Saturday, November 9, 2024

Social enterprise tool to sow future investment

Swinburne University’s Centre for Social Impact and the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Social Equity Institute have developed a world-first tool to measure the impact of Victoria’s social enterprises and attract new investment in the sector.

Victorian Minister for Employment, Vicki Ward, today announced the launch of Seedkit – a data platform to track the impact of the state’s social enterprise sector. 

Social enterprises are businesses that trade to intentionally tackle social problems, improve communities, provide people with access to employment and training and help the environment. 

The Victorian Government provided the universities with a $1 million grant to build the platform.

Minister Ward says Seedkit will demonstrate the direct impact social enterprises have on Victorian communities – with a focus on job creation and training. 

“We have a passionate, dedicated and growing social enterprise sector here in Victoria, and Seedkit will allow these businesses to track the exact impact they’re having on communities across the state,” she said.

Good Cycles – a social enterprise that helps young people get a job who are facing barriers to entry – will use Seedkit to measure its social and environmental impact and report on progress. 

There are currently more than 3,500 social enterprises trading across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, which employ an estimated 60,000 people and contribute $5.2 billion annually to the Victorian economy.

“Seedkit has been built for and with social enterprises to tackle a problem they have been identifying for a long time, and we hope this new resource will be useful and used by individual social enterprises,” said University of Melbourne Melbourne Social Equity Institute director, Professor Jo Barraket.

“Seedkit is the only evaluation and reporting tool available that has been designed to meet the specific needs of social enterprises, allowing them to track the key relationship between trading activity and impact,” said Swinburne University Director for the Centre of Social Impact, Libby Ward-Christie.

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