After weeks of hard work filling in forms and fine tuning our business plan, yesterday we sent to Companies House the documentation required to begin the transition of Sacred Earth from a Community Interest Company to a Community Benefit Society. Over the course of the next month or so, as we continue the transition process, more documents will be shuttled back and forth between ourselves, Companies House, The Plunkett Foundation, the Financial Conduct Authority and our wonderful business adviser Helen. By the beginning of May we hope to have finally completed the legal process.

However, all this is merely a prelude to what will be happening next. In September we will be launching a crowdfunding campaign and community share offer to raise £30,000 to match funding we will be receiving through the Just Growth programme… but we will only receive this funding if we hit our target! This means that the crowdfunding campaign itself needs to be a well oiled machine, with as much as possible planned in advance so we can develop the best strategy possible to hit the target. This entails all of you who might be interested in buying a share fully understanding what the share scheme is all about before we launch the campaign. We’re in the process of putting together a share offer booklet which will contain full details of the offer. We’ll also be publishing our business plan on the website so potential shareholders will have the opportunity to see how the money will be used and whether or not we’ve done our homework! This blog is the first in a series of posts which will share information and keep the community up-to-date with our planning process.

What is a Community Benefit Society anyway?

A Community Benefit Society (CBS) is an incorporated Industrial and Provident Society (IPS) that conducts business for the benefit of their community. Profits are not distributed among members, or external shareholders, but returned to the community.

In recent years community investment in Community Benefit Societies has proved to be a powerful way for people to take control of the things that matter to them – from starting new community enterprises to saving vital assets in their local area, from shops and pubs to libraries and lidos, and land buy flomax online projects like Sacred Earth. This short animation explains how it works.

Why is Sacred Earth becoming a CBS?

We’ve achieved a lot since we were set up in 2011. In particular we’ve made great headway with our educational aims and objectives, forming partnerships with schools and colleges and working with adults and children throughout Sussex. Our flagship Earth Steward Apprenticeship year course for 13-17 year olds is about to start it’s sixth successful year, making a huge impact on the lives of young people through bushcraft, nature awareness and rites of passage. It’s been hard work getting to this point and it feels like we’ve reached the limits of our current organisational structure. Like an exuberant adolescent bursting with energy who needs the support of the entire village to focus her potential and transition into her next life stage, we feel we need to enlist the help of our local and wider community in order to step forward and bring our gifts fully into the world.

With the solid foundations we’ve laid during the last five years to build on, we’re now beginning to focus more on our agricultural aims. The money we raise through the community share scheme will be used to provide project management and infrastructure support for three new projects on the land – Sacred Seeds Herbal Project, Hathor Farm and the Biochar Initiative – as well as helping to put in place a management and communications framework which will serve us during this next phase of our organisational life as we make this larger commitment to serving our community.

We’ll be sharing more information about our specific aims and objectives in due course, but in the meantime you can read our community aims and vision statement to get a sense of what we’re hoping to achieve in the coming years.

Can’t wait for the offer to open? Want to get involved now?

If you’re interested in joining the Sacred Earth Community Benefit Society when we launch the share scheme in September we’d love to hear from you now. We’d really value your feedback and ideas. You might be interested in becoming one of the core group we’ll be working closely with during the crowdfunding campaign to ensure we hit our weekly targets and maintain momentum. If so, please get in touch!