“"A prolonged and tricky share transfer agreement might have left me tearing my hair out were it not for Jane. With seemingly unlimited patience Jane's unswerving support, sound advice and ability to foresee potential issues meant a highly successful outcome. I have complete trust in Jane, her knowledge and affordable fees make her, not only indispensible but also priceless!" ”
Tony Brunskill, Director, Corporate Safety Solutions Ltd
Social enterprises fundamentally differ from charities and ‘not for profit’ organisations, they also need specific set up requirements to attract public funding.
A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses/profits are reinvested in to the enterprise for its purposes, rather than being driven by the need to deliver profit to shareholders or owners (DTI, Social Enterprise Strategy 2002).
Social enterprises are businesses and it is their intention to make profit. They are not the same as ‘not for profit’ organisations or charities.
Social enterprises are set up as:
Recent experience has shown us that if your social enterprise needs public funding then only social enterprises set up as either a Company limited by guarantee or a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee will be acceptable as beneficiaries of such funding.
You would only consider using a Community Interest Company (CIC) limited by shares where you expect there to be investment into the CIC by a third party commercial investor who may, over time, seek a return from the activities of the CIC through a dividend, which CIC’s limited by shares are permitted to declare in certain circumstances. These are set out in the CIC’s Articles (the rules which govern the activities of the CIC).