- The Bird Ranger CIC is a rapidly scaling company on a mission.
Our new registered Community Interest Company status means we can pursue A clear commitment to social goals to a communal cause. While also being alert to generating business & revenue on an upward trajectory.
A CIC set up as a company limited by shares like The Bird Ranger CIC, can issue shares to raise capital, including the option of employing multiple share classes. A CIC limited by shares can also pay dividends up to a ‘dividend cap’, an attractive mobiliser to raise capital and pay dividends.
The limited company structure, complete with directors and shareholders/members, is likely to be familiar to those responsible for running the organisation and relatively simple to operate, especially compared to a charity. It’ll also be readily recognised by the business community and others the company engages with – it might help, for example, to have such a known, formalised structure when dealing with government or other bodies making grants.
The statutory basis of the asset lock, ensuring that a CIC’s funds will be used for the benefit of the company’s social objectives, helps provide reassurance to investors and the wider public. More generally, the fact that community interest companies are subject to ongoing regulation by the CIC Regulator helps to create confidence in the integrity of a CIC. All highlighted in the annual report & public record.
Within access to certain forms of finance some funders will only give to charities or community interest companies, because of the protections these vehicles provide that funds will be used for stated purposes.
Therefore, access to finance, whether through provide donors, grants or community development finance is a solid reason to operate as a CIC rather than as a standard company.
As a type of limited company, a community interest company has its own legal status and will therefore continue in operation – and able to provide benefit to the community – until it is dissolved or converted into a charity. Even if it is dissolved, a specific feature of the CIC model is that any residual assets (after paying off any creditors) must be transferred to another asset-locked body, like another CIC or a charity. This ensures that funds invested in a CIC will continue to benefit social or charitable ends, even if the CIC itself is no more; a real legacy business.
