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

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 Centre for Social Impact WA, thought leader in social investment and sustainable communities, is a joint venture between the national Centre for Social Impact and The University of Western Australia Business School.

The Graduate Certificate in Social Impact is offered through this collaboration and focuses on building the professional capacity of social managers and entrepreneurs of the future, across the corporate, government and third (not-for-profit) sectors.

On completion of this course, you will graduate with the critical leadership skills to manage organisations and social programs, lead social innovation and create social value.

Course Structure

The Graduate Certificate is designed to be completed in a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years. The course consists of units to the total value of 24 points

Comprising:
MGMT8516 Social Impact: Entrepreneurs and Social Innovation
MGMT8517 Leadership for Social Impact
MGMT8518 Social Investment and Philanthropy

and

MGMT8615 Selected Topics in Management (Demonstrating Social Impact)

Ethical Dimensions of Organisations, Management and Leadership can be taken as a substitute for this unit in Trimester 1

Admission requirements

Domestic students

1. A bachelor’s degree of this University, or equivalent as recognised by the Faculty, and at least five years’ relevant work experience, or

2. At least eight years relevant experience.

Click here for full enrolment details.

Grad Certificate Social Impact

Today is “R U OK? Day” in Australia and around the world, below is some further information on the day and you can find out everything at http://www.ruokday.com.au/

Thursday 7 October, 2010 is R U OK?Day. A national day of action that aims to prevent suicide by encouraging Australians to connect with someone they care about and help stop little problems turning into big ones.

On that day we want everyone across the country, from all backgrounds and walks of life, to ask family, friends and colleagues: “Are you OK?”.

Because staying connected with others is crucial to our general health and wellbeing. Feelings of isolation and being alone are major contributing factors to depression and social issues that can ultimately result in suicide. Regular, meaningful conversations can protect those we know and love.

David Bagheri from Many Rivers Opportunities will be speaking on our panel about his experience over the last six months in Western Australia as State Manger. Many Rivers Opportunities is an operating microenterprise development organisation that exists to help marginalised Indigenous and other Australians to improve their circumstances through the provision of microenterprise development support, including microfinance.

David has an extensive history in grass roots community development and will be able to contribute his experiences to the event and how he sees Innovative Enterprises such as Many Rivers Opportunities can be supported in WA.

More on Many Rivers Opportunities -

Microenterprise development creates new and diverse job alternatives for people who are capable of running and owning a business, but who are unable to access the formal financial sector due to location, situation and/or circumstance. Microenterprise development benefits the individual and their family, the community and the nation by:

• Supporting and empowering individuals to create new and diverse businesses, thereby increasing household income and assets and providing greater certainty and stability for families;
• Enabling increased availability of locally provided goods and services, particularly in regional and remote locations, helping to build sustainable local economies; and
• Contributing to economic growth through supporting a reduced reliance on welfare and achievement of social improvements, such as health and education.

Although their program has not been established in WA yet there is the opportunity for West Australians to take part in the School for Social Entrepreneurs 2011 Program.

Details below -

• Have an idea to set up a project or business that will benefit your community?
• Want a learning environment that is practical, action-oriented, and relevant to your project or business?
• Need a combination of personal support and business skills development to move your project or business forward?
• Want to be part of a vibrant community of like-minded people working to create change?

The School for Social Entrepreneurs runs learning programs in Sydney and Melbourne for entrepreneurial individuals with ideas or businesses that have a community benefit.

We are not a traditional school. Our programs are non-academic and based on a ‘learning by doing’ approach. Students gain practical business and life skills over the 9-month program that they can apply directly to their ventures. The program includes group study sessions, one-to-one tutorials, mentoring sessions, project visits and a 3-day residential.

Our students have ranged in age from 20 to 60 and have diverse backgrounds and ventures. For example, work training for young people and people with disabilities; renewal energy projects in developing countries; and Indigenous arts enterprises.

To be eligible for the program, applicants must:

• Have an idea/project that has a community benefit.
• Demonstrate passion, drive and commitment to their idea/project.
• Have ownership of their idea/project and autonomy for decision making.
• Be able to commit to a 9-month program and be available for all program dates.

The Sydney and Melbourne 2011 programs commence in February and finish in December 2011.

Students pay a $1,500 contribution fee towards the program. SSE provides full and partial bursaries to cover the remainder of the $22,500 program cost.

The first round of applications closes on 30th September 2010.

Please contact our Program Team to find out more or to apply:

Sydney – Janine Moodley
Email: sydney@sse.org.au
Tel: 02 9687 0346

Melbourne – Bjorn Sofo
Email: melbourne@sse.org.au
Tel: 03 9696 7346

More information at www.sse.org.au

The CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs; Benny Callaghan will be attending the Unlocking and Empowering Social Innovation in Western Australia on the 20th of September. The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Australia is a new nonprofit venture dedicated to identifying, developing and supporting social entrepreneurs and raising awareness and understanding of social entrepreneurship.

The School for Social Entrepreneurs is one of the partner organisations supporting the event it will be valuable in providing their insight into what they have learnt about Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship through their work over the past two years in Australia and over ten years in the UK.

More on Benny Callaghan -

Benny brings to the School his extensive experience in the community sector and a passion and expertise in experiential and action learning. He has worked for and supported a number of social ventures in Australia, Rwanda, and the Philippines. In particular, he has had a long-standing involvement internationally with the Outward Bound organisation. Benny has a Master of Education and is the process of studying Futures and Strategic Foresight at Swinburne University in Melbourne. He is dedicated to enabling individuals and organisations to develop and reach their potential. Benny is passionate about the social sector and having a broad impact on the wellbeing of communities through active citizenship and social entrepreneurship.

More about the School for Social Entrepreneurs -

We see social entrepreneurs as people who recognise social problems and use entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a venture to affect social change.

Based on the highly successful SSE in the UK which has been operating for 10 years, SSE Australia runs year-long programs to support entrepreneurial individuals to establish effective, sustainable community projects and initiatives that meet social and community needs.