Dover Big Local

What Dover Big Local does

Dover Big Local CIC is a resident-led Community Interest Company (registered in England, company number 12865175) headquartered at the Charlton Centre on High Street in Dover, Kent CT16 1TT. The entity evolved from the prior London Road Community Association and was entrusted with £1 million of Big Lottery Fund capital in 2015 under the national Big Local programme, which deployed £200 million across 150 UK communities. It was formally restructured and re-registered as a CIC operating as a Local Trusted Organisation in 2020.

The organisation operates two physical hubs at the Charlton Centre and runs a staffed drop-in centre Monday to Friday, 9am-4pm. It delivers a broad portfolio of free-at-the-point-of-use services to Dover residents: digital inclusion and IT support sessions; family and parent-child programmes; a job club and welfare advice service; the One You healthy lifestyle programme; mental health support; fitness and wellness classes; social and activity groups; environmental and garden projects (delivered with Kent Wildlife Trust); holiday activities; a model-making workshop; a membership programme; and a governance/partnership programme. Service delivery is supported by partnerships with Take Off and the Sage Network alongside Kent Wildlife Trust.

The business model is grant-funded non-profit with no commercial sales, no disclosed membership fees, and no pricing model in the conventional sense. Income is dominated by the 2015 Big Local endowment (averaging approximately £100,000 per year over its 10-year horizon), a three-year Reaching Communities grant from the National Lottery Community Fund awarded in 2021, and additional Covid-19 recovery and project-specific grants. As a Community Interest Company, any surplus is reinvested into community programmes rather than distributed, and the organisation is governed by a resident-led board.

Name

Dover Big Local

Legal name

Dover Big Local CIC

Website

https://doverbiglocal.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Dover Big Local CIC is a resident-led community interest company in Dover, Kent, delivering free social, health, employment, digital inclusion, and family programmes from the Charlton Centre for local residents, funded primarily by National Lottery and Big Local grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Dover

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: Major funding from Reaching Communities, a National Lottery Community Fund initiative (three-year grant). Additional funding from various organisations and local government for Covid recovery projects. Original funding included £1m Lottery funding over 10 years (2015-2025) managed by Local Trust.
2. Direct Income from Activities: Some direct income from groups, classes and events held at the community hub.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Dover Big Local operates two physical community hubs at the Charlton Centre in Dover, delivering a regular programme of free or low-cost community services to local residents. Offerings include digital inclusion and IT support, family and parent-child sessions, a Job Club, healthy lifestyle advice, bereavement and mental health support, social and activity groups, fitness classes, environmental garden projects, and holiday activities for children. The organisation is resident-led and works in partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust, Take Off, and Sage Network.

Product overview

Dover Big Local operates as a unified community hub model with multiple service programs delivered through its physical hubs in the Charlton Centre, High Street, Dover. The core Community Hub Services serves as the central platform through which all programs are delivered—including Digital Inclusion and IT Sessions, Family and Parent-Child Programs, Job Club and Welfare Advice, One You Healthy Lifestyle Program, Mental Health Support Services, Social and Activity Groups, Fitness and Wellness Classes, Environmental and Garden Projects, Holiday Activities Program, and Model Making Workshop. The organization also maintains a Membership Program for community engagement and a Dover Big Local Partnership governance structure. These programs collectively support the organization's mission to improve community health and wellbeing through arts, creative activities, green spaces, supported learning, and volunteer-led groups for all ages and interests.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Community Hub Services

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Kent Wildlife TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for environmental education initiatives. Collaborate on green spaces and nature-based community projects.
• Take OffcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMental health support partner providing support services to Dover Big Local community members through Take Off initiative.
• Sage NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartners for the Sage urban garden project and community garden initiatives.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Locality: Locality is the UK membership network for community-led organisations, social enterprises, and community hubs. It is a direct peer because Dover Big Local operates as a community hub and represents the same operating archetype Locality supports nationally.
• UK Community Foundations: UK Community Foundations is the national membership body for community foundations across the UK. It is comparable because both Dover Big Local and community foundations mobilise local grant funding and deliver community-benefit programmes at a localised level.
• Local Trust: Local Trust is the national charity that manages the Big Local programme through which Dover Big Local receives its core funding. It is the closest umbrella/sector peer, providing the framework, funding, and compliance infrastructure for 150 Big Local areas including Dover.
• Power to Change: Power to Change is a UK trust funding and supporting community businesses. It is comparable because it channels Lottery-derived funding into grassroots community enterprises, an analogous funding-and-capacity model to the Big Local programme operating Dover Big Local.

Emerging players

• Citizens UK: Citizens UK is a national community organising coalition with locally rooted chapters that pursue resident-led change agendas. It is partially comparable because Dover Big Local's resident-led partnership model and consultation work mirror Citizens UK's local-chapter organising approach.

Regional players

• Groundwork UK: Groundwork is a federation of local trusts running community programmes around green spaces, wellbeing, and employability. Dover Big Local's garden partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust overlaps with Groundwork's environmental-and-community remit, making it a comparable regional community-development operator.

Others

• The National Lottery Community Fund: The National Lottery Community Fund is the primary grant-maker behind both Dover Big Local's original £1m award and its current Reaching Communities grant. It is a key ecosystem partner/funder rather than a competitor, but is highly relevant as the source of capital.
• Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES): CLES is a UK think-and-do tank focused on local economic resilience and community wealth building. It is an adjacent ecosystem participant that Dover Big Local could partner with or model aspects of its local economic development work on.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/doverbiglocal
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/dover-big-local

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dover Big Local