In recent months we’ve been engaging with a range of social entrepreneurs and sharing some of the learning from their experience in our Foreword articles. This month we will distil some of the themes that have come through from an organisational perspective, and consider how they can be deployed in established organisations. Next month we’ll look at some of the characteristics and behaviours of innovative leaders. Continue reading…

Turning a personal passion into a viable social business might start with an inspirational story but it certainly won’t end there.

For Paul Allam, founder of Sydney’s Bread and Butter Project and the Bourke Street Bakery, the inspiration came from a visit to the social business Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border and a project led by nuns to train and employ refugee women to bake bread to sell into the local community, which included a significant NGO presence. Continue reading…

Major change may be initiated or catalysed by one person, but it’s rarely achieved or sustained through lone effort. Just as we learn as managers and leaders that we need to shift from personally delivering the goods to doing through others, so social innovators need to progress from a personal commitment to new product or methodology to building partnerships, networks and collaborations to effect change.

Bringing people on board

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‘Our enterprises aren’t innovative in themselves, but it’s the process of empowerment.’
Louise Nobes, KiK 

When we think of innovation, we are probably inclined to think of digital technology or other ‘new and improved’ versions of everyday products, but innovation isn’t just about product, it’s also about process.

After 15 years as a social worker, working with young people in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, Louise Nobes was frustrated by the lack of impact – young people were ‘just as disengaged, just as unemployed’. Young people who were feeling that they weren’t good enough just couldn’t access employment through normal routes. Necessity (or perhaps it’s frustration) is the mother of invention, so Louise developed an approach that put young people front and centre to develop their own businesses (and jobs) based on a model that brings together Continue reading…

When you’re running a not for profit it can be hard to find the time to take a breath and track your progress throughout the year. The good news is that there are a number of ways to check in with your clients and stakeholders on a regular basis even when resources are tight. The right feedback can allow you to course correct and save you time, money, and headaches in the long run. Often a good place to start is with a conversation. We recently spoke to Ian Cox, CEO of the Hutt Street Centre, about how Ian’s team gets feedback from clients, staff and volunteers.

Conversations with clients, staff and volunteers

According to Ian, ‘It’s so critical in innovation to continue to speak to your friends, to find out the positives and the negatives, and that feedback will sometimes change the way you do things. We talk to our friends [Hutt Street refer to their clients as friends]. We talk to our staff and our 650 volunteers. We talk to our board, and we talk to our donors. We’ve now got those five levels of feedback. Continue reading…

Many not for profits are looking beyond traditional grants and fundraising to increase revenue and maximise their impact. From user pays products to crowd funding and social impact bonds. Even if you’re not yet ready to diversify your NFP’s income streams, it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s out there, as new opportunities are emerging all the time.

The latest ACNC Australian Charities Report released in December 2017 shows that across the charity sector half of sector income is currently sourced outside of fundraising and government grants. Other income sources include Continue reading…