What are the steps to starting your own Development Trust?

In starting your own development trust the aim is to create an effective independent organisation that can both serve local needs and sustain its own operations. Every community is different and consequently every approach should meets its own communities needs and opportunities.

Although there are many reasons why development trusts are set up, in our experience, there are two frequent starting points for a development trust:

Where people in a community come together to set up a development trust to tackle local issues and bring about change and create new community enterprises.
When a partnership or existing organisation wants to adopt sustainable, enterprising or community led approaches to their activities.

Download leaflet: Setting up a Development Trust

A Community led approach

Enterprising Communities

There are lots of reasons why the community may decide that a development trust is whats needed. Some are set up as a result of a community planning exercise, others as a positive reaction to something negative happening such as the closure of a building, loss of a local service or development proposals. It may simply be as a way of enabling the community to respond to needs or opportunities in the area. Some development trusts have developed so that communities of interest, such as women or Black of Minority Ethnic communities or people with disabilities, can come together in a local area.

Whatever your starting point you will need to spread the message about what you want to do:

Get others who want to help involved
See what skills you have and bring on board those with other skills you might need

Top Tip from the DTA
Communicate effectively !
Develop a Plan

Once you know more about your communities ideas, concerns and skills, your group can then begin to plan what to do. To be a successful development trust, you also need to be planning activities that contribute to social, economic and environmental aims and be culturally appropriate. Remember, you are aiming to become an independent, enterprising and self-sufficient organisation. Identify opportunities that could develop into an enterprise. Take note of some of the barriers that your research may have thrown up such as initiatives which have gone before and failed! Talk to other organisations, local agencies or authorities who are involved in these issues and the area how could you work together?

If you have lots of ideas, prioritise them and decide what you should do now, soon and later. Choose something small to start off to enable you to prepare for a longer term, larger project in the future. Get in touch with DTA Wales to discuss how a visit to an established development trust might help you think through your ideas, give you tips for getting going and learn from their mistakes along the road to success.
Get Organised

Now that you are clear about what you plan to do and how you will make it happen, there will be a number of things to do. You need to get organised into a more formal working group to transform your plans into action. Record your actions and plans, delegate tasks and research funding opportunities. Pull your ideas into a business plan to test out if theyre realistic and viable and make sure you stick to it. Consult with the community about your ideas, research local needs and how you ideas fit with other plans and proposals for the area. Identify assets that you have or could acquire to meet your goals, earn money and eventually produce profits to plough back into the trust.

Think about the legal structure you need to adopt to enable you to undertake activities and to ensure that you development trust is community owned and managed. Get good professional and legal advice from a specialist who understands community enterprise DTA Wales can suggest who might help you. Agree how the Board will be selected, tell the community about your plans and work so far and make arrangements to create an initial Board. Put in place administrative systems and tight financial controls from the outset.
Raise Money

Remember, your goal is to be independent, enterprising and as self-sustaining as possible.

Your business plan is the foundation for securing funds to get going. Dont underestimate the value of volunteer time and gifts make a record of them! If its an enterprise idea, maybe you can start trading straight away using little or no funds. Development trusts have raised money from a range of sources: gifts and loans from the community, by issuing shares and by using community loan finance. Many also apply for gifts from a range of trust and government sources. Try to ensure your organisation is led by the needs of your community and not by what the funders want to fund.

Get the support of your local authority, other public bodies and businesses. Even if they cannot provide grant aid, they may be able to help with the acquisition of assets. Some development trusts have acquired property though the transfer of the ownership of redundant and underused publicly or privately owned assets to the community.

The second frequent starting point for a development trust is by an exisiting organisation or partnership wanting to adopt a more enterprising or community led approach
A Partnership led approach
Going for Growth

Many partnerships or existing organisations get to a stage when they decide they want to adopt more sustainable, enterprising or community led approaches to their activities and that becoming a development trust will help them do this.
Community Partnerships

Many development trusts originally set out as a community, residents or tenants association or other form of community organisation or partnership. By becoming a development trust they have been able to build on these foundations to extend and develop their activities and impact.
Strategic Partnerships

Some partnerships are set up to draw together agencies, different sectors (including the public and private sectors) and the community to tackle complex issues in a local area. Lots of development trusts have been set up as a result of such partnership activity, for example Community Regeneration Strategies, European strategic funding for community economic regeneration, Rural Development Programmes, Coalfield or Steel closure initiatives, town or village regeneration or renewal and other regeneration initiatives in both urban and rural areas. In addition, partnerships and other bodies responsible for planning new communities or housing areas which may not even exist yet are increasingly looking to the development trust model as the infrastructure for sustainable and vibrant local communities.

So what should any partnership or existing community organisation consider?

Take Stock

The first step is to take stock of where you are now and what you have achieved over the lifetime of the partnership ororganisation. What benefits, opportunities and barriers are there for the continuation or development of your work? Evaluate your current standing in the local community in what you do and their involvement in what you do.

If your are a new Partnership, consider what is your appropriate role in the community and whether you want to co-ordinate or deliver social enterprises or services?

Look at the tasks a community led enterprise might undertake and what role it would play in relation to the other agencies and enterprises that are anticipated to operate in the area. How could investment in a community enterprise provide added value or sustainability?

An Honest Look

Look at the five principles of a development trust on this website or guides. How do these apply to your current position and against your ideas for how the organisation wants to change or develop? What is the attitude of your organisations members to this approach? What steps will you need to take to develop or increase community ownership?

You should also consider the opportunities for you to develop new or extend current income streams from trading and contracts. Your existing partnership may have an opportunity to leave a legacy this could be used to acquire assets.

The DTAs Healthcheck is an ideal tool to help you through this process.

Strategy for Growth

Based on the outcome of the previous two steps, identify what actions are needed and the changes you will have to make to your organisation or partnership. Ensure these actions and changes are realistic and achievable. Identify what you will lose as well as what you will gain and ensure you are prepared for both.

Put together or update your business plan setting out your proposals, their feasibility and how you will finance and implement them. What investment can you bring to the area? Are there opportunities (eg. through the business planning system) that you can exploit to acquire or develop land and assets? Can you negotiate with public or private bodies to transfer the ownership of underused or derelict land and property to the development trust?

Keep the community informed about what you are doing and provide a range of opportunities for them to input and.

'Fabulous Beasts ' - with passion, energy, commitment and drive development trusts often succeed in areas that others fail to reach!