£150m endowment will give communities the Power to Change
23 Jan 2015 10:55 AM
The Big Lottery Fund has yesterday awarded a £150m endowment to the Power to Change, a new independent grant-making foundation that will champion community businesses across England.
The Power to Change will be the largest trust of its kind in Europe and will provide funding and support to existing and new community businesses.
Backed by Trinity Mirror and the National Lottery, the Power to Change will support local people who want to save their local library or leisure centre, run their community shop or pub, or start new enterprises to regenerate a neighbourhood or high street.
The charitable trust will be led by newly appointed Chief Executive, Vidhya Alakeson, and chaired by Richard Handover CBE DL, former Chairman and Chief Executive of WHSmith.
The announcement of the endowment coincides with the publication of a new report from Social Finance, which conducted an in-depth analysis of the state of the community business sector. Researchers found that there are around 4,500 community businesses in England and Wales, with a combined income of £800m a year and assets of £1 billion. These community businesses employ around 24,000 staff and engage nearly 120,000 volunteers.
It is envisaged that a full range of the Power to Change funding programmes and support activities will be rolled out later this year. In the meantime the Power to Change will operate an initial grants programme, in conjunction with a call for Community Business Champions to identify existing community businesses already making a difference in their local areas and providing inspiration for others.
Nat Sloane, Big Lottery Fund England Chair, said: “As a funder, we believe people should be in the lead in improving their lives and communities. We want our grant-making to support the skills, assets and energy of local people and the potential in their ideas. Our £150 million endowment will be used by the trust to support existing and new community businesses to positively benefit local areas. This could range from saving a local library, pub or shop from closure to setting up a housing regeneration enterprise that provides local people with training and jobs. In addition, the Power to Change will produce learning that the wider community business sector can gain from.”
Richard Handover, Chair of the Power to Change, said: “The Power to Change will enable many more community-led businesses to transform local places and bring sustainable social and economic benefits to local people. We believe we can use this £150m as a cornerstone to leverage £1.5billion of additional resources to support community businesses, and leave a permanent legacy.”
The programme is one of a range of Big Lottery Fund initiatives that aim to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence of voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises. Other programmes include Big Potential and Big Assist.
For more information on the Power to Change and to register your interest as a Community Business Champion, visit www.thepowertochange.org.uk
follow @peoplesbiz and #powertochange
Practical support is available for community businesses ranging from a peer support network to online learning. A community enterprise checker that enables you to assess your community business is also on offer. The support is run by a consortium led by Locality, UnLtd and Plunkett Foundation. More details available here.
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Notes to editors
- Statistics from Social Finance report: “What if we ran it ourselves?” Getting the measure of Britain’s emerging community business sector. Authors: Adam Swersky and James Plunkett, Visit http://www.socialfinance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/PTC-Report.pdf for the full report.
- Vidhya Alakeson, CEO - Vidhya Alakeson was appointed the Chief Executive of the Power to Change in January 2015. She was formerly the Deputy Chief Executive at independent think tank the Resolution Foundation, and was also the mental health lead for the personal health budgets delivery programme at NHS England. Vidhya worked at the US Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C. from 2006-2010 and previously worked at the UK Treasury and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. She is a governor of Hackney University Technical College.
- The Power to Change board consists of: Richard Handover CBE DL, Chair; and board members Michelle Mitchell, David Godden, Carla Stent, Sam Berwick, Stan Chan and Katie Blacklock. Biographies are available on request.
- The Big Lottery Fund is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery.
- The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in 2004 it has awarded close to £6bn.
- In the year ending 31 March 2013, 28% of total National Lottery revenue was awarded to projects. Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £32 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.