CIC Association seeks ‘strong mandate’

The UK’s new association for community interest companies (CICs) has launched a major survey aimed at plotting the future for both the organisation and its members. CIC Association co-founder John Mulkerrin said the questionnaire – which is available for CICs who register on the association’s website – was a vital step in proving a need for the association to exist. He said once 250 members joined only then would it have a ‘strong mandate’.

The new association has been met with a lukewarm response by the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC). Coalition CEO Jonathan Bland said the organisation could be ‘quite effective’ but could also confuse the message of social enterprise for a wider audience. The CIC Association is planning a meeting with the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform early in the new year and Mulkerrin hopes to have a good response to the survey by then.

The questionnaire will not only provide a practical platform for campaigns and the development of services the association can offer but also feed into an interactive, searchable map that will pinpoint the location of CICs all around the country. It will connect CICs with each other – either geographically or by sector – and also act as a tool for the general public to find CICs. ‘Awareness is such a huge issue,’ said Mulkerrin.

‘This will build confidence in the general public. They can look at the map and say: “Wow – they’re all over the country and wow they’re in every sector” and of course our members will be able to host the map on their websites as well.’ Mulkerrin, who also runs a CIC called Quotes 4 Charity, said he would have expected more to have been done to promote awareness of the CIC during the three years that had passed since its inception – and this was one reason the CIC Association was needed.

‘We’re disappointed that the Social Enterprise Coalition hasn’t shown full support for the association yet,’ said Mulkerrin. ‘But at the same time we realise we have work to do in terms of convincing SEC it is needed so that’s why getting responses to the questionnaire is so important.’ SEC CEO Jonathan Bland said that the CIC legal structure ‘absolutely needs promotion’ but that it had enjoyed great success since its creation three year ago.

Bland said: ‘There are certainly some issues that are particular to the CIC, though overall CICs face overwhelmingly the same issues as other social enterprises. ‘Having a CIC association dedicated to the needs of CICs could be quite effective, but it’s really too early to say at this point. The potential is there for it to be a strong voice for CICs, but there is also the chance it could add a layer of confusion in trying to promote what is already a diverse and complex movement.’

Mulkerrin said: ‘It seems that SEC is concerned about diluting the message of social enterprise but that’s not what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to add the CIC spin on top of it. ‘It’s really important to promote the CIC legislation, which after all is the first new company legislation for close to 150 years.

By not doing it we’re missing opportunities, especially at this time with people being made redundant and career changers being identified as hot prospects for social enterprise by Cabinet Office research.’

The questionnaire covers a broad range of issues from tax, to online resources, salaries and working hours and even what phonetic should be used to verbalise CIC. It is available at www.cicassociation.org.uk

Source: www.socialenterprisemag.co.uk