Applications are invited from community organisations that are already undertaking enterprise activity in England.

ACF will only accept applications from organisations that meet all the criteria listed below.

• You must be an organisation; individuals cannot apply. An organisation might take the form of a company limited by guarantee, with or without charitable status, or any other recognised structure. We expect you to employ at least one full-time member of staff.

• You must be working with a community of either place or interest (or both), eg, inner city, small town, rural district or local refugees, groups of disadvantaged young people.

• You need to be independent and community–led, not controlled by the private or public sector. You could be an independent member of a larger body; our key criteria are local impact and engagement both practically and via governance.

• You have to be working in England.

• You need to be involved in enterprise. This can be trade or any other income–generating activity through which you are intending to make surpluses that will be reinvested for the benefit of your community. For example, you may currently train people to deliver services or make goods which you then sell locally, using any surpluses to train more people. This reinvestment cycle grows your business and increases your impact on your community. There are many activities that can generate income and we have no restrictions on the type or number of activities that you undertake.

• You must have a track record of delivering to your community. We interpret this as you having generated income for at least a year through your activities (development work for a new organisation does not qualify).

• You must be able to plan and deliver successful community-based enterprise activity.

• We will not invest in organisations that have been running for less than a year. Your enterprise, however, might be a new activity for you that will contribute to the longer term growth and/or stability of your organisation.

Priority areas

We welcome applications from any organisation that meets our core criteria, but we are particularly interested in hearing from:

• Organisations that are or could become ‘community anchors’.

The Home Office defines community anchors as having four key features

1. They are controlled by local residents and/or representatives of local groups.

2. They address the needs of their area in a multi-purpose, holistic way.

3. They are committed to the involvement of all sections of their community, including marginalised groups.

4. They facilitate the development of the communities in their area.

• Organisations led by members of black and/or minority ethnic communities.

• Rural organisations.

• Organisations that are pioneering new ways of working.

• Organisations that can demonstrate excellence in what they do and inspire best practice in others, for example, some of our investors act as mentors.

Organisational characteristics

We will also be looking for certain characteristics within the organisation that may help it to succeed. These include:

• Local knowledge of the needs of the community and how you will meet these.

• A long-term focus and commitment to your community, including the use of surpluses to benefit the community.

• A good understanding of working with partners and stakeholders.

Organisational key aims

We are interested in supporting you to achieve your organisation’s key aims through enterprise.

You need to show us that our investment will:

• Develop your enterprise activities.

• Help make your organisation financially viable in the long term so you can continue to deliver your core aims.

• Generate sufficient financial returns so that you can repay any loans (from us or other funders) and make a surplus for your organisation.

• Lead to social, economic or environmental impacts (or a combination) in your local community. We will help you to devise systems to measure these as part of a management toolkit which should help the whole organisation.