# Charity bodies & funders unite with proposal for community wealth fund

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/08/29/charity-bodies-funders-unite-proposal-community-wealth-fund/
- Published: 2018-08-29T08:49:31+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

**An alliance of charity bodies, supported by funders, has put forward a proposal
for a community wealth fund that would use unclaimed financial assets to help communities
in need.**

 

The alliance includes [NCVO](https://www.ncvo.org.uk/), Small Charities Coalition,
[Local Trust](http://localtrust.org.uk/), and Lloyds Bank Foundation for England
and Wales. It believes that such a fund would help to meet key ambitions set out
in the government’s recent Civil Society Strategy by providing long-term strategic
investment to support areas that have struggled with economic and social challenges.

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The proposal_, _[_Strong resourceful communities: The case for a Community Wealth Fund_](http://localtrust.org.uk/library/research-and-evaluation/community-wealth-fund)
asks the government to commit the next wave of unclaimed financial assets from the
likes of bonds, shares, insurance policies and pension funds to a new £1-2billion
endowment to support these ‘left behind’ communities.

 

It also suggests that committing these unclaimed assets, supplemented by other dormant
assets, could also attract corporate support and could over time grow the fund to
a value in the region of £5bn.

 

It proposes using these funds to try and meet the ambitions of the Civil Society
Strategy by creating place-based investment programmes, introducing a new model 
of investment that would bring together finance from a range of sources to raise
social and economic outcomes, and developing new approaches in ‘left behind’ communities
that lack the capacity and capability to access investment.

 

The alliance is also asking any other organisations that support the idea of a Community
Wealth Fund and would like to be part of future conversations to [sign up](https://confirmsubscription.com/h/j/8511BE7277196C79).

 

Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO said:

 

> “In the wake of the Brexit referendum and Grenfell there’s a real sense that something
> really ambitious is required to address the feeling of being ‘left behind’ that
> some communities obviously feel quite intensely. We believe that a significant
> endowment with the potential of the Community Wealth Fund is needed to support
> connection, place making and to put decision making power and resources into the
> hands of local communities.”

 

Matt Leach, Chief Executive of Local Trust added:

 

> “The Community Wealth Fund would enable people and places to design and commission
> activities, drawing on local strengths and assets and tailoring services to people’s
> actual needs. It could be targeted at those places most in need of support and
> provide the scale of investment required to develop the social capital needed 
> for transformative social and economic change.”

 

The proposal is supported by the [Church Urban Fund](https://www.cuf.org.uk/), Barrow
Cadbury Trust, [Paul Hamlyn Foundation](https://www.phf.org.uk/), Lloyds Bank Foundation
for England and Wales, The City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City 
Bridge Trust, Local Trust and NCVO. It is based on consultation with Locality, UK
Community Foundations, Social Enterprise UK, Co-operatives UK, Charity Finance Group,
Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, London Funders Group and the London
Communities Commission, Small Charities Coalition, Voice4Change, the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation and The Panel for the Civil Society Futures Inquiry.

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