Community Bond Subscription Fund
Supporting citizen investment
For collective enterprises, this pilot project leverages community bonds to boost your initiatives. By matching contributions from citizen-investors, this financial support helps you acquire property, upgrade facilities, or fund research for innovative projects. More than financing, it strengthens ties between your organization and the community you serve.
Community bonds: A unifying financial lever
Community bonds are debt instruments with a face value, a term and an interest rate, issued by social economy enterprises. Citizens and organizations are invited to buy them and thus participate in their business project.
PME MTL is committed to providing support for established Montréal collective businesses by offering to purchase their community bonds at an equal or lesser amount than the total invested by citizen investors.
The Montréal business support network will consider the following types of projects, among others:
- Leasehold improvements
- Equipment purchases
- Research and development related to innovation projects
- Purchase of a building
In addition to participating in community bonds campaigns involving collective businesses, PME MTL offers to provide them with support in this approach.
Financial assistance
PME MTL supports community bonds that meet the following conditions:
- Maximum term of 5 years
- Annual interest rate of between 0.1% and 2%
- Personal property or real estate guarantee may be required
Eligibility conditions
Social economy businesses in Montréal that are launching a community bonds campaign must meet the following conditions in order for PME MTL to participate:
- Have completed the pre-start-up phase
- Have discharged all tax obligations
- Not be under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangements Act or be bankrupt within the meaning of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
- Not have submitted an application related to a business project that has benefitted from an intervention pursuant to the Ville de Montréal by-law respecting the Community Bond Subscription Fund
Projects submitted by the following types of organizations will not be accepted:
- Cooperatives
- Cohousing or cooperative housing organizations
- Programs administered by the Government of Québec or Ville de Montréal
Success factors
The following factors are likely to contribute to the success of a community bonds campaign launched by a collective business:
- Have strong ties with their community
- Present an attractive project
- Have a solid business plan
- Be in a position to borrow from and pay back their lenders
- Be able to count on the participation of the members of their board of directors
- Be prepared to manage the community bonds campaign, including sales, repayments, communication, analysis of results, etc.
Social economy businesses can also take advantage of the free support offered by Télescope (in French) to ensure the success of their campaign. This non-profit organization, which specializes in accounting, administrative support and financial planning, provides personalized support services.
For more information concerning a campaign involving the issuing of community bonds and how to proceed, please contact your PME MTL service hub today.
How to benefit from these services?
These support or financing services are offered to entrepreneurs according to the borough or city where the business is located. By selecting the territory on the map below, or by entering the postal code of your business, you will be directed to the experts at your service centre. ↓