SiiWA are excited to announce a new initiative with Social Traders designed to help put WA well and truly on the social enterprise map. Over the past year SiiWA has represented WA at numerous interstate social enterprise forums and functions one of the rather alarming but popular misconceptions that we encounter from our colleagues is “I guess there’s not a lot happening over there in WA”, SiiWA would like to challenge this by identifying and registering the West Australian social enterprise sector in order to rightfully fly the flag for all the great social businesses that exist across our state.
It is SiiWA’s belief that not only does Western Australia have a great diversity of established and new social enterprise operators but we also have some the most sustainable and successful in the whole of Australia. Many West Australian social entrepreneur practitioners do not identify with the term “Social Entrepreneur” or consider themselves to be in the “Social Enterprise sector”. For many hard working West Australian’s they are simply getting down to the business of running organisations that provide support, training, employment for those disadvantaged members of their community. Its now SiiWA’s mission to find these businesses and promote them accordingly.
By partnering to map the West Australian market SiiWA & Social Traders will help to raise the profile of Social Enterprise in Western Australia by clearly identifying what businesses exist, identifying their products and services and providing full contact details via the Social Traders “Social Enterprise Finder“ tool. This tool is the first of its kind in Australia and will ultimately provide a National Directory of social enterprise products and services.
To list a social enterprise, you must meet certain criteria.In relation to the business you would like to list on the Social Enterprise Finder, tick the boxes if you agree with the statements -
The business principally exist to provide a social, environmental or local economic benefit
The business trades fo fulfil their mission1
The business derives a substantial portion of their income from trade2
The business reinvests the majority of your profit into furthering its social mission
The business is a social enterprise
Where trade is defined as the organised exchange of goods and services, including:
monetary, non-monetary and alternative currency transactions, where these are sustained activities of an enterprise; contractual sales to governments, where there has been an open tender process ; and
trade within member-based organisations, where membership is open and voluntary or where membership serves a traditionally marginalised social group.
Operationalised as 50% or more for ventures that are more than five years from start-up, 25% or more for ventures that are three to five years from start-up, and demonstrable intention to trade for ventures that are less than two years from start-up.
To register you interest in being listed on the “Finder” please provide your details below:
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.
Research called “Social Procurement: A guide for Victorian Local Government”. Although targeted at Victorian Local Government there are much that Local Government in Western Australia can learn from the report. Social Procurement a Guide for Victorian Local Government
More from Social Traders:
Social Procurement: A Guide for Victorian Local Government (the guide) has been developed to support Victorian councils in their desire to deliver stronger social outcomes through procurement.
The guide is closely aligned with Social Procurement in Australia, an overarching national paper commissioned by the Centre for Social Impact.
The guide forms part of the Procurement Excellence program (PEP) that is being led by Local Government Victoria (LGV) through the Councils Reforming Business (CRB) program, supporting the development of good practice procurement across the Victorian local government sector.
Building on the experience of local government and other public entities in Victoria who are already embracing social procurement, the guide examines the various elements and processes of effective social procurement and aims to:
build on current policy and procedures
identify social procurement opportunities
highlight associated benefits
offer legal guidance and additional resources
provide case studies and sample contract clauses
discuss commonly held misconceptions surrounding social procurement
assist councils in building a business case for social procurement.
The report was commissioned by Centre for Social Impact along with Social Traders and two other funding partners.
Conversations have started with TACSI about bringing future speakers to Western Australia and we should have more on this in coming months so please subscribe to updates at the bottom of this page or follow us through twitter.
The Social Innovator Dialogues will bring international thought leadership and expertise to Australia through a series of events. Including cutting edge thinkers and doers on innovation in public sector policy, social justice and sustainable design. The series will address the big issues affecting decision makers across the public, private and third sector and encourage leaders in Australia to wrestle with the opportunities and challenges of innovation that are remaking the world as we know it.
SiiWA are excited to announce a new initiative with Social Traders designed to help put WA well and truly on the social enterprise map. Over the past year SiiWA has represented WA at numerous interstate social enterprise forums and functions one of the rather alarming but popular misconceptions that we encounter from our colleagues is “I guess there’s not a lot happening over there in WA”, SiiWA would like to challenge this by identifying and registering the West Australian social enterprise sector in order to rightfully fly the flag for all the great social businesses that exist across our state.
We are a little late to the party on this (2010) but 
