Charity To Community Interest Company

[Guest]

If you are a Community Interest Company or know a lot about being one, especially if you were previously a charity I hope you can help me. I've looked at the website that Shiny directed simcity last week and seems a lot to take in. What I was wondering was if someone could explain who runs a CIC like a Chair, Treasurer would do for a charity and whether it is straight foward to do change from one to the other.

 

Thanks

 

ppp

[Guest]

Can I ask why you want to become a CIC and not just retain your charitable status and become incorporated as a company ltd by guarantee?

[Guest]

We have an immense problem recruiting committee members and becoming a CIC is the only other option I know of. Are there others then?

[Guest]

Have you tried working in partnership with anyone else? I only ask because I run a community centre and we were asked for help by our local playgroup just over 2 yrs ago. There too were short of committee members and were on the verge of having to close down.

 

We are an incorporated charity but are quite a large organisation so our committee agreed to also become the committee of the playgroup and run the two organisations side by side. Now that we are happy that we all work well together we are merging the two charities in the New Year. The only chage this has meant for the staff is that they have benefited from admin/business support from the community centre whilst they've been able to get on with doing the real work of looking after the children.

 

If you do want to go down the CIC route do make sure you get sound advice from your local voluntary sector countil (or a neighbouring one if they are better - as I have found).

[Guest]

Thank you for your advice. We are part of a small community so being in partnership with another organisation isn't possible. I have contacted our county advisors and am awaiting advice from them.

 

ppp

[Guest]

Sorry I couldn't be of more help PPP - hope you get it all sorted.

 

Cheers

 

RR

[Guest]

Hi

I have been looking into this and it seems very complicated, we would have to have directors, who would pay to be them, this can be as little as a £1 but the other problem is because we are a charity under the charity commission you have to sell of your assets before you ecome a CIC..... i'm totally confused...

[Shiny]

I thought we would have to sell all our assets too. I got advice from our PSLA lady and she said as the CIC was a 'like minded' organisation the charity could effectively give over all their assets/equipment etc.

 

It does all sound very complex and confusing but with the threat of every year having to close down, seems to be the only way out of begging unwilling parents to sign their lives away!!!

 

We have an accountant parent who we asked to be treasurer. She is happy to do the books/accounts/budgets etc but would not put her name as a treasurer because of the liability!!

[Guest]

We are totally confused after speaking to the charity commission about it and explaining what we wanted to do, they said we would have to sell off all our assetts, which is our equipment.....now i'm just not sure if this is an option, cant seem to find anyone who has already done it to say how it went..... unless there is anyone on the forum who has done this........

[eyfs1966]

I would be really interested in staying in touch on this subject. I have really become disillusionised by the whole PSLA set up and would love to find a way out also. I would just love to buy our setting off the PSLA and run as a sole enterprise, but again, I think this is absolutely impossible to do......unless anyone can tell me otherwise.

[Guest]

This thread is so interesting. I have looked into running as a charity and all of these options are so confusing! I will be watching this thread with interest to see if there is anyone on this forum who has any experience with any of the above.

[Guest]

We have an accountant parent who we asked to be treasurer. She is happy to do the books/accounts/budgets etc but would not put her name as a treasurer because of the liability!!

 

Have you thought about becoming a company limited by guarantee? That way your committee will be protected from personal liability - ours are only liable for £10 in the event of our organisation going bump.

 

It's not a very complicated procedure to set up but you would need to be aware of your accounting requirements, especially if your income is £10k+.

 

There is some basic guidance here http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/regis.../faqpage.asp#23

[Shiny]

The only trouble is I would still need a committee, with or without the financial liability. It takes up a lot of time for very busy parents to run properly and more and more is expected of them. I have been on a few courses recently and the trainers were saying 'get a committee member to come along'. They have jobs and lives to lead, small children to look after etc and they are being expected to take on these roles with no pay/experience/incentive. I can't even afford to offer free/subsidised fee for them.

[Guest]

The only trouble is I would still need a committee, with or without the financial liability. It takes up a lot of time for very busy parents to run properly and more and more is expected of them. .... I can't even afford to offer free/subsidised fee for them.

 

 

Apologies in advance for the lengthly post!!

 

You are quite right Shiny and I don't want it to seem as if I've got it all sussed .

 

My organisation is quite large and childcare is only part of what we do, so I'm lucky in that I have admin staff who can support the childcare managers. But to be honest our committee is only made up of 8 members, 5 of whom have been there since Noah was a lad, 2 are friends of friends and only 1 is a parent.

 

As well as the other areas of provision, we have a playgroup and an out of school club so although our playgroup parents are usually only with us for a year our OSC parents can be with us from Reception to Y6. Earlier this year I sent out an updated registration form for all parents to complete and one of the questions was "would you be prepared to assist the club e.g. by joining the managment committe?". Of the 100+ forms that went out 26 came back ticked yes - as you can imagine I was cock a hoop at the thought of the extra help we could tap in to. So, I wrote to each of the 26 thanking them for their offer to join and inviting them to the next meeting the following month. Guess how many turned up? Not one!! I was gutted .

 

So we still plod on with our loyal band of 8 and I do all the jobs that committee members are expected to do, but I know how lucky I am to have a team of paid staff around me to support what we do. I really feel for those of you who deal with all of this and are childcare practioners too

 

It would be so much easier if we didn't have to go through this system to retain our charitable status but that's what we have to do and I don't know the answer is in getting more people to help. My next port of call is going to be to start writing to local accountants/ solicitors and other professionals to see if any 'community minded' people will come on board (but I won't hold my breath).

 

By the way - it's not a case of being able to afford to give subsidised places to committee members - we can't do it under charity law as it is seen as a payment 'in kind'. This can only be given for services over and above those of trustee and only if it's allowed within your constitution.

[anju]

I have also got fed up of being committee run and am trying to transfer to a private business. It's not that difficult if your committee agree that this is a good way forward.

 

I am having problems over the lease though, which is nothing to do with the committee but everything to do with the landowners (Church). Even though I won't be making any profit (by the time the cost of the new building which I will fund is taken into account) I think because it's technically a private business, they assume I am somehow shafting them so they want all sorts of guarantees I'm not prepared to make.

 

those of you who want out of a committee structure, what's the situation regarding premises? I seem to remember Hali had problems with this too. Everything else is perfectly workable in my opinion.

[Guest]

Have you thought about becoming a company limited by guarantee? That way your committee will be protected from personal liability - ours are only liable for £10 in the event of our organisation going bump.

 

It's not a very complicated procedure to set up but you would need to be aware of your accounting requirements, especially if your income is £10k+.

 

There is some basic guidance here http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/regis.../faqpage.asp#23

 

You can also buy cover as a part of your insurance, so that committee don't have financial liability. So long as you have the correct amount in your reserve, it shouldn't really be an issue. Mind you, it has taken me about 8 months to finally get the calculations done as to what should be in our reserve!

[eyfs1966]

I have also got fed up of being committee run and am trying to transfer to a private business. It's not that difficult if your committee agree that this is a good way forward.

 

I am having problems over the lease though, which is nothing to do with the committee but everything to do with the landowners (Church). Even though I won't be making any profit (by the time the cost of the new building which I will fund is taken into account) I think because it's technically a private business, they assume I am somehow shafting them so they want all sorts of guarantees I'm not prepared to make.

 

those of you who want out of a committee structure, what's the situation regarding premises? I seem to remember Hali had problems with this too. Everything else is perfectly workable in my opinion.

 

 

Anju, would love to know more about how you are doing this. What sort of constitution do you currently have, and what advice have you been given, Given that this is a little off subject, please PM me if you prefer. Would love to find out more.