Social enterprises in Australia are set to grow with an announcement of a innovative collaboration between the Australian Government and leading social impact investors, which will help the nation’s social enterprises to be more investment ready and financially sustainable.

SiiWA has begun conversations with the social impact investment organisations around Western Australian Social Enterprises getting access to this funding in order to grow their enterprises.

Full information from DEEWR

Minister for Employment Participation, Kate Ellis, and the Minister for Indigenous Employment and Economic Development, Senator Mark Arbib, today announced the successful funds managers for the Social Enterprise Development and Investment Fund (SEDIF).

The Australian Government is providing seed funding to Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA) and to Foresters Community Finance to offer tailored financial products and loans to meet the needs of social enterprises.

The two investment funds will have a total capitalisation of $32 million.

Ms Ellis said that SEFA and Foresters Community Finance will work to support those social enterprises nationwide which combine an innovative business model with a social or environmental mission.

Ms Ellis today visited Tasty Fresh Community Catering in Logan in Brisbane, a social enterprise which creates pathways into training and employment especially for carers of people with a disability.

“We want to ensure that more social enterprises, like Tasty Fresh Community Catering, are able to access appropriate finance at the right time to achieve positive social impacts in their communities,” Ms Ellis said.

“SEDIF offers a way for community organisations, investors and governments in Australia to work together to pool resources and skills to deliver financial returns and an even greater social impact.”

SEFA brings together a unique range of partners including Community Sector Banking, the Macquarie Group Foundation, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Australian Bush Heritage, the University of Sydney, and Triodos, one of the world’s leading social impact finance organisations.

SEFA has received $10 million in seed funding to establish the SEFA Loan Fund with a further $10 million being invested by individual and corporate investors.

SEFA comprises three sub-funds including the Aboriginal Community Enterprise Fund, Community Environment Fund and the Community Development Fund, plus an incubator fund to develop innovative new social enterprises.

Senator Arbib said the Aboriginal Community Enterprise Fund will provide loans and financial advice to eligible social enterprises delivering services in Indigenous communities or to organisations led by Indigenous Australians.

“Social enterprises play a vital role in creating sustainable training and employment opportunities in many Indigenous communities,” Senator Arbib said.

“This investment fund is a good example of the Australian Government’s commitment to supporting Indigenous Australians to get long term sustainable jobs, and to close the gap between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians.”

The Community Environment Fund will help social enterprises to develop innovative responses to environmental issues in the wake of climate change.

The Australian Government is also providing $6 million in seed funding to Foresters Community Finance, which is being matched by a further $6 million provided by the fund’s investment partner, Christian Super Fund.

Foresters Community Finance will manage two funds: the Community Finance Fund (CFF), which will provide a range of tailored financial products, such as a mortgage loans and enterprise loans, and the Social Enterprise Finance Fund (SEFF), which will provide similar loans to the CFF, but with a focus on incubating innovative and emerging social enterprises.

“Ensuring social enterprises have access to appropriate finance at the right time, combined with sound business and investment advice will help this industry to grow, to create jobs and deliver meaningful results for the community,” Ms Ellis said.

Further information on SEDIF and the funds is available at: www.deewr.gov.au/pages/sedif.aspx

(Registration at bottom of page)

One of the key issues many of the Social Entrepreneurs we meet in WA are having is obtaining a clear understanding of what makes them investment ready and the needs of Philanthropists when investing in Social Enterprises, Social Ventures and Social Projects. Access to this early stage advice and feedback on your social enterprise can mean saving you time, effort and resources.

Philanthropist Office Hours provide both traditional Philanthropists and Venture Philanthropists the opportunity to provide this early stage feedback and advice to Social Entrepreneurs and Change Makers. It also introduces them to a range of startup social enterprises in Western Australia that are geared for high social impact.

For Social Entrepreneurs it provides insight and feedback on their project and allows them to bounce ideas off experienced people who have been investing in Social Projects, Ventures and Enterprises. This feedback will provide a solid platform for the Entrepreneur to move their project forward.

The format of Philanthropist Office Hours is -

• 10 minutes for the Entrepreneur to ask questions and test assumptions
• 10 minutes for the Philanthropist to provide feedback and ask questions of their own
• 10 minutes to discuss options, potential and future directions

Some of Western Australia’s leading Philanthropists have registered (as well as many who do not promote their giving publicly) and are willing to provide their time, expertise and knowledge to providing that crucial guidance and feedback to Social Entrepreneurs. We will be conducting the office hours out of the Hub Perth once completed in November but will start the program in early October.

I’d recently become frustrated in Perth, you know how it is, things not moving fast enough, people saying yes but really meaning “yes if you’re lucky and then maybe slowly over the next 5 years” so I headed back to Melbourne to recharge and develop a few new SiiWA partnerships.

On my first day in Melbourne I purchased great coffees from two (different) social enterprises, attended a fashion show hosted by the amazing people at the Social Studio (a fashion and design business set up to support recently arrived refugees), dined at a restaurant collecting $2.00 on every bill to help Melbourne’s homeless, been taken on a tour of the social enterprise hubs being created in the street level of community housing towers in the uber trendy suburb of Fitzroy, witnessed the Commuters for Change, a cycle rally through Bourke Street to encourage public transport usage, immersed myself in two incredible street theater performances and…. wait for it … had the government call me to show case their latest thinking on maximizing social enterprise investment and support. That’s just within my first 7 hours. (continued below picture)

There is no doubt about it Melbourne is on fire right now, full of ideas, new ventures and a sense of optimism from young social minds. The thing that stands out as the biggest observation back east is that the social enterprise infrastructure is in part being driven by a genuine fusion of government, corporate and social enterprise partnerships. These partnerships are clearly on the front foot, not researching or compiling papers, nor are they conducting endless research, they are in the “doing process” of delivering social change.

I’m inspired by these actions and its great to see social enterprise as a living breathing animal. Its also amazing to see how the general public is reacting to this approach. They are using the power of ethical consumerism to create real social change. With willing and waiting consumers adopting an ethos of profit for purpose in their purchasing power there is a massive and scalable opportunity for creating positive social change.

I was also recently heartened to read that the city of Melbourne is now offering preferential rates to social enterprises who wish to use their existing street infrastructure for the establishment of businesses and “pop-up’ social enterprises. In fact, reading between the lines it would be almost impossible for a business which does not place its environmental or social outcomes at the heart of its venture to even get through the tendering process. “Good on you Melbourne” use your existing infrastructure to support social change, risk free, high return, partnership driven.

I hesitate as I write this but when I compare this sense of optimism and “doing” in the social sector and the level of deep understanding that many of the key stakeholders of the sector have to what I have witnessed here in Perth it makes me anxious.

There is so much to gain for all sectors by embracing the power of partnerships, delivering on well thought out social ventures. The make up of so many WA’s social entrepreneurs that I’ve met over the last year in Perth is that they are nimble, responsive and need to see their ideas realized. Without appropriate support infrastructure and a genuine sense of community their ideas often wither away.

I’d like for SiiWA to continue in its mission to deliver a genuine community and support networks for these individuals but also to campaign vigorously to bridge the gap between the sectors. When it comes to delivering social good, there is no “them and us” there is only “us” (I stole that from Obama!).

I still remain grounded in a sense of deep optimism for the future of social innovation in WA but come on Perth lets stop the chit-chat and get down to business. Lets start to develop partnerships, which see well thought out, robust, financially sustainable business models getting up and being supported. I think we’d all be better off for it, if you don’t believe me then ask Melbourne.

Tom Tolchard

Earlier this year, funds management industry stalwart Chris Cuffe, from Social Ventures Australia (SVA) helped launch the West Australian Private Ancillary Fund (PAF) Service. The event was co-hosted by Giving West. Non-profit organisation SVA designed the service, which is now available to Western Australian based philanthropists, when they found many wealthy Australians were unaware of the tax and personal benefits of structuring their giving, and how simple and rewarding establishing a private ancillary fund (PAF) can be.

A number of West Australians have already used the service to establish their own PAFs and avail themselves of the administration service. Following launch around the country, SVA is now administering PAFs for over thirty families and have worked with a number of other PAF holders to assist them their grant making decisions.

With the huge number of needy and worthy organisations requiring funding, sometimes making informed decisions about donating can be challenging. SVA can assist with this and they are often engaged to undertake research on non-profit organisations operating in the area of need that is of most interest to the philanthropist, helping to ensure funds are best directed.

Find out more at www.socialventures.com.au or Simone Eley on 043 777 3335

Enterprise Learning Projects (ELP) provides a first point of contact for individuals and communities wanting to engage in microenterprise development. From the seed of an idea to piloting and facilitating specialist support, ELP works with individuals and communities to bring their ideas to life. The tailored process they go through with the community helps ensure businesses and the people running them are sustainable and able to grow.

“We continue to be inspired meeting many Aboriginal people and communities who have aspirations to start their own business. People tell us that one of the biggest barriers they face is accessing the support they need to develop their ideas into real life ventures. We are responding to this need by creating opportunities for remote communities throughout Australia to access relevant and culturally appropriate business development training and support”.

ELP was recently awarded a grant from the WA Social Innovation Fund to support and foster microenterprise development in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. Over the next 12 months, ELP will work with individuals and groups who have business ideas they would like to explore and develop.

ELP is currently partnering with The Smith Family Katherine as part of the Australian Government’s Communities for Children Initiative. Working with the community of Yarralin, they are supporting individuals to pilot a range of business ideas. Here are just a couple:

Photography/photo printing business
Yarralin now has its very own photography business! Called ‘Natural Photos’ and run by Sharantine and Jessica Campbell, the business takes portraits, family photos and landscape pictures, as well as providing a photo printing service for community members. Sharantine and Jessica are demonstrating to the wider community that you can make money by doing what you love to do – in their case, photography.

Op Shop
In Yarralin community, four hours from Katherine, affordable clothes used to be hard to come by. The range at the local community store was limited and expensive so the women of Yarralin, with assistance from ELP, established a community op shop. ELP helped to broker a relationship with Vinnies op shop in Katherine and they provided the first load of stock free of charge to enable the women to raise some capital. After the sale of these goods, the women negotiated a commercial arrangement with Vinnies, paying $100 for new stock each fortnight. The women have learnt basic account keeping skills to keep track of the money coming in and going out of the business and are building up the business so it can keep going into the future. When asked about the op shop, Connie replied ‘I like doing the selling. It’s good. Things are happening now. It’s good for the community.’

Link to website: www.elp.org.au

Social Traders has released the Social Enterprise Builder; a step-by-step guide on how to build a social enterprise. Read the full story

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has released a Social Investment Manual; A guide for Social Entrepreneurs. This manual has a international focus and many of the capital markets do not yet exist in Australia however there is a strong case for these kinds of capital markets to develop.  Read the full story

Below are the videos from the UN Social Innovation Summit 2011. Hosted by Landmark Ventures and the United Nations Office for Partnerships, the Social Innovation Summit is an event dedicated to connecting and inspiring a unique network of global Fortune 500 business, investment, foundation, and community leaders to create social impact and affect positive change. You can engage with the summit conversation on Twitter with hashtag #SIS11.

Mashable has a good summary if you want the short version.

Part One

Part Two

We have started asking Social Entrepreneur 10 questions to find out more about them, what they are motivated by and what they have learnt along the way.

This month we asked YouthTrees Tim Kenworthy, Founder of YouthTree 10 quick questions about his journey and some things he learnt along the way.

1) What do you do?

I work with a ridiculously cool bunch of friends to run Youth Tree Inc., a non-profit dedicated to making doing good as mainstream as cheeseburgers and breathing by getting young people into volunteering and other forms of active citizenship.

2) what did you want to do when you were little?

It changed week to week, but often involved Lego, architecture, coal mining (I actually have no recollection of ever desiring to be a coal miner but a crayon drawing from year one created in response to a “what do you want to do when you grow up?” suggests that at one point I wanted to be a very orange person with a very yellow light on the top of my head and a lot of soot all over me).

3) what inspires you?

Stillness, people who are genuine and dedicate their lives to making things better and certain strains of French toast.

4) If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?

The scarcity mindset and the “command on control” mindset, both of which seem to dominate our organisations and our decision-making and stifle solutions. That’s two things, isn’t it? If I had to choose one it would be the unwieldiness of shopping trolleys.

5) what motto best sums up your approach to life and work?

Be nice, be friends.

6) what’s the best advice you’ve been given?

You are not the boss. Nathanael (my little brother) is probably right. So is Ginny (my mum). You are probably wrong. This was kindly written by my friend Elise (who invented the “Be nice, be friends” motto too). It’s on an A4 sheet hanging up in my room. It’s titled “To remember every night before you go to bed” and has excellent pictures on it.

7) and the worst advice?

Sometimes you have to be arrogant to succeed. It’s bollocks.

8 ) who has been your best support?

My mum. Let’s be honest, she still makes my lunch most days of the week (that is the honest truth). And my dad who has sacrificed a lot to support me.

9) who’s your hero?

I don’t believe in heroes, but there are lots of people who inspire me. See section A, verse 3, line 2 (above) for details.

10) where can we see your work?

In the attitudes and actions of our brilliant volunteer staff.

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Thank Tim! if your a Social Entrepreneur in Western Australia we would love to hear from you and ask you the Social Entrepreneur 10, feel free to contact us.

We are a little late to the party on this (2010) but Edelman has conducted their annual “Good Purpose Study” and have results that would challenge the assumptions of many corporates in Western Australia and the rest of the world.

Read the full story