Charity / Community Interest Company
Are We a Men’s Mental Health Charity?
Men’s Minds Matter is a limited by guarantee community interest company (CIC) instead of a charity. This alternative not for profit charitable structure provides a range of benefits that allow us to provide a better level of service than we would be able to provide if we were a men’s mental health charity.
Men’s Mental Health Charities
Because a charity is led by a board of trustees, the founders have a lot less say about how the organisation acts and what the focus is. The direction charities take is often decided by the trustees, which is great in many ways.. However, having worked very closely with other men’s mental health charities, who broadened their focus to be more inclusive and gender neutral, we’ve seen first hand how this can lead to a loss of focus on the male experience. If we transitioned to a men’s mental health charity, the board could change the aim of our organisation and we could end up in a similar situation.
Because we also develop psychological interventions for people at risk of suicide we believe the CIC set up works better. We keep this narrow focus on suicide intervention and saving lives. Nevertheless, we are guided by our community through advisory groups which include researchers, clinicians and people with lived experience.
Community Interest Companies
A CIC limited by guarantee is a special type of limited company which exists to benefit the community rather than private shareholders. CIC’s limited by guarantee provide an alternative structure to charities. CIC’s and governed by Companies House and we have to report to them to ensure our work meets the needs of the communities we serve. They operate in very similar ways but there are some fundamental differences.
At MMM we do not have any shareholders, ensure all the money we raise is used to benefit our community we serve and unlike some Men’s Mental Health Charities, invest the money we raise into what we say we will.
Being a CIC, we can focus on exactly where we believe we can have the greatest impact without being swayed by the potential for extra funding and attention. Our particular type of CIC is limited by guarantee, which means that the money that we fundraise must be used for the community purpose we serve and it can’t be taken out to line the pockets of shareholders (because we don’t have any!). We believe any organisation that takes public money to provide health services should not have shareholders. It’s unethical.