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London October Training
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In their words
In their words
“We are ever so grateful to you for being such a wonderful support over the last 2 years. Your support enabled us to help the whole of our town of Exmouth during the pandemic, and we had almost 400 volunteers at its peak!”
- Dawn
- Exmouth Mutual Aid
“SCN provides funding and support models for a new breed of community networks and activists, supporting new grassroots movements to grow.”
- Ruth Pryce, Head of Programme: Young People
- Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Trusts and foundations we support
Grant management
We’ll take the risk management side of grant giving off your hands – helping you fund community groups and movements more easily and expand your reach.
Fee: 7% fee on all funds granted (additional fees may apply if more support is needed)
Success stories
Bristol City Council
The pandemic hit community and voluntary organisations particularly hard.
To aid these groups’ recovery, Bristol City Council (BCC) set up The Community Resilience Fund: a one-off capital grant fund that would help make them more sustainable and enable them to continue their vital work for the long term.
In line with their values, BCC made the fund a participatory grantmaking process (PGM). They invited potential grantees to help design the fund. And they wanted to compensate participants for their time.
In partnership with The Social Change Nest, BCC were able to do this easily through Open Collective, where participants could draw down funds to compensate for their time and involvement.
In total, we were able to pay out more than £8,000 in compensation and expenses – saving BCC considerable time and admin hassle in the process.
The British Science Association
The Ideas Fund is a fund run by the British Science Association and funded by Wellcome, designed to enable communities around the UK to develop and test ideas that address problems related to mental wellbeing, in partnership with academic researchers. So far, we have distributed £225,629 to 10 community projects as part of this fund.
The Barbican
Creative Neighbourhoods is the Barbican’s initiative to help culture and creativity thrive in the City of London. Part of this is The Imagine Fund, a community grant-making and support scheme in which decisions about funding are made by the community themselves, and the Community Impact Collective (CIC), a collective of leaders working with communities in the City of London to strengthen and advocate for values-led community work. We host both initiatives at The Social Change Nest. In the first round of The Imagine Fund, we distributed £12,500 to 10 community projects. We are now in the middle of distributing £50,000 worth of grants to another 22 projects, as part of the second round.
Decolonising Economics
Decolonising Economics (DE) is run by Noni Makuyana and Guppi Bola, who’ve been organising together for 6 years.
The duo build power and resource for BIPOC (black, indigenous, and other people of colour) communities in the solidarity economy, to help bring about a just transition rooted in principles of racial justice.
In 2021, DE were offered funding to support their transformation into a worker cooperative. However, the opportunity was only open to registered entities, which they were not. So they contacted us to explore fiscal hosting as a solution.
Since early 2022, DE have tripled their income. And, thanks to the security we offer, they’ve been able to obtain core funding that wouldn’t have been accessible otherwise.
“The process and anticipated operational demands for running our own organisation (as two part-time organisers) felt overwhelming, and the legal responsibilities to Companies House and the Financial Conduct Authority felt in conflict with our own principles. With SCN, we gain insights into managing our budget and have accountability on our spend but are relieved of a lot of governance bull**** that is expected from funders because they are regulated by the Charity Commission, who do not want radicals to succeed… Thank you SCN for always being a massive support to us.”
Oxford Mutual Aid
Oxford Mutual Aid is a grassroots community support group and action network. Every week, they provide 330 households with food and baby supplies, deliver 300–500 emergency food parcels and cook over 650 meals.
“SCN’s support has been instrumental in helping our organisation get started,” said Lia den Daas of Oxford Mutual Aid.
“Their work removed some difficult practical obstacles which meant we were able to do really important work with our community right from the start. Without their help, we could not have grown and flourished as an organisation.”
Trans Aid Cymru
Trans Aid Cymru started as a local mutual aid group in Cardiff in 2020. They aim to help transgender, non-binary and intersex (TIN) people through mutual aid support.
The project is run by TIN people for TIN people, making it inclusive and understanding of the community’s needs. They’ve provided support through their meal share scheme and the development of a trans-friendly GP map of Wales, among other initiatives.
To date, Trans Aid Cymru have raised over £45,000 on Open Collective as part of SCN.
Melanin Health & Wellness
Melanin Health & Wellness was born out of the need to provide nutritional, culturally appropriate meals to people from marginalised ethnic groups.
The initial focus was on delivering meals to children in receipt of free school meals during the school holidays. But the project evolved into providing training and support around food management, budgeting, and nutritional advice. It also addressed the relationship between food and mental health for low-income families from marginalised backgrounds.
Melanin Health & Wellness have now secured a 5-year lease on a community hub to expand their activities. We’ve helped them through seed funding, admin support and capacity building. All of which has enabled them to develop a sustainable structure and develop processes for a thriving community organisation.
Changing Ideas
Changing Ideas is a supporter and funder of ideas which can achieve lasting social change. Founded by philanthropist and photographer David Graham, the charity backs people, movements and organisations to challenge the status quo and make a positive difference. From funding legal activism against big tech to providing infrastructure support to the UK’s mutual aid movement, they support organisations who believe they can make a difference. Together with The Social Change Nest, they launched the Changing Ideas Mutual Aid Fund, aimed to support the next iteration of the mutual aid movement in the UK post-pandemic.
Urban Movement Innovation Fund
The Urban Movement Innovation Fund (UMI Fund) works to connect, align and strengthen people power for a more socially just, zero-carbon future.
UMI amplifies the efforts of NGOs working on technical solutions, or with policy makers. And it unites them with those of campaign or grassroots groups and movements seeking to increase citizen engagement and activity.
In 2021, they partnered with The Social Change Nest to deliver the Youth Climate Fund. Together, we distributed £155,500 to 69 grantees across 28 countries. In 2022, this grew to over £500,000. And we continue to grow our partnership each year.
Uplift
Uplift put equity and justice at the heart of everything they do. Their mission is to support and energise the movement for a fair, fossil fuel-free UK.
Their work sees them strategically source, connect, and elevate ideas to set in motion a just transition away from fossil fuel production. One that measures up to the full scale of the climate crisis.
Over the 18 last months, we’ve supported Uplift in receiving and managing over £2 million in funding from multiple funders.
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Your questions answered
What is The Social Change Nest (SCN)?
SCN is a registered Community Interest Company. We exist to remove the barriers that prevent people from creating change. Read our full story.
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What services do you offer?
We offer many different services, all designed for the needs of community groups and funders. We also collaborate with groups and funders to test new solutions. So if you have an idea, we’d love to hear from you.
Who do you work with?
We work with a wide range of groups, organisations and networks – from foundations and philanthropists to community groups and individual changemakers.
We focus on supporting early-stage groups that often struggle to get funding. This means the groups we work with are usually informal and unincorporated. Find out if we’re the right fit for you, or read more about who we support and how.
Why would I need a fiscal host?
Community groups are often unincorporated. In other words, they don’t have a legal structure. This can make it difficult for them to collaboratively manage their finances. And it can prevent them from accessing formal grants.
Through fiscal hosting, we can securely receive and hold funds on your group’s behalf. This can open you up to more funding opportunities, as more and more grantmaking programmes recognise fiscal hosting as a way to get funds to unincorporated community groups. We also enable a collaborative and transparent way to manage your income and expenses.
Are SCN and Accountable the same thing? What is Accountable?
When we were first established, we used the name Accountable. In 2023, we made the formal switch to The Social Change Nest. If you see ‘Accountable’ anywhere, please let us know and we’ll update it as soon as possible.
Are SCN and Open Collective the same thing? What is Open Collective?
No – SCN and Open Collective are two separate entities. We (SCN) use the Open Collective platform to do our digital fiscal hosting.
Open Collective is the organisation that runs the software. And we pay them a fee to use it. There are other fiscal hosts that use the Open Collective platform, and we recommend having a look around to see which one best suits your needs.
What’s the difference between SCN and having a bank account?
To be very clear – we aren’t a bank. As your fiscal host, we can hold your money in our bank account and support you with making payments.
Opening an account with a bank can be a lengthy and difficult process for groups with no legal structure. It often leads to one member of the group holding funds in their personal account, which is a huge risk to that individual.
We offer an alternative way to securely hold your funds, without the bureaucracy. We’ll arrange a call to understand your aims and objectives, as it’s important that all groups we host align with our mission. Our turnaround time can be as little as 2 weeks, as long as your group fits our criteria.
Through our fiscal hosting service, you can deposit and withdraw funds. However, we’re not a bank – and here are some of the key differences:
- You don’t have access to a debit or credit card
- We only process payments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with a 1pm cut-off – so you don’t have 24/7 access to withdraw funds
- We cannot give any financial advice and do not offer many of the typical services a bank does, such as loans
Am I right for SCN? / Is SCN right for me?
We don’t have extensive eligibility criteria. But it’s important that you:
- Are a group that’s making social change
- Are unincorporated (in most cases)
- Meet these community guidelines
- Need a safe, secure, transparent way to manage your funds
What does it mean to be incorporated?
An incorporated group is a group that’s legally recognised by the governing body associated with its legal structure.
Incorporating is a process through which an organisation goes from being a group of individuals to a registered entity such as a charity, CIC or limited company. The legal entity may or may not be separate from the individuals involved.
Being incorporated is separate to being constituted (see the question below).
What does it mean to be constituted?
If your group is constituted, it means it has set up and agreed on a constitution. In other words: a set of fundamental principles that each member of the group abides by.
These are the values, goals, and standards which unite the group. They govern individual members’ activities when representing the group, as well as the activities of the group as a whole.
The constitution may also include guidelines for acceptable behaviour, and the process of expelling members. It’s often agreed upon by the majority within a group through a democratic process.
We are incorporated - can we be fiscally hosted by SCN?
We mainly focus on supporting unincorporated community groups. But we do also host a number of incorporated groups. We choose these on a case-by-case basis, as it depends on the context and values of the group. Contact us if you’re not sure or have any questions.
How much does it cost?
Our services charge a fee ranging from 5% to 7% depending on what you need. There may be extra costs if we’ve agreed something bespoke. You can see all our prices here.
Do you work outside of the UK?
We support some groups that work outside of the UK. Our fees for this kind of support are higher, due to the extra admin on our side and the costs associated with international transfers. Contact us if you’d like to know more.
Who holds the money? / Who’s responsible?
We hold all of the money in our bank account. The money we hold on behalf of groups is kept separate from our main business account.
Spending your money is entirely your responsibility. We can offer support with budget management and forecasting if needed.
Why do you charge a fee?
Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist world and we have to charge a fee to make sure we’re sustainable. Our fees cover the cost of licensing the Open Collective platform and the admin involved in supporting groups, such as onboarding and processing payments. We aim to invest any profits back into the development of the service we provide to the community.
I’m on! But now I’m having issues / I have questions
I’m having difficulty submitting an expense
We have a handy demo video showing you how to submit an expense, which you can view here. If you prefer written instructions, you can read our step-by-step guide here.
I’m having difficulty approving an expense
You can find instructions on how to approve an expense here. Make sure you’re logged into your Open Collective account to access your admin rights.
Why was my expense rejected?
If your expense was rejected by a page admin
There are many reasons your expense might have been rejected. We recommend carefully reading the collective’s expense policy and getting in touch with the page admins if you’re not sure.
If we requested your expense to be reapproved
This is because the expense was approved by the same person who submitted it. We do not pay out on expenses which have been submitted and approved by the same person.
I’m having difficulty inviting admins
Check out our video showing you how to add admins to your page. If you prefer written instructions, you’ll find a step-by-step guide here.
I’m having difficulty submitting a reimbursement
Watch our video to see how to submit an expense. If you prefer written instructions, you’ll find a step-by-step guide here.
When submitting a reimbursement, you must upload evidence for the expense to go through. To do this, take a photo of your receipt or documentation, and upload it after you’ve filled in the expense title.
I’m having difficulty setting up contribution tiers
To learn how to set up your contribution tiers, check out our step-by-step guide.
My expense has been approved but it’s not in my bank account yet. Why?
If your expense hasn’t reached your bank account yet, it may be because:
- A page admin still needs to approve your expense. Get in touch with your page admins to double check.
- The expense has been approved on a non-pay day. We make payments every Monday, Wednesday and Friday before 1pm (UK time).
- Your bank has a longer processing time. Some banks take up to 12 hours to process payments from us.
- The bank details are wrong. Please check and correct them if needed, to make sure we’re able to pay you.
- The expense was approved by the same person who submitted it.
- If you submitted an expense on behalf of an organisation:
- Check the expense again. Under “Payment Method,” make sure it says “Bank Transfer”
- Under “Who is being paid for this expense?” make sure the selected payee is under “My Organisations” and not “My Collectives”
My expense has Some of the contributions aren’t showing up on our page. Why?
If the contribution was made by bank transfer, our finance team might’ve been unable to find a corresponding payment reference. This could be because:
- Our finance team hasn’t yet reconciled the expenses. We do this every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so please allow a few days for this to be reflected in your page balance.
- The contributor didn’t use the correct reference number.
- The contributor changed the amount they contributed at the point of making the bank transfer.
- The contributor didn’t account for the automatic 15% platform tip from Open Collective.
Use our missing contributions form to let us know of any contributions that haven’t been allocated to your page.
How do I download my monthly report?
To download a CSV of monthly transactions, follow this step-by-step guide
Someone in my group is having trouble uploading an expense. Can I do it on their behalf?
This step-by-step guide will show you both how to draft an expense on someone’s behalf and how to invite them to submit an expense on their own.
I want to cancel my recurring contribution. How do I do that?
If you want to cancel your recurring contribution, follow this step-by-step guide. We’re unable to cancel on your behalf, but we can refund any contributions.
One of our group members has privacy concerns. Can they contribute privately?
Yes, they can. There are two options for this:
- The contributor can make a contribution as a guest (this is preferable for recurring contributions). You can find guidance on doing this here.
- The contributor can make a contribution in incognito mode (this is preferable for one-off contributions). Learn how to do this here.