The Federal Government has committed to back social enterprise. This requires investment in the infrastructure to build the capacity of the sector, including certification, data, and social procurement policy. These investments will enable the government to use social enterprise to deliver multiple policy agendas from employment to the environment.
We back the social enterprise sector’s call for a national social enterprise strategy and have put forth three key recommendations in our Federal Government pre-budget submission:
1. Endorse and fund Social Traders social enterprise certification
Certification is what guarantees value for money in government support for social enterprise - by ensuring that public funds are being used for public benefit.
2. Track social enterprise growth and outcomes using the Social Traders measurement system - the deepest social enterprise dataset in Australia
Through certification, Social Traders holds the largest and richest dataset on social enterprise in Australia, collected over six years and growing daily. Social Traders captures and verifies over 200 datapoints on each social enterprise including demographic, impact costs, impact outcomes, and financial information.
3. Implement Social Enterprise Procurement Policy
Social Traders modelling shows that Commonwealth social procurement policy could deliver 44,000 jobs for Australia’s most marginalised job seekers and generate savings to society of over $4.27 billion by 2030.
Return on investment
Investing in Social Traders and social procurement returns significant outcomes:
- 6 million training hours for disadvantaged job seekers through social procurement by 2030
- $128m investment into community services and the charity sector through social procurement by 2030
- Between $8.4 to $9 social return on investment for every $1 invested in Social Traders
- Over 200% leverage on government investment via matched philanthropic and trade revenue
There are 12,000 social enterprises in Australia that contribute $21.3 billion to the economy and employ 206,000 people. They invest 29% of their revenue into delivering social or environmental outcomes, and 45% of the people they employ would otherwise be shut out of work. They are larger on average than traditional businesses and charities.
Now is the time for the Australian Government to leverage the social, environmental and economic value of social enterprise to support multiple government policy agendas.