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00:00 Logo of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Social Innovation

00:04 Blocks of multiple images transitioning and moving across screen

00:04 ♪ Opening Music ♪

00:15 Text flickering through alphabet to read Text: Social Investment. Social Enterprise Development and Investment Funds

00:22 Adam Carlon, DEEWR — Director speaking to camera

00:22 The Social Enterprise Development and Investment Funds is an Australian Government initiative aimed at improving access to finance for social enterprises, which will help them grow their businesses and then improve the impact of, their services in communities in which they operate.

00:38 The Australian Government invested $20 million in the SEDIF, which was more than matched by private investment to create a total investment pool of $40 million which is available to social enterprises.

00:49 The SEDIF is the first social investment fund of its kind in Australia. It represents a unique partnership between government, the private sector and community sectors, to pool both financial and non-financial resources, to increase positive social impact in our communities.

01:07 The fund managers are Foresters Community Finance, Social Enterprise Finance Australia, and Social Ventures Australia.

01:16 They’ve attracted a range of investors that see real potential in the social investment market in Australia.

01:22 In particular, they see the opportunity to see — to realise, both a financial and social return from their investment. These investors are — include, a superannuation fund, a social bank, high net worth individuals, and other organisations who see the opportunity for social investment in meeting good social outcomes in Australia.

01:44 We were attracted to SEDIF because

01:44 Belinda Drew, Foresters Community Finance — CEO speaking to camera

01:45 it provided us with an opportunity to start to scale our work in the social enterprise space.

01:51 Over many years we’ve been building up our knowledge of social enterprises, their need for finance, what that finance could do for them, in terms of extending their social purpose, and SEDIF provided us an opportunity to build some scale around that goal.

02:07 Christian Super being invested in Foresters

02:07 Peter Muprhy, Christian Super — CEO speaking to camera

02:10 Community Finance Fund, really resonates with our members.

02:14 Our members want us to make a good return for them, but also make a difference, and being invested in Foresters provides those core characteristics for — for both of us. We’ve seen in the wake of the GFC that many investments are subject to the gyrations of the financial markets. By being able to offer a return, such as we’ve got through Foresters, we’re able to actually, diversify the portfolio, a little bit better than we would have through traditional investments.

02:46 We were attracted to the SEDIF program because

02:46 David Rickhards Social Enterprise Finance Australia — Managing Director speaking to camera

02:48 it gave a great opportunity to put into place what we’d been looking to do in funding social enterprise in Australia. It provided a very worthwhile guarantee to marshal more private resources, to effectively leverage monies and funds for the social enterprises in Australia.

03:07 Triodos Bank is a bank, as the name is

03:08 Peter Blomb, Triodos Bank — CEO speaking to camera

03:10 indicating is a social bank. It was founded in 1980, 32 years ago in the Netherlands, and now in quite a few European countries present, financing exclusively cultural and social and environmental projects and were very impressed by the fact that the government was willing to put up 10 million Australian dollars to make it work, and we could also invest a small amount in the operation to show that we are interested in it and became a minority shareholder.

03:41 The SEDIF program gave SVA an opportunity to

03:41 Ian Learnmoth, Social Ventures Australia — Executive Director speaking to camera

03:45 work with the government, collaboratively, to form effectively a new model of funding social enterprises.

03:53 SVA was able to leverage off the government funding and access our own pool of investors, and together, put together a pool of capital which can be landed and invested in social enterprises around Australia, for positive social change.

04:11 Paul Bride Private Investor, speaking to camera

04:11 I was attracted to investing in the SVA Social could create some value in, broadly the — the society that I live in, and the community I live in.

04:23 When you lend money, which is what you’re effectively doing in this fund, it allows you to establish a — a base of capital which is beyond just the — the general granting of a donation which is the traditional way people think about giving to charity — charitable enterprises. It’s a very new field in Australia, but it — it makes — makes sense to me, the combination of commercial and social return. It’s just a different way of looking at investing your money.

04:52 Text: Australian Government, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

The three SEDIF fund managers and some of their investors, including Triodos Bank and Christian Super, talk about what attracted them to the SEDIF. The funds are: