A guide to third sector trading - WCVA

It’s an idea, but is it business? A guide to third sector trading
1: Getting
started
2: First steps 3: Business
planning
4: Legal and
governance
5: Funding
and
resourcing
6: Financial
controls
7: Managing
growth
8: Management
and
governance
9: Social
enterprise
10: Sources
of support
The indirect benefits of third sector trading: There are many
other ways which enterprises can trade with a ‘social purpose’.
Here are some of them:
• Fund raising for core charitable purposes: Like local
community organisations, charities of all sizes with more specific
purposes and beneficiaries are increasingly being forced to
engage in commercial activities. They do so by:
− Competing for contracts to deliver services to the people they
aim to help.
− Running charity shops selling donated goods; these are the
most obvious and well-known examples of trading which is
intended to provide money directly for charitable activities,
and they often have an advantage because the public is keen
to support their charitable aims.
− Running trading activities connected with their premises –
museum shops, the cafes and restaurants at National Trust
properties for instance.
• Funds to support community and social projects: The
vulnerability of community organisations to changes in grant
funding regimes is now the biggest motivation for trading. It is
not profits which have the biggest impact in the early days, but
the simple capacity to attract extra income. Even quite marginal
social enterprise businesses which run alongside existing
‘parent’ community initiatives and charities can contribute cash
directly by:
− paying rent and sharing underused buildings
− sharing joint costs such as building maintenance
− paying for or sharing the costs of equipment, IT services and
maintenance contracts
− making extra staff available to provide services jointly and
less expensively – caretaking, cleaning, book keeping, payroll
services, general administration for instance.
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