Co‑operatives UK has today (6 August) announced plans for a new dedicated investment fund for community shares, building on its decade-old Community Shares Booster Fund and unlocking a new avenue for communities to raise capital to save, build and grow community-based co-operatives. Co-operatives UK and its Community Shares Unit par tners, Locality and Plunkett UK, have joined up with Community Shares ICOF (CSI) to move the Booster Fund investment function from Co‑operatives UK into CSI, a fund managed by Co-op and Community Finance. Existing Co-operatives UK investments will remain with the organisation for the time being – with only the return on investments moving to CSI for re-investment. The original Booster Fund evolved from a pilot scheme established in 2016, which aimed to support community enterprises in raising finance through community share offers. The Booster Fund has also awarded more than £1.25m in development grants to over 184 societies to prepare share offers.