Tag: DTAS

New report demonstrates community wealth building in action: £21.8 million raised within Scottish communities

Democratic Finance Scotland has launched its latest report demonstrating 10 years of direct support to 70 community share offers.

The programme, which is part of Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS), assists communities across Scotland in raising and managing their own finance through democratic models like community shares, bonds and one-off community lotteries. In addition to providing expert advice, it also offers microgrants to help groups amplify their share offer campaigns – £206,476 of grant funding has been distributed collectively so far.  

Since its launch, the programme has helped community-led organisations raise a combined £21.8 million from 21,468 investors, including community members, local businesses and the wider public. The resulting enterprises have created long-term social and economic impact, including 208 new jobs.

The initiatives supported span a wide range of projects, from local shops and pubs to community-owned solar farms and hydro schemes – all of which exemplify the power of democratic finance to turn local commitment into real investment. 

Of all the organisations supported by Democratic Finance Scotland, 95% are still operating – demonstrating the impact of community resilience during especially challenging economic circumstances.

Morven Lyon, Head of Democratic Finance at DTAS, said: “The initiatives supported by DTAS are a prime example of using community shares to enhance public funding and put ownership and decision-making directly into communities’ hands.

“In giving vital projects the best possible chance of success, they also enable people to invest in the ideas they believe in. It means that money, jobs and control are kept in local areas, turning talk about community wealth building into tangible outcomes in our communities.

“We’ve reached significant milestones in Scotland over the past decade, with the total value of community assets acquired using community share offers reaching nearly £40 million, resulting in the creation of more than 200 jobs.

“Our team has worked hard to contribute to this success, working closely with the committed volunteers and staff of 70 community organisations across the country.

“The fact that almost all of the organisations we’ve supported are still operating shows what’s possible when communities are trusted to lead – and this impact is only set to grow over the next 10 years.”

CASE STUDIES

Bellfield Big Build

Last year, Democratic Finance Scotland assisted community-led organisation Action Porty in exceeding its target to raise funds to redevelop Bellfield church.

The building had been purchased by the Portobello community in 2018 – marking the first successful urban ‘Community Right to Buy’ in the country – and used as a driving hub for regular activities and events.

Seeking to refurbish the building to expand on its services, the Bellfield Big Build community share offer was launched last year.

With Democratic Finance Scotland’s expertise and support, Action Porty exceeded its minimum target within the first month, unlocking £450,000 in match funding from the UK Community Ownership Fund and raising a total of £168,525 in addition to doubling its membership to over 1,100.

Glenuig Community Inn

The programme also supported the community of Glenuig’s 2025 community share offer which aimed to secure ownership of the Glenuig Inn – a business central to the local population, providing jobs, accommodation, food and drink services and a vibrant events space.

With the current owner intending to sell the Inn, and several community-led organisations already thriving in the village, there was a unanimous agreement that a community buy-out would be the favoured option.

Through Democratic Finance Scotland’s support, the community received applications for more than 300,000 shares, securing the Inn’s long-term future as a welcoming, year-round hub at the heart of the village.

Glenuig Community Inn committee member, Louise Johnson, said: “Our DTAS Advisor was able to talk us through the requirements and good practice of how we should run our share offer prior to launching it.

“None of the committee had been involved in a community share offer previously, so the handholding was much appreciated. Similarly, providing the external consultant to assess us for the Community Shares Standard Mark was very useful and much appreciated. We were also awarded a microgrant to help with early marketing and promotion of the share offer.”

A-Decade-of-Community-Shares-in-Scotland_DTAS25Download

Give communities the power to shape Scotland’s future

Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) has launched its new community-led manifesto, calling for a fairer Scotland where local people have the power, investment and opportunity to shape their own futures. 

Representing nearly 400 development trusts across Scotland, DTAS works with communities to take ownership of local assets, build sustainable enterprises and drive local regeneration. Its support helps communities safeguard vital services, bring a new lease of life to local spaces and strengthen social and economic wellbeing in towns, villages and islands across the country.  

Last year, DTAS supported 81 local organisations, helping them secure more than £1.1 million in funding.

The manifesto highlights the ways in which communities are already leading change – from transforming disused buildings into thriving community hubs, to tackling rural depopulation and building a fairer local economy. However, it also highlights how limited funding and a lack of long-term investment is still holding them back.

To help Scotland’s communities reach their full potential, the manifesto sets out practical steps and policy asks centred around five key pillars:

  • A sustainable and supportive environment for communities
  • Developing local democracy
  • An inclusive, sustainable, wellbeing economy
  • Land reform and community ownership
  • A just transition and climate action

Among its proposed actions, DTAS is urging greater investment in long-term community development, reforms to land policy to expedite community ownership, and the creation of a community wealth fund to help local people take on and transform assets for public benefit.

Pauline Smith, CEO at DTAS, said: “Communities across Scotland are already delivering life-changing solutions to the challenges they face – from keeping vital services running to building a fairer local economy. But too often, their ambitions are limited by short-term policy and centralised control.

“This manifesto is our call for change to give local citizens real power, not just a voice. With the right investment and trust, they can shape a fairer, greener and more resilient future for Scotland.”

Case study: Huntly Development Trust

With DTAS help, member Huntly Development Trust has been able to secure the Strengthening Communities Funding needed to grow its organisational capacity and sharpen its impact locally.  DTAS’ Community Ownership Support Service has helped the Trust taken ownership of key community assets and accelerate its vision for local regeneration.

Donald Boyd, general manager at Huntly Development Trust, said: “Development trusts across Scotland are the beating heart of local action. We’re practical, on the ground anchor organisations – the “first responders” of community development – finding ways to meet local needs and secure new opportunities for local wellbeing.

“Here in Huntly, our work results in major local benefits and cost-savings to the public purse, but it requires long-term, consistent support.

“While we’ve made great strides in tackling local challenges, the support mechanisms identified by DTAS could help us and other communities across the country achieve so much more to drive lasting change.”

DTAS-Manifesto_FinalDownload

Scotland’s Community Foundation fast tracks funding to help most in need

Independent funder Foundation Scotland has announced a £12 million fast-tracked ‘Response Fund’ to support organisations which serve the hardest hit communities across the country. 

The accelerated funding programme comes in response to increased pressure on charities and community groups, many of whom are seeing a surge in demand for services while they themselves are facing reduced capacity and soaring overheads, such as utilities, staffing and National Insurance costs. 

To provide support for organisations who need it now, and to help with longer-term capacity building, Foundation Scotland will implement funding programmes that aim to do both.

Support includes a cost-of-living adjustment to all organisations funded in the last year to help them cope with rising operational costs. This will be implemented alongside a payment to organisations who were awarded funding last autumn, but who were unable to reflect the sudden increase in employer National Insurance costs in their applications.

Funding for these two programmes will total around £650,000.

Foundation Scotland will also contribute half a million pounds to the Corra Foundation’s ongoing Boost programme, a small grants fund for local community organisations supporting children and families hardest hit by poverty.

The Boost programme provides grants of £500-£3,000 and is delivered by Corra, in partnership with STV Children’s Appeal and Comic Relief.

Carolyn Sawers, Chief Executive of Corra Foundation said: “Community-led action is critical to tackling poverty and its impacts.

“Small grants, designed to work for local groups, make a big difference. With Foundation Scotland’s contribution, Boost will be able to reach many more children and families across Scotland.” 

Funding support that will help both immediately and in the longer term is also being given to all of Scotland’s Citizens Advice Bureaux, to assist with staffing and operational costs.

During the cost of living crisis, CABs have been overwhelmed with people desperate for help or support to navigate energy bills, benefits, debt, housing concerns and other urgent issues.  CABs themselves are charities and many are struggling with the disproportionate balance of need to resource as well as the ever increasing strain of covering their own costs.

All 59 CABs, as well as their umbrella body Citizens Advice Scotland, will receive individual awards of £50,000 this year and £50,000 in the next financial year, totalling £6million of funding over 2 years.

Derek Mitchell, CEO of Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “Our network is seeing record levels of demand from people across all corners of Scotland.

“The advice we provide is fundamentally about bringing stability to volatility, but the people behind the network, the ones working tirelessly to help communities are facing increasing pressures. 

“CABs own livelihoods are often marked with uncertainty and at the mercy of short-term funding cycles. Funding like this is a game-changer. It will allow CABs to take a breath and plan the next two years with more of a safety net around costs. 

“I’d like to extend a huge thank you to Foundation Scotland for the support, and to everyone at CAS and the network that continue to work each day to better the lives of people across Scotland.”

Lastly, Development Trust Association Scotland (DTAS) will receive funding to help support local development trusts across the country.

Development trusts are community led organisations, set up to proactively address and tackle local needs and issues through community-led activity and partnership working. Many of them are vital to community support systems and infrastructure, but are facing critical operational challenges.

Funding will help them stabilize and rebuild their capacity, to better support the communities they represent. DTAS is the member-led organisation that promotes and supports development trusts across Scotland, and they will hold and distribute the funds.

This award will total £5million, allocated over two years, and represents the biggest single award Foundation Scotland has made in its history.

Pauline Smith, Chief Executive at DTAS said: “This funding couldn’t have come at a more crucial time and is strong recognition of the incredible work Development Trusts are doing across Scotland.

“We’re operating in a challenging environment, and this £5 million investment will be directed straight to our members through a Recovery and Resilience Fund – supporting long-term strength and sustainability in communities.

“With over 400 existing and aspiring Development Trusts in our network, we see every day the vital role they play, responding to growing local needs, strengthening community-led governance, and creating places people are proud to call home.

“These trusts are the backbone of community infrastructure, and without them, much of the social, economic, cultural, and environmental activity in our communities simply wouldn’t exist.

“This support will help strengthen the infrastructure that so many people rely on. We’re hugely grateful to Foundation Scotland – this funding will make a real and lasting difference across the country.”

Giles Ruck, CEO of Foundation Scotland said: “As Scotland’s Community Foundation, we are acutely aware that people across the country are continuing to face ongoing financial hardship, struggling to keep their heads above water or pay their bills.

“We want to support communities and individuals where we can. As a first step, we are fast tracking this Response Fund to help address multiple and pressing challenges. We want to go at least some way to help those affected by financial crisis, as well as help organisations and charities to stabilise and rebuild. 

“Although we are providing over £12 million in funding, we know that we are scratching at the surface. However, we are committed to using this fund as a stepping stone from which we can better support communities, listening to what people say that they need, and working with others to create a stronger, more resilient Scotland.

“Foundation Scotland would like to thank the many donors who trust us with stewardship of their funds, pooling them with our own to ensure the greatest impact on our communities.”

For more information about Foundation Scotland visit:

  https://www.foundationscotland.org.uk

Communities: seize the day!

‘giving communities the power to make their own choices is one of the most effective ways to tackle poverty and address inequalities.’ – Local Government & Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi MSP

ian cooke

Development Trusts Association (DTA) Scotland, the national organisation for development trusts, says the introduction of the Community Empowerment Act presents communities across Scotland with an ideal chance to ‘seize the day’ as their rights and opportunities in relation to assets, land and participation increase.

Development Trusts, community groups and representatives who gathered for the Associations’ two-day Annual Conference in Inverness yesterday heard that there has never been a better time for community-led regeneration, as more and more communities look to take control of their future through the acquisition of assets.

Ian Cooke, Director of DTA Scotland (pictured) said: “The introduction of the Community Empowerment Act brings with it ground-breaking opportunities for communities across Scotland in the acquisition, development and management of land, buildings and other physical assets.

“Often driven by the need to save community services and iconic heritage assets, community groups have historically had to work against the odds and with minimum support to take on assets and services.

“However, now, more so than ever before, communities have an opportunity to stimulate sustainable growth and lasting change thanks to favourable policies like the Community Empowerment Act which encourage, support and help resource this kind of community-led activity.

“We would urge that anyone considering taking on an asset, however early the stage, gets in touch with the team at the Community Ownership Support Service to find out how they can help support the process.”

Under some of the notable provisions of the new Act, most of which are expected to come into effect in the summer of 2016, communities throughout Scotland will:

  • Have the right to request to purchase, lease, manage or use land and buildings belonging to local authorities, Scottish public bodies or Scottish Ministers;
  • Have extended Community Rights to Buy Land in Scotland incorporating both rural and urban settings through amends to the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and;
  • Have the right to put forward their ideas for how services could be changed to improve outcomes for their community through a participation request. This could include community bodies taking on delivery of services.

In his Ministerial address at the DTAS Conference today, Minister for Local Government & Community Empowerment Marco Biagi MSP is expected to say: “These are remarkable times in Scotland to be an active citizen. We have almost unprecedented levels of participation and engagement from people in communities the length and breadth of the country and the Scottish Government wants to build on the enthusiasm that people have been showing and get them more involved in local decision making, so that we can release at a local level the energy that comes from employing those talents, and allowing communities to guide the changes and improvements that they want to see in their local areas.

“In June this year the Scottish Parliament passed the Community Empowerment Act, the focus of which was to put forward legislation that helps give communities the means and ability to greater control their futures. Communities in the driving seat, that is the aim of the Act.

“We want to go beyond consulting, go beyond engaging and get into the true participation and partnership that is the only way communities can be empowered. We know that giving communities the power to make their own choices is one of the most effective ways to tackle poverty and address inequalities.”

Also addressing conference today will be Rob Hoon, manager of the successful Out of the Blue arts and education trust based in Dalmeny Street.

Entitled ‘Assets, Enterprise & Creativity‘, DTA Scotland’s conference – the organisations’ twelfth – has brought together Scotland’s experts on community-led regeneration, along with the development trusts and community organisations and groups looking to deliver innovation and sustainable change on the ground.

Topping the agenda is ensuring that delegates are aware of the opportunities available to them as a result of the introduction of the new legislation.  Once again a sell-out, the Conference is providing an invaluable forum for the sharing of ideas, experience and good practice.