News Archive
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Glenn Bowen
As we look towards the end of our fiftieth year celebrations, we’re talking to people from partner organisations across the four nations of the UK. Here we say ‘’schwmae’ (how’re you doing?) to Glenn Bowen, Director for enterprise at Cwmpas, previously The Wales Co-operative Centre. “We have a long and historic connection with ICOF. Even though […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Slaley Community Shop
Many villages have a community shop, many have a community pub. Slaley, a few miles outside Hexham, in rural Northumberland, has one of each, with many shared members, and we’re proud to have been involved in both business. We supported Slaley Community Shop as it was saved by and for the community twice We also spoke […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Anne Wilks
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 […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Pink Lane Jazz
In 2014, we helped a group of jazz lovers to buy a pub and make history as they set up the UK’s first co-operatively owned music venue. In April 2014 Pink Lane Jazz Co-op bought The Globe following a successful community share issue. For our part, we put together a finance package that included a […]
Introducing Ruth Buchanan, one of our new Trustees!
Meet our new Trustees! We are profiling two brilliant new Trustees, elected to our Board at our June 2023 AGM. Today we introduce Ruth Buchanan, who has been Head of Finance at Co-operatives UK since January 2023 “I trained as an auditor and I’ve been practicing as an accountant for about 15 years or so, in a […]
Fifty years of friendhsip and finance – meet Seb Elsworth
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 […]
EDI Action Plan 2023 – 2024
As we continue on our EDI journey, today we share our Action Plan for 2023-2024. Produced by our Board and Staff team, this Plan includes specific commitments and objectives to help us move with purpose towards real, measurable, change. Explore it here. OUR PLEDGE: To continue working together to ensure that the sector reflects the […]
Celebrating ICOF 50th birthday – looking back at our loans – Small Axe
As we head towards the end of our fiftieth year, our retrospective series is taking a turn towards tech. Back in 2016, we supported Small Axe, an innovative international creative agency, to expand and strengthen its co-operative structure. The finance we provided was used to implement an action plan of co-operative training and development, with […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Margaret Trotter
To celebrate our fiftieth birthday, we’ve been talking to people who we’ve worked with over the first fifty years. Today we speak to Margaret Trotter, Director of Finance at Four Corners, a film and photography charity based in East London. “In 2007, we took over the freehold of our building. We raised £1million to extend […]
Fifty years of friendship and finance – meet Kevin Blowe
As we head towards the end of our fiftieth year, we’re interviewing some of our more recent borrowers. Today we’re talking to Kevin Blowe, one of the founding members of Clapton Community Football Club. Kevin was heavily involved in negotiating the purchase of the Old Spotted Dog ground in 2020. “We were in the process of trying to negotiate a […]