Slaithwaite Cooperative in Community Shares Project
We have been selected as one of a small group of enterprises to take part in an action research programme called 'Community Shares'. The project, which is funded by central government, is looking at the use and potential of community share issues to see if they can be more widely used as a mechanism for raising capital for social enterprise and community projects.
Our share issue has been - and continues to be - critically important for us, both as a vital source of capital for the business, and as a mechanism for engagement with our members and our customers. Those of our customers that have made an investment, however modest, are tightly tied in as an essential part of the business and the cooperative, and that can only be good for our business and our community as we develop over the coming months and years.
As well as getting a chance to learn from other comparable projects and enterprises in other parts of the country, our participation in the project brings several benefits. We have access to £5000 of funding that will be really helpful in the coming period in terms of enabling us to accelerate our development. We have access to a range of expertise from the team of consultants and organisations that are coordinating the project, and we will also get some input about how we can more effectively measure the social return on investment (SROI) that the Green Valley Grocer is generating.
