News
RECRUITING: New trustees to create a more diverse board
We are recruiting new trustees to create a more diverse board: We need you to help grow the co-op and community business sectors in 2021 and beyond. What we do: ICOF Ltd trading as Co-operative and Community Finance or CCF is the Lender for Social Purpose, lending to ethical businesses since 1973. We offer fair, […]
New platform co-ops / community shares support available
Two new programmes delivered by Co-operatives UK are now open and accepting applications The UnFound Accelerator, is a 10-week business support programme for teams at the early stage of setting up their platform co-operative. A Platform co-operative is a democratically owned and controlled business that uses an online platform or mobile app to trade, connect […]
Save the Date! Our AGM is on 23rd June, online
We are delighted to announce that the ICOF Ltd and associated companies AGM’s will be held online on Wednesday 23rd June 2021 Please watch this space for more information and joining instructions. We look forward to seeing you as we look back on the last year.
What do you need? Tell us in our Annual Survey
Calling all borrowers, partners and friends! Will you help us understand the needs of the co-operative and community business sectors? Please complete our Annual Survey – it should take under 10 minutes and you could win a £50 co-operative bookstore voucher! Each year we send out a short survey to help us understand the co-operative […]
Covid Stories – Sencio Community Leisure
We’ve been incredibly impressed with the way so many Co-ops and Community businesses have managed through the Covid-19 situation and lockdown. The commitment to serving their communities and the resilience and ingenuity they have shown has been amazing! We’ve spoken to a number of our clients about how they have managed – here we share […]
Peace, people, planet – and then profit
Twenty-two years ago, in March 1999, the International Treaty to ban Landmines, which had been in the making since the 1980 ‘Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects’, came into effect. The Ottawa Treaty aims to eliminate […]
Save our pubs!
The Plunkett Foundation, our partner on the More Than A Pub (MTAP) programme, is calling on Government and the public to save pubs across the UK With thousands of pubs across the UK closing or under threat, community owned pubs offer a real life-line for those who want to save their much-loved, local pub. Plunkett Foundation, […]
Are you a Plunkett Foundation member? Help them grow!
Could you encourage your contacts, members, customers, shareholders and communities to become individual supporters of Plunkett for just £20 per year? Plunkett have received an unprecedented number of enquiries and requests for support over the last 12 months, and as they are expecting demand to continue to increase, they are asking for help to ensure […]
Fairtrade Fortnight – Choose the world you want
Fairtrade Fortnight runs from the 22nd February to the 7th March in 2021, the 26th annual celebration of all things Fairtrade. In the beginning Fairtrade Fortnight was launched to bring together campaigners, businesses and producers, raising awareness of trade justice. It now provides an opportunity for thousands of individuals, companies and groups across the UK […]
Race Equality Week
This week, 1-7 February 2021, is Race Equality Week, a week when organisations across the country unite in activity to seriously address race in the workplace. Race Equality Week, initiated by Race Equality Matters, is a time to turn the feelings we have and the words that have been said into action. Race Equality does […]
Act now to save Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR)
Have you run a Community Share Offer where your investors benefitted from Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR)? Are you planning to? Act now to save it – or it will go by April. A decision is expected in March so time is tight. Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) is a tax incentive for individuals making […]
Covid Stories – Sheffield Live!
We’ve been incredibly impressed with the way so many Co-ops and Community businesses have managed through the Covid-19 situation and lockdown. The commitment to serving their communities and the resilience and ingenuity they have shown has been amazing! We’ve spoken to a number of our clients about how they have managed – here we share […]