About SEDI

What is SEDI?

The Australian Government is investing $11.6 million in SEDI.

This funding provides:

• $6 million in grant funding to strengthen social enterprise capability
• $3 million to help build capability for all actors in the social enterprise sector to grow social impact
• Additional funding to evaluate and administer the two programs

Social Enterprise Australia and Impact Investing Australia are delivery partners.

More details on SEDI can be read on the Department of Social Services website.

SEDI grants

SEDI capability-building grants, valued at up to $120,000 each, are now available.

The grants are designed to help eligible social enterprises better demonstrate and grow their social impact. They are for social enterprises to purchase business and impact capability-building services.

Eligible SEDI grant applicants:

• Are a social enterprise or a trading Indigenous-owned or controlled organisation with a defined social benefit
• Have an impact in one or more of the approved Department of Social Services outcome areas
• Currently provide benefit to those experiencing entrenched disadvantage in Australia
• Are an Australian organisation
• Have beneficiaries who primarily reside in Australia
• Have a turnover of at least $50,000 per year
• May be early stage but have progressed beyond the start-up phase
• Are seeking to scale impact (now or in the future) in one or more of the approved outcome areas to address entrenched disadvantage in Australia.

Organisations that believe they qualify for a SEDI grant can submit an Expression of Interest. The grants’ administrator, Impact Investing Australia, will then arrange a phone call to discuss grant eligibility and the selection process. Organisations that meet the eligibility criteria will be invited to submit a grant application, which will be assessed by an expert panel.

The SEDI grants program will run to June 2026. There will be rolling grant rounds, so enterprises can submit anytime. Grants will be awarded based on merit, not on the order of application.

SEDI grants are funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. For details and to submit an expression of interest go here.

SEDI education and mentoring

SEDI education and mentoring will grow participation and capability in the Australian social enterprise sector. It will do this to help the social enterprise sector contribute to a better future.

Social Enterprise Australia is the SEDI Education and Mentoring Coordinator. It will:

• Commission learning and peer mentoring communities,
• Curate leading practice materials, tools, or training modules, or commission new ones where gaps exist,
• Point to and bring these elements together in one site online - Understorey - and help people navigate the sector, and
• Ensure sector input and ideas inform Understorey’s development. This will include rural and regional, First Nations, and culturally and linguistically marginalised voices.

Understorey will host, point to, and integrate with a range of quality resources about social enterprise.

Social Enterprise Australia will not re-invent what exists and works well to meet sector needs. It will identify and fill key gaps.