Skip to main content
Brought to you in partnership with Locality, Plunkett Foundation and Power to Change

Community Shares Standard Mark

Image
Sutton Community Farm

The Community Shares Standard Mark is awarded to community share offers that meet national standards of good practice.

What is the Community Shares Standard Mark?

Image
Community Shares Standard Mark logo

The Standard Mark provides a framework for societies to develop high quality share offer documents with support from practitioners accredited by the Community Shares Unit at Co-operatives UK.

The Community Shares Standard Mark ensures that community share offers are clear, honest and transparent. They also ensure that investors are presented with all the facts they need to make an informed decision and these facts are supported by annual accounts and/or the business plan. 

Standards are overseen by the Co-operative and Community Capital Committee, a member group of Co-operatives UK with representatives from across the sector. 

Handbook

The Community Shares Unit provides detailed technical guidance on these best practice standards in our Community Shares Handbook

Practitioner Training

We run a training and accreditation scheme for practitioners to become licensed to award the Standard Mark and develop quality community share offers. Find out more.

Co-operative and Community Capital Committee

For more information on the governance and oversight of these standards, read more about our Co-operative and Community Capital Committee.

Quote mark
Undertaking the Standard Mark assessment lent credibility and reassurance to our share offer document and gave confidence to investors in the robustness of our plans and projections – this was invaluable.
– Sutton Community Farm

Standard Mark for Societies

Find out more about what the Standard Mark means for you as an organisation running a community share offer

Standard Mark for Investors

Find out more about what the Standard Mark means for your investment in community shares
Sutton Community Farm was awarded the Standard Mark
Related content
Image
585 share offers by 440 businesses – social media graphic
Content by Community Shares
Less than 10 years ago, community shares were almost unheard of. Yet since 2012, £155 million has been raised by 104,203 people supporting more than 440 vital businesses – an impressive 92% of which…
3 years 2 months