Community Shares Unit
= a programme delivered by Co-operatives UK and Locality, who also work with a number of organisations to help spread the word about Community Shares. [1]; works with the Microgenius crowdfunding platform
Description
"Microgenius was founded by entrepreneur, Emily Mackay, in 2011 when she realised that finding opportunities to invest in community-based renewable energy projects was very difficult. It was the first ever national platform for community share offers to be easily found by investors like Emily, and it started supporting community shares projects in 2012.
In 2012 the Community Shares Unit was formed, drawing on experts in community share offers from Co-operatives UK, Locality and backed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). They liked the idea of Microgenius and how it might help all shares offers, not just renewable energy. Makes sense. So we came to an arrangement where Microgenius could officially become part of the Unit, and grow a bit more.
The platform is now being operated by the Community Shares Unit, initially for a pilot period, to work out the best way to go about things, so that everyone benefits." (http://www.microgenius.org.uk/pg/about-us-1)