Trading for Good: Community Business

When you come on the programme you must have a formal organisation in place, which has a constitution or governing document. We expect this to include a social purpose, a requirement that most of its profits will be returned for social purposes, and an asset lock. You could be a charity (including a charitable company, a CIO or an unincorporated charity), a CIC, or another form of not-for-profit or partial profit-making organisation. Our terms and conditions also restrict payment of dividends during the programme. 

If you don’t have this structure quite yet, but are working on it, then you can still apply, but you will need to have some type of formal governing document to take up a place on the programme. We can discuss this with you during the application process.  

We mean all income, including grants, donations and trading income. Don’t include loans or equity investments.  

The income level is a guide for who might be at the right stage for this programme. We are really looking for people who are growing their trading and want to grow. 

There may be some exceptions to the £100,000 limit. If you have recently had a large grant that will be spent this year, or other unusual income, then talk to us about that. We are really looking for organisations who are right for this level of programme and we will consider exceptional cases, if we feel the programme would work well for you. However, we are very unlikely to consider large or well-established organisations with significant income for this programme.  

You can apply if you have attended previous SSE programmes and have applied to SSE before. You can also apply if you are on a current SSE programme which ends before 1st April 2026.

We are keen to enable people with disabilities and other access issues, to join our programmes. There is a separate small fund held by SSE to enable students who have particular needs to access the programme. This will be agreed on an individual basis. If you have specific needs and are concerned about this, please contact [email protected] to discuss. 

If you work with children or adults in vulnerable situations, you will be required to provide us with your safeguarding policy, which includes getting enhanced checks for people who require them.  

Previous participants have included people who have criminal convictions, some of whom have used their experience to make a difference to the lives of ex-offenders. You do not need to let us know about previous convictions unless they are relevant to your application. 

If you have unspent convictions for fraud or convictions which may affect your ability to run your project, including working with children, young people or adults who are vulnerable, you must let us know. We may undertake checks during the course of the application assessment. 

You are welcome to apply if you have previously had training and support from SSE. However, we cannot accept applications from anyone who will be on another programme with SSE that lasts more than 6 months and continues beyond the start of this programme.

We cannot accept applications from people who are staff or trustees of SSE. If you have a close connection with SSE or any of the funders of this programme or any staff, or trustees of these organisations, then please contact us before making an application.  

As a charity we can only support work that is for the public benefit, and not for private gain. We cannot support “non-incidental” private benefit. You can pay yourself and others a salary or fees for work you are doing for your project, as this is part of the work of your project. You can also pay yourselves or others rent or fees for work undertaken for your project, as long as this is at market or below market levels.  

If you have shareholders, you will not be able to pay dividends to private individuals during the course of the programme, though you may agree with us to pay yourself a dividend in lieu of salary. You should not use our grant for work not connected to your project, or to pay ex-gratia payments, fines or for entertainment for individuals which should be declared for tax purposes. 

The programme is open to community businesses anywhere in England. Some sessions will take place online and some in-person. There will be a cohort in each of these locations. When you apply you can choose which cohort you would like to join:

• Midlands
• North West
• South East
• South West