AV industry good cause enterprise, Together For Cinema, has achieved Community Interest Company (CIC) status almost 14 years after it started working with the residential AV industry to deliver cinema rooms to children’s hospices.
Founder, Ian Morrish ran Together For Cinema in his spare time until April 2021 when the industry began to purchase sponsorship packages that Morrish created to help fund the operation. The sponsorship money was entrusted to Morrish and has always been spent wisely to help establish the Together For Cinema brand while making a significant difference to the community.
The structure proved the desire of the industry to support the project, but there was a realisation that this was not sustainable long term and that with such incredible industry goodwill and financial support, it was important to formalise the enterprise and become a CIC.
The UK government introduced CICs in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004, designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for public good. Overseen by the Regulator of Community Interest Companies, CICs are designed to be easy to establish, with all the flexibility and certainty of the company form, but with some special features to ensure they are working for the benefit of the community.
Becoming a CIC gives Together For Cinema greater robustness and credibility and will help to secure its future and ability to continue delivering cinema rooms to good causes.
The formalisation also sees the appointment of four directors: Ian Morrish; Melanie Malcolm from Bespoke Home Cinemas; David Parrett from Cadaema Consulting Services; and Chris Pinder from HDANYWHERE and OneAV. Each director has the responsibility to protect and cradle the business with the main drive being to ensure that the good work continues.
“We are a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners,” said Morrish. “This is a great development for Together For Cinema and means that we are bound by the registrar at Companies House to be not for profit and to continue to deliver good to our community. It also formalises our position in our industry and will hopefully secure Together For Cinema as a recognised channel of good to our community for many years to come.”