Resources

INTRODUCTORY OVERVIEW

Finance Hub resources

There are number of resources that you may find helpful when considering managing a building:

Shared buildings: Looks at options to consider when planning to buy or lease a building.

Taxation: Looks at the possible tax and VAT implications when delivering non-charitable trading.

Developing a sustainable strategy: Looks at how to develop a funding strategy that is appropriate and effective for your organisation.

Community accountancy services toolkit: This section of the Community Accounting Network site is devoted to providing a range of accountancy services tools.

In Lambeth a former public library has been transformed into an adult learning centre through asset transfer to a local community development trust.
A Community Trust in Plymouth received derelict land and buildings from the council to develop a business park and healthy living centre
An old school building in Nottingham was transferred to community ownership to develop a youth and community centre, a sports hall and a business centre
A vacant building in Liverpool transferred to community ownership for a women’s training centre
In Bristol an old school site of 5.5 acres was transferred into community ownership—and part of the site sold to provide a £1.1 million capital reserve for the community development trust.

Yorkshire Forward and Royds Community Association: This case study describes how a regional development agency agreed to amend the usual rules attached to using public money to buy or develop buildings. The Royds Community Association successfully negotiated a relaxation of the ‘claw back’ rules — where any future equity released through the sale of the building has to be returned to government, which prevents using those buildings as assets for secured loans or mortgages. This means that the community association can borrow money against the building and can benefit from any future growth in the value of the building.

Venturesome: Three short stories of voluntary organisations using three different forms of loan finance to meet different financial needs.

Asian Women and Girls’ Centre (Asset Development): This case study outlines some of the process of developing a new building to provide a range of services and activities. It highlights key issues in the development of this mixed use centre which will always need a mixed economy of grants and earned income.
Arts@Trinity: This case study looks at how Holy Trinity Church in Leeds aims to develop as an inclusive, accessible and self-sustaining venue for a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Gingerbread (ICT Hub): Gingerbread is the leading support organisation for over 2.5 million lone parents and their children throughout England and Wales. The team at Gingerbread operated on second or third hand ICT equipment and on machines that did not communicate with each other and crashed regularly. This case study outlines how Gingerbread set about up-dating their ICT infrastructure and improving their use of ICT.
SPAN (ICT Hub): SPAN gives a voice to one-parent families living in poverty and isolation and supports the setting up, development and the training of single parent self-help groups. SPAN run numerous projects and wanted an ICT system to help incorporate all their projects onto a central database, to enable sharing of information and monitoring and retrieval of information. This case study outlines the process SPAN went through, what was achieved and key lessons learned.

Building Development (Creating Excellence): This case study outlines how Archimedia - a project in South Bristol – went about developing a 'state of the art' building. The project is unique in being largely steered by the current users of Knowle West Media Centre - young people below the age of 16.

Some additional resources are provided on this page, most of which are available FREE of charge. Resources you have to pay for are marked with a

Managing Your Community Building: Downloadable .pdf (521kb) publications order form for Managing Your Community Building 3rd edition, by Peter Hudson, edited by Jacki Reason. This book from Community Matters is THE authoritative guide on running a community building.
Community Buildings – maximising assets: Case studies and key issues in the management of community buildings from Community Matters.

ACRE Village Hall Advisers: Find a village hall adviser for your area on the Action with Communities in Rural England.
Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE): A PDF file listing the publications available from ACRE – including lots on developing, managing and building your village hall. You have to pay for most of them but generally they are low cost publications.

RS9 - Village Halls and Community Centres: This report provides an overview of the challenges faced by village hall, community centre and similar charities and looks at what trustees can and cannot do within charity law and regulation in order to adapt their operations to changing circumstances. It contains links to a range of further guidance documents provided by the Charity Commission.
CC27 - Providing Alcohol on Charity Premises: Selling alcohol from charity premises either to improve facilities provided by the charity or as a ready source of funds can be an attractive proposition. Nevertheless, the sale of alcohol is a particularly complex subject. This guidance contains guidelines and recommendations which, if followed, are intended to ensure that trustees act within the law.

http://www.financehub.org.uk/managing_money_and_resources/managing_buildings_and_equipment/resources.aspa