November 2023

Regular readers of our blog and newsletter will know that we’ve been celebrating our fiftieth year, this year, with interviews with friends and a look back through our archive. But what is a birthday without a party?

On a sunny day in October, (almost) fifty people whose connections with us span fifty years, travelled from across the four nations, to Bristol, to celebrate with us.

Business Development Manager Tim opened proceedings, swiftly handing the floor to David Ralley, who was with us at the very start. David talked about the early days, and the need for ICOF being as strong today as it ever was.

Four awards were given. These were chosen by the Directors, from nominations made by the Staff team.

The Environmental award went to Oxford Wood Recycling, and Richard Snow spoke about how proud he was to accept the award on behalf of the organisation. We have worked with OWR since 2011 and in that time they have saved thousands of tons of wood and timber from being discarded through recycling, repurposing and reusing. This as well as providing employment opportunities for people facing disadvantages such as disability, to re-enter the workplace.

The Innovation Award was accepted by Simon Ryan on behalf of Point Europa. Simon gave us a lively, whistlestop tour through their history, and explained about how support from CCF has made their projects, including The Old Ship, possible.

The Diversity Award was won by Four Corners. Margaret Trotter accepted the award, accompanied by Rebecca Brace.

Margaret said, “Four Corners was delighted to have been presented with the award for Diversity, and the recognition of our work in training and supporting underrepresented people into rewarding careers in the Film and TV industries, people who would never normally enter these professions as they do not have the contacts or the funds to work for free. They write and tell their own stories, articulate and add their ideas to the pool ideas so we all make better decisions and change society for the better. ICOF has supported us many times over the last 15 years, from financing our building renovation, where we grow creative businesses, to cash flowing of funding paid in arrears.  ICOF staff have listened to us and supported our expansion plans, and have proactively introduced us to sources of funds and support.”

The final award, for Outstanding Media Services to the anniversary was won by 92 Minutes. 92 Minutes supports us with our digital marketing and we could not have done everything we have done this year without them.

It was wonderful to celebrate in person with friends old and new – borrowers, staff and Directors past and present, partners and colleagues. We thank everyone who travelled to join us, and we’d like to thank the team at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel for looking after us so well.

Today in our series of interviews with friends from our first fit years we speak to Stewart Macgregor, Specialist Adviser at Co-operative Development Scotland

“Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) is the organisation in Scotland which supports companies and community groups to adopt employee ownership or a co-operative business model. I am one of the specialists with the team and I provide support to both new and existing co-operatives.

We are still relatively new to the support landscape despite having been set up by the Scottish Government in 2006, and so our relationship with ICOF is at its early stages too. We’ve been enjoying the stories shared so far and appreciating the significant contribution ICOF has made over the years and are looking forward to our relationship with ICOF growing in the future.

It’s an exciting time for the sector in Scotland. The Co-op and Mutual Economy report only published last month by Co-operatives UK highlights that co-ops in Scotland have increased by 3.16% (602 to 621) and have a combined turnover of £1.8bn. They make a significant contribution to the economy.

The policy landscape in Scotland is also important. Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) published in March 2022 sets out an ambitious and transformational vison for Scotland’s economy. By placing the concept of a wellbeing economy at the heart of the strategy, the government seeks to create prosperity that delivers for all of Scotland’s population and places while respecting environmental limits and climate targets.  There has been growing interest in, and recognition of, inclusive models including co-ops for some time but the publication of NSET provides a clear commitment to embed these models into Scotland’s economic landscape. The Government is now engaged in a review of how best to significantly increase the number of social enterprises, employee-owned businesses and co-operatives to support regional regeneration and generate wealth in local communities and CDS is delighted to be supporting that.

Community wealth building is also a key feature of delivering the transformational change proposed by NSET. This blueprint for Scotland’s economic development puts local creation and distribution of wealth at its heart. The approach is made up of a framework of five pillars, one of which is plural ownership, corresponding directly to CDS’ mission.

The variety of our clients is one of the most unique and rewarding things about my role. CDS provides support to a wide variety of groups from across different sectors including shops, pubs, energy and even a new school building.

Assets like this are critical to communities both for the local economy and the wellbeing of those who live there. Increasingly though, we are seeing co-op models being considered for larger scale transformational projects. For example, Granite Care a consortium in Aberdeen bringing together a group of care providers to win a multi-million pound public contract and recently launched Kooble, a booking platform co-op poised to shake up the online hospitality booking market. Perceptions of what a co-op can be are changing and the versatility of the model increasingly recognised.

Support around finance is a critical topic for our client base. We get simple questions around how to navigate a business banking system that is focussed on mainstream business models through to how to access finance to grow their organisations. Historically, our role was very much focussed on new co-op set up however in the last year we have expanded our offering to support existing co-ops. This is helping to forge a closer relationship with clients where they are more likely to be seeing support around finance and with this change we see more opportunity for collaboration.

On behalf of the whole team at Co-operative Development Scotland I want to say many happy returns to ICOF. What you have achieved is inspirational and fifty years is a significant milestone. We look forward to working with you as your story continues, strengthening our partnership and ensuring more co-ops in Scotland access the fantastic advice and support offered.“

Today in our series of interviews we’re talking to a member of our current team. Anne Wilks joined ICOF in October 2012 and is our Transactional Services Manager.

“Until 2012, I’d always worked in private businesses. I knew finance but I didn’t know anything about co-ops at the time. The ‘desirable’ skills on the advert around the movement and lending made me doubt whether I should apply. However, I not only liked the feel of the job and what ICOF was doing, but I was also ready for a new challenge, so I thought, ‘Why not give it a try?”

I was surprised, happy and excited when I got the job. Alain was part of the recruiting panel and having his feedback helped me understand what ICOF was about. They were not only looking for somebody with finance skills but also needed somebody that would be involved and 100% committed: 11 years later, I am still surprised, happy and excited!

During my first years, the team was adamant about me going out networking, attending co-ops events, meeting various people, to make sense of it all. Now looking back, they were right. Until you meet and talk to people, and understand why they are in the movement or what being a co-operator means, it’s just not going to click.

At first, grasping the movement’s mission was confusing due to its various facets. I truly enjoy and appreciate co-ops networking events as I believe they inspire and motivate not only me, but everyone within the movement.

Working for ICOF means being in contact with others who share the same passion and are willing to share their knowledge, insights or provide stakeholders with unique opportunities. The latter led me to gladly volunteer for the newly formed workers.coop, as a member of their Finance Committee. I admit, it will be my first commitment into another co-op, and I look forward to it.

I also volunteered to lead on ICOF’s mission towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) – we believe each one of us has a role to play in being actively curious, open-minded and respectful at all times. For us, it is a chance to share a common mission in order to act in the interest of our customers and members while continuously tackling inequalities. We all know every patron will be different, and it doesn’t matter whether it is a community asset organisation, whether it is in an affluent area or not, a women led organisation or a minoritised community. The reality is, will and should be this – the approach applied will be key to any future relationship.

Looking at the wider co-op movement, and knowing we are at the beginning stage of our individual journeys, I think we are still lacking in our actions towards EDI.

We are all thinking, me included, and talking about various aspects of EDI and the good intentions/ideas we have, but the reality is if these intentions and ideas are not translated into actions, they will not matter or have the desired impact. Talking about doing something and actually doing it are two very different affairs.

More than ever, we need to acknowledge the fact that it is easy to have lots of good ideas and express them, but what will always be vital is to remember that thinking, writing, discussing, and reading about something will never equate to truly doing it: practice is practice. Errors are inevitable during practice. Experiences, confidence, and efficacy will inevitably grow with practice. We become more structured with practice. More tolerance and humility come from practice.

Injustice and exclusion will not be properly and consciously addressed if EDI tasks are completed by checking a box. Leaders within the whole co-op movement, ICOF included need to meet, discuss and collectively find avenues to address and reverse the situation; if we, as a movement, are serious about EDI. This will mean: no floor crumbs, but a rightful place at the table.

Happy Birthday ICOF!

I would like to congratulate and thank all members of the Staff Team and the Board over the past 50 years. Without their resilience and commitment ICOF wouldn’t be 50 this year.”

As we enter the last month of what has been a joyful fiftieth year, we will be sharing interviews with our partners and peers in the responsible finance sector. Today we speak to Seb Elsworth, CEO of Access, the Foundation for Social Investment

“I joined Access in May 2015 and before that, I’d worked at Social Investment Business – I’ve been in the social investment sector for more than 10 years and have always known of ICOF as a kind of pioneer and long standing organisation, supporting community organisations.

The fact that ICOF are celebrating their 50th anniversary while others in the sector celebrate their 20th anniversary tells you a huge amount. They’ve been doing this work for so long, and the experience and depth of knowledge that that brings is really important to us.

In terms of the way we work together, Access is a wholesale funder of social investors. And what that means, outside of the jargon, is that we support a whole range of different social investment organisations and, particularly, we provide them with finance that enables them to offer products that are as suited as possible to what charities and social enterprises need, to enable them to take greater risk and really tailor their products to to the realities of our community organisations and their business models. So, for around a year, we’ve been funding ICOF through our flexible finance program in partnership with Co-operatives UK and their Community Shares Unit. This work is around supporting community organisations to access a combination of community shares and other finance that can meet their needs as well as possible.

Happy birthday to all at ICOF. It’s an amazing achievement to have been providing social investment to communities who need it for 50 years! Very best wishes for the next 50.”