It has been just over a decade since Development Trusts Association Scotland (DTAS) launched the Community Shares Scotland programme in partnership with the Community Shares Unit in 2014. This report aims to celebrate the work of the programme to date, and how the community shares model has taken root and spread across Scotland, giving people a genuine say and stake in essential local community businesses.

Since the programme started in 2014, we have provided in depth and direct support to 70 community share offers collectively raising £21.8 million from over 21,468 investor members. This includes the small but essential community shops raising anything from £15,000 from their community;
to community owned solar farms and hydro schemes raising over £2 million; multipurpose community hubs match funding capital grants and all sorts in between.

This £21.8 million of citizen finance has leveraged in over £32 million in additional funding for these projects, with a significant proportion of match funding from the Scottish Land Fund, instrumental in so many community buyouts across the country.

Of all the organisations we have supported with a community share offer since 2014, only three have ceased trading in eleven years, one of which transferred its engagements into the local Development Trust which it had worked closely with since its inception. This survival rate of 95% is incredible and
highlights the resilience and strength of the model.

We know that a lot of the communities we have worked withare tackling multiple challenges on several fronts and things have certainly not been plain sailing. We have seen first hand the community and collective ownership approach as a critical factor for these business’s ongoing survival against the odds.
The flexibility of community shares as a unique form of equity finance has also been instrumental.

Report: A Decade of Community Shares in Scotland