Voluntary and community groups can receive money through donations or because they sell something i.e. trading. If you would like advice and support about developing a trading idea then contact Steve Place at CAN, who is a trained social enterprise adviser and mentor.

What is trading?

Selling or trading is where there is an exchange of goods or services (by the seller) in return for something of more or less equal value (by the buyer). An expectation is set up between ‘buyer’ and ‘seller’ of there being an exchange and so forming a contract in law (this does not have to be in writing!). For instance at a supermarket at the point of your basket items going through the till a contract is set up whereby you take on ownership of the items and the store expects you to pay money totalling the advertised price of the individual items. This contract is enforceable in the courts which is different from donations. In most cases there will be an exchange of cash but it can also be an in-kind exchange where the items exchanged are seen as equal in value. What is important here is any assumptions made by the two parties as to whether a sale is taking place or not.

Voluntary organisations can trade

Read our Charities Can Trade and Sayer Vincent’s Trading issues made simple. Every cup of tea or cake sold at an event, or a ticket for a disco, is a sale.

Key questions for any trading initiative

• Will the trading help you to carry out your organisation’s purpose, not compromise your values and importantly create community or public benefit (either directly or by helping to fund such activity)?
• Do you know the true cost of your service?
• Do you know the difference between cost and price (i.e. what buyers are willing to pay for the service?)
• Do you know who wants to buy your service, why and how they will benefit?
• Are there enough people and/or organisations willing to buy at the price you wish to sell it at?
• Do you want your trading to cover its cost, create a surplus or plan to make a loss (because you can subsidise it to make it affordable or you plan for it to be a ‘loss leader' i.e. will lead to more ‘sales’ in the future)?
• Who else is ‘selling' the same or similar service? (NB could be someone you collaborate with not necessarily compete with)?
• We have a simple worksheet to help you see if you have a good trading idea