power to Change to fund, which meets charitable needs in your community.
5. Public benefit
For a project to be charitable, it needs to have both a charitable purpose and to be for the public benefit. Any private or personal benefit must be incidental and no more than a by-product of meeting your public benefit.
6. Growth and viability
Power to Change will not fund 'business as usual'. Your application must demonstrate how the funding will help you to increase the social impact of your community business, and make it more viable in the long-term by increasing traded income, securing an asset or reducing revenue costs.
7. Accounts
Your organisation must have at least one year of accounts; this could be your management accounts or your annual accounts.
8. Other funding sources
Power to Change will not fund the full costs of your project. You should have other sources of funding either confirmed or close to confirmation to show that you are viable.
9. State Aid
State Aid relates to certain EU regulations around competition, which Power to Change must abide by. Unlawful State Aid will have to be repaid.
10. Readiness
You must be ready to start work within six months of accepting your grant offer. Your project can last up to a maximum of three years in total.
11. Grant size
Power to Change’s analysis has identified that there is a gap in the market for funding for community business between £50,000 and £300,000
The Community Business Fund will provide successful organisations with funding towards:
• Capital costs including building, vehicles, equipment of significant value, refurbishment costs. For building projects, you will either need to own or be taking on ownership of the building or have a long lease in proportion to the amount of grant you are requesting. For the largest grants, this would need to be 25 years or more.
• Project-specific revenue costs like staff costs, professional fees, volunteer costs. Power to Change are unlikely to fund projects which are asking only to cover the cost of staff salaries unless you are able to clearly demonstrate how this will help your organisation transform its trading position to allow you to become more financially viable in the long term.
For further information and to apply, visit: www.thepowertochange.org.uk/funding/grants/community-business-fund/
Deadline: Wednesday 31 August 2016