The Building Better Futures Loan Fund, a collaboration between the Trust, UCIT and the Belfast Charitable Society, has made another great loan. 

The Building Better Futures Loan Fund is going from strength to strength. 

Destined Enterprises is the social enterprise arm of Destined, a learning disability support charity operating in the North West. The organisation operates a taxi business through which they provide disabled friendly transport for those living within the Derry area. 

A community group aiming to transform the fortunes of the Harryville area of Ballymena has raised more than £40,000 since launching a £120,000 community share offer on June 30.

The Building Change Trust's Social Finance work is having even more impact thanks to the Building Better Futures Loan Fund, who's most recent grantee is the 174 Trust. 

With the help of the Trust, a former public house destroyed by an IRA bomb more than 40 years ago is being transformed into a £1million community hub that will bring jobs and hope to one of Ballymena’s most deprived areas.

The Building Change Trust, UCIT and Belfast Charitable Society have joined forces to unlock a £1m fund for community-based groups making a positive difference to society across Northern Ireland.

The Trust has joined forces with Belfast's oldest charity, Belfast Charitable Society, and UCIT, to create a £1m fund for the Community, Voluntary and Social Enterprise sector.

The Trust and UCIT are helping Voluntary, Community and Social Enteprise Sector organisations access finance through the Building Change Trust Loan Fund. 

The Trust and Arts & Business NI (A&B NI) are delighted that the report, ‘Socially Investing in the Arts’ has now been published.

The Stormont Executive was urged by the Trust and others to do more to support the Co-operative Movement – a vital source of jobs and wealth generation to the Northern Ireland economy.

In conjunction with UCIT, we recently launched a loan fund. Here’s a bit of background.

A new dedicated £350,000 loan scheme, spearheaded by the Building Change Trust, has been launched to help provide funding for community projects across Northern Ireland.

The Building Change Trust and Co-operative Alternatives are excited to announce the extension of their highly successful Community Shares Ready! Programme.

High demand for low cost electricity from a host of third sector organisations has prompted Northern Ireland’s only solar energy co-operative to launch a second major Community Share offer.

The Building Change Trust in partnership with Northern Ireland Environment Link welcome the launch of a new report on ‘The Potential For Social Investment to Finance The Environment NGO Sector in Northern Ireland’.

This week the Trust has been hosting a series of events across Northern Ireland with Arts & Business NI looking at and examining alternative sources of financing for arts and cultural organisations.

Everyone in the sector will be acutely aware that these are very challenging times for arts and cultural organisations in Northern Ireland. Within the context of cuts in public funding and increasing competition for discretionary spend it is imperative that we look at how to maintain and grow our valuable contribution and meet our ambitions for the future.

Public funding is under threat at the same time as the recession is impacting Third sector activity and fundraising. Change is therefore in the air and the third sector needs to respond to the new environment. 

The Trust, along with Northern Ireland Environmental Link, are pleased to announce they will be working with New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) to research the potential of social investment to finance the activity of the Environmental NGO sector in Northern Ireland.

The Ashton Centre in North Belfast is opting for solar power as they join forces for with Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE), a community-owned co-operative that aims to help the community and voluntary sector while providing green energy.

The Building Change Trust has helped Creggan Enterprises to team up with Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE) to go solar.

Leading social enterprises, charities and co-operatives who are lining up to buy shares in Northern Ireland’s first community owned solar enterprise company, and the Trust has joined them by making an investment of £1000.

The YMCA in Londonderry will be opting for solar power as they join forces for with Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE), a community-owned co-operative that aims to help the community and voluntary sector while providing green energy.

The Trust have been instrumental in helping to foster Northern Ireland’s first community-owned solar energy enterprise which launched a Community Share offer at Stormont on March 3.

Tiziana O’Hara has been in touch to tell us about the exciting times happening with the Community Shares, Ready! project…

Down to Earth NI, a new community-led, environmentally aware burial project recently launched what is hoped will become Northern Ireland’s first woodland burial site in County Down.

On the 12^th December, the Building Change Trust is hosting a roundtable discussion with the Alternative Commission on Social Investment to discuss social finance and its ramifications for the Northern Ireland Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector.

Registration has now opened for a free masterclass which will teach participants how to set up, develop and grow co-operatives.

The Trust is helping a ‘Community Shares’ project get off the ground with Down to Earth NI hoping to become Northern Ireland’s first woodland burial service.

The Building Change Trust exhibited at the Development Trusts NI (DTNI) conference entitled: The NI Conversation 2014 – Making Local Work.

The fifth and final workshop looking at an exciting new ways for communities to take control of their environments recently took place at one of Belfast’s landmark community buildings.

‘Allow local communities to take more control of their energy bills and transform the energy system’ – that was the message at a ‘Community Energy’ event at Parliament Buildings hosted by the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment along with the Fermanagh Trust.

Since September 2013,the Trust in collaboration with Co-operative Alternatives, have organised a series of thematic workshops exploring community shares and how crucial they have been to the development and regeneration of communities across the UK.

The Building Change Trust, Charity Bank and the Ulster Community Investment Trust (UCIT) hosted a seminar on the future development of social finance in Northern Ireland at Malone House in Belfast on the 5th November.

The Building Change Trust and Co-Operative Alternatives are taking the next step in bringing community shares to Northern Ireland.

The Building Change Trust and Co-Operative Alternatives are leading the way in developing a community shares programme in Northern Ireland.

The Building Change Trust, along with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), chaired a roundtable discussion on Community Asset Transfer in Northern Ireland.

An exciting, new educational programme, supported by The Building Change Trust, is currently being offered at the University of Ulster.

A new report on the development of social finance in Northern Ireland stating the legacy of grant funding to voluntary and community organisations and social enterprises may have stifled the development of social entrepreneurship and social innovation has been launched.

The Building Change Trust in association with the Northern Ireland Co-operatives Forum hosted a highly interesting and successful seminar on the subject of community shares, with a view to exploring sustainable financial models for the Community and Voluntary sector in Northern Ireland.

One of the last decades’ most high profile sports stories will help illustrate the concept of ‘community shares’ to local community and voluntary groups.

In January and February 2012 the Building Change Trust (the Trust) facilitated a series of seminar and workshop discussions on the social economy, with Charity Bank.

Asset transfer and community right to buy provisions were on the agenda at a seminar hosted by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation in association with the Development Trusts (NI) and The Queen’s University of Belfast.

An exciting, new educational programme, supported by The Building Change Trust, is currently being offered at the University of Ulster.

A series of events co-hosted by the Building Change Trust in Belfast, Irvinestown and Derry have finished.

A series of special events co-hosted by the Building Change Trust will help promote and encourage sustainability in the social economy sector.