Community Shares Booster Fund

The Booster Fund supports new and existing community businesses in England that are at all stages of a community share issue. ‍

This includes the very early stages of exploring whether it’s the right choice, through planning a community share issue to being ready to launch, or in exceptional cases, recently launched.

What funding is available?

• Pre-grant support: A few days support for early-stage activity to get you started.
• Development grants: We expect to award development grants of between £2,000 and £15,000, averaging around £8,000, to prepare a community share offer. This support can cover financial planning, governance support, marketing costs and being assessed for the Community Shares Standard Mark.
• Equity match investment: Investments could range from £10,000 to £100,000, although the typical investment is expected to be £20,000-£50,000. This is an offer of investment to match money raised from the community, providing the minimum share offer target is achieved. Applications for equity match are open to community businesses that are investment ready, including those that have already launched their share offers. From April 2025 investments will predominantly be made by our partner Community Shares ICOF, managed by Co-operative and Community Finance. Applicants should still apply through the Booster Fund portal.
• Subscription underwriting: If you think affordability is an issue for your community investors, our partner Co-operative and Community Finance (CCF) can offer you an interest-free repayable loan to enable people to buy shares through instalments over a maximum of 12 months, with the society receiving the full investment upfront.
• Loan finance: Through a Booster Fund application, we can also help you access loan finance from our partner CCF.

Who is funding for?

Community Shares Booster Fund welcome all expressions of interest from new and existing community businesses. They also have some priorities including:

• Disadvantaged, less affluent and under-represented communities, particularly minoritised ethnicities, young people and communities facing systemic inequality
• Projects that meet critical needs of their communities – we are particularly interested in project that address climate change issues and digital inclusion