Community Benefits Wishlist
The Community Benefits Wishlist is a collaborative effort between ourselves and businesses supplying us with goods, works or services. The Wishlist is designed to help address the needs of the Scottish Borders by enabling community groups to submit their project ideas to contracted suppliers, providing the latter with opportunities to support the project through the provision of resources.
Some suppliers to ourselves are required to provide a specified level of Community Benefits under the terms of their contract.
By ensuring businesses invest some of their time and resources into supporting local community project, we hope to foster strong working relationships between ourselves, businesses, and our communities.
Businesses collaborating with ourselves may wish to contribute towards specific community projects in the form of a financial donation. If so, businesses will be provided with the community group’s contact details and will contact them directly. They will confirm how the donation will be used and for the group’s bank details so that a payment can be made.
Businesses may not always be in a position to provide financial support for community wishes, therefore, it’s important that community groups consider creative solutions and alternative resources to support project delivery.
Alternative solutions could be the provision of labour and/or excess materials. This will depend on the nature of the proposed project and the resources available at the time. Community groups should be open to collaborative efforts and flexible in their approach to how their wish can be fulfilled. Previous examples of alternative solutions have been:
- a business providing its staff for a volunteer day
- free machinery hire
- provision of excess materials, such as wood or chairs
- reused tar planings to resurface a muddy parking area
The Wishlist is a platform that connects businesses with community groups to provide assistance but does not guarantee support once an application has been submitted. Please see our frequently asked questions for further information.
As part of your application to the Community Benefits Wishlist, you are required to provide personal information. Please see our privacy policy for more information.