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Setting up a Community Group

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You and your friends have an idea for a community project, activity or service – can you make it work? How do you get started? 

This simple step guide offers an overview of the stages involved, and the things you need to consider when setting up a community group or project.  These stages do not always follow a logical step by step process. Very often you will need to make several decisions all at once and some of the ‘stages’ will need to happen simultaneously.

Identifying the need

Before you look at setting up a community group you will need to identify if there is a requirement and ensure there are no other groups in your area doing the same thing.

Idea for a Community group of project

You will also need to establish what your group wants to do, consider things such as:

  1. Who is the group for – will the group offer a service to the community or will it be for members only
  2. What are the aims of the group and what do you want to achieve
  3. Where will the group operate and what is its geographical area

 

Choosing your structure

Having established there is a need or demand for your project you will need to choose the most appropriate structure for its operational management. The list below reviews the different types of structures for community groups.

Establishing a committee

The Committee, Management Committee or Board (if you are a Company Ltd by Guarantee or Community Interest Company) is the governing body of a community group. They are the people responsible for taking care of the organisation on behalf of the members. Key things to consider when establishing your committee are:

Charitable Status

Charitable status is not a legal structure in itself. It is more like a ‘badge of credibility’,  something which enhances the public profile of your group. Your group cannot simply choose to call itself a charity. It is a legal offence in Scotland for a group to refer to itself as a charity if it is not on the Scottish Charity Register. 

Developing a Constitution

A constitution is a written framework of rules for your organisation. It is in effect your group’s governing document, stating your aims, clarifying decision-making procedures and establishing a basis for good practice. It will be a basic requirement for your group to operate. You will need it to open a bank account, apply to funders, register for charitable status, become a company, hire staff or acquire premises.

Contact the Community Toolkit Editor

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Last Updated 01/11/2011 10:05

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