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How to write your CIC36 form (to set up your Community Interest Company)

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Black text on a yellow highlight reads How to write your CIC36 form to set up a Community Interest Company. Christina Poulton Creative. Black and white image of someone writing on paper, next to an open laptop, with headphones on the table, presumably to fill in their example form

So what is a CIC36 form anyway? When you set up a Community Interest Company, you’re basically setting up a limited company but with some extra bells and whistles. A Community Interest Company has a written and publicly declared social purpose and benefits the community in some way. That’s what makes it a social enterprise- a mash up between business and community. 

The CIC36 form is part of the extra bells and whistles and is where you explain what that community focus will be and covers:

Example completed CIC36 form. Image of document with black and white text in a table, outlined in bright blue.


  • Who’s going to benefit

  • The activities you’ll do for that community

  • How they’ll benefit

  • How you plan to use any surplus (profit) the company makes

This form, along with your articles of association (your governing document) are what the CIC Regulator will use to check that your plans are suitable for becoming a CIC and helps them understand and approve your company’s purpose.

Here are some pointers- including examples from CIC36 forms- that should help make the process more straightforward:

5 tips for completing your CIC36 form

1. Be clear about your community

Svcreenshot of example CIC36 form with pink arrow pointing to section about who the community of benefit is

The form asks you for a description of the community the company is set up to benefit. This could be: a geographic community (“residents of Bridgetown”), a demographic community (“teens and young adults”, or “parents with pre-school children”), or a community of interest or experience (“long term unemployed”, “refugee and asylum seeker communities, in particular those from X and Y”, or “LGBTQ+ artists and creatives”). 

Usually you’ll have a little bit more detail than this e.g. an example could be:

“Families in Bridgetown, in particular those with young children and who are facing financial challenges”

You can also include a number of groups, the environment and the general public if relevant. Example:

  • People who live in the immediate area surrounding Bridgetown lake

  • The wildlife and biodiversity of the area

  • Local conservation volunteers

  • The wider community

Make sure you balance specificity with flexibility. Make it clear to the regulator who you’re going to work with, but not so specific that you’ll be stuck if your work develops in future. e.g. NOT “residents of Village X aged 20-22 who appreciate Taylor Swift’s song writing genius and own a dog”

Using the words “including” or “in particular” can help here as it means you can give specific examples but you’re not saying they’re the only people you’ll work with:

Brilliant Theatre CIC’s activities will provide benefit to: “marginalised communities, including migrant and other global majority communities, disabled young people, and underrepresented artists.” 

2. Outline your core activities


Screenshot of example CIC36 form with pink arrow pointing to the activities section

The form will ask you to describe what activity your CIC will do to serve the community.


Use clear language to summarise your primary activities, such as workshops, community events, running a venue or cafe, education programmes or training.


Remember the person reading it won’t know your work, so avoid jargon. Most people have 2-3 key activities on their form. (This isn’t a requirement and you could have 1 activity or 4+, but it gives you an idea). Example:

Football clubs for children and young adults

Education and outreach programmes, including taster workshops to engage new members

Youth coach training scheme

You don’t need a row for every single individual thing you’ll ever do. In the example above a series of different projects and workshops are grouped under ‘education and outreach programmes’. This makes the form easier and quicker to write and for the regulator to understand, and again it futureproofs your work. 


You don’t want to list things like “community gardening workshops, delivered by Arun every Tuesday at 3pm, including weeding, planting, maintenance and a tea break”. You’ll need to report against this work annually so think broad brushstrokes of the type of work your CIC will do for the foreseeable future, not the tiny details of what you will be doing in the next couple of months. 


3. Describe the benefits


Example blank CIC36 form with bright pink arrow pointing to the benefits section of the table

For each activity you’ll need to list the benefits to your community. These could be:

developing skills e.g. improving literacy, learning to swim, creative skills or workplace skills

personal benefits e.g. increased confidence, improved wellbeing or mental health

wider benefits e.g. educating the public on a topic to reduce discrimination, improving the environment or creating new opportunities.


If you're offering activities that are similar to those of a commercial company explain how it differs e.g. making it financially accessible, providing support, engaging people or giving benefits in a way a commercial company wouldn't.

For example:

Activities

(Tell us here what the company is being set up to do)


How will the activity benefit the community?

(The community will benefit by…)


Develop a community garden 

Free access to a beautiful natural space in an otherwise urban area. Allowing residents to enjoy nature, relax and experience calm. Opportunities to learn about plants and gardening and to grow and eat fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables. 

Deliver a volunteering programme to look after the garden, supporting isolated older adults to take part.

Volunteers learning new skills, making friends, reducing loneliness and increasing their confidence. Gardening also improves wellbeing and keeps older adults active, supporting their mobility. 


4. Explain how you’ll use any surplus

Example blank CIC36 form with bright pink arrow pointing to section on using surplus generated

The difference with a CIC is that it isn’t set up to make money for shareholders. You therefore need to explain on the form what you plan to do with any surplus (surplus is the same as profit, except you don’t call it profit when you’re a not-for-profit organisation!)


You can either use the money to develop and improve the CIC, use it to do more of your activity in future or donate it to other CICs or charities, depending on what you set up the CIC for.


So for example you could say you will use any surplus for:

“Delivering further activity as explained above, or reinvesting in the company to ensure more effective delivery and therefore continued or increased community benefit.”


If you plan to donate any of the surplus to other CICs or charities the form says you need to include the wording “with the consent of the CIC regulator”


5. Don’t lose sleep over it!


The CIC36 form is not designed to be long and complicated, or to catch you out. It's not an intense interrogation process in the way that registering a charity can be sometimes. 


It isn’t like writing a funding bid where you have to make your case well enough and they might say yes or no. It’s just about providing clear information, with enough detail, that they can see that your plans are suitable for being a CIC. If the info is there, the registration will go through pretty quickly. Recent ones I have done for new CICs are usually live on Companies House within the week.



They’ve recently updated this example. The one they had before is here- to give you another for comparison.


You can also find a CIC that is similar to the one you’re planning to set up on the Companies House website and under their ‘Filing History’ scroll back to the start, to their incorporation document. The pdf you can download will include their CIC36.


What Next? 


Once you’ve completed your form, get someone who isn’t involved in your CIC to read it over. Does it make sense to them? Double check you’ve completed all boxes, that the CIC name is consistent throughout and that director signatures are pen and ink/ scanned signatures (not typed). Then whack it into a pdf ready to upload when you register.


Once you’ve registered your organisation I have how-to guides on getting funding as a CIC, recruiting directors for your board and crowdfunding


You can also join Sticky-note Squad and get a monthly dose of free support for your organisation to your inbox. Sign up here:




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