Resource library
This library offers a curated collection of valuable tools, guides, and resources that exist in the social enterprise sector. Explore guides, articles and many more to support your journey, whether you’re starting a social enterprise, tackling sector challenges, or navigating the impact economy.
90 results found
This concise resource provides a comprehensive guide on how to conduct market research, aimed at beginners. It explains the importance of market research, outlines different types and methods, and offers a step-by-step process for conducting research.
This article examines Indigenous perspectives on economics and self-determination in Australia, highlighting historical dispossession, economic exclusion, and alternative frameworks for wealth. It explores Indigenous values of communal wealth, economic sovereignty tied to land and spirit, and sustainable solutions.
This guide introduces adaptive leadership, empowering individuals to lead without formal authority. It explores core principles, distinguishing adaptive challenges from technical problems, and practical steps like shifting perspectives, framing challenges, and fostering collaboration. Additional resources and free courses are included.
This resource provides a guide to conducting an Empathy Mapping exercise, a technique used by teams to better understand their customers' needs and experiences. It outlines a step-by-step process for creating empathy maps, including preparation, running the session, and determining actionable insights from the exercise. The guide emphasises the importance of basing the empathy map on real customer data rather than assumptions, and suggests ways to use the resulting insights to improve products or services.
This Ethical Fields guide explores community wealth building as a transformative approach to creating equitable, resilient local economies. It highlights principles like local ownership, democratic participation, and wealth redistribution, alongside practical strategies for stakeholders to implement this model in Australia.
This report analyses colonial impacts, truth-telling, and pathways to self-determination, offering insights into decolonisation. While focused on agreement-making between Australian states and First Nations peoples, its strategies for embedding equity and Indigenous sovereignty into governance, policy, and community development have broader relevance.
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Arts Law Info Sheets
PlatformsArts Law offers free/low-cost legal advice and resources to Australian artists, with targeted services for Indigenous artists and resources for social enterprises.
This guide introduces 'impact enterprise' as a broad term for businesses creating positive social impact, focusing on core purpose over specific labels.
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Australian Copyright Council (ACC)
PlatformsThe ACC is a non-profit legal service offering resources on copyright law, with guides and fact sheets for creators, including social enterprises.
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Australian Tax Office (ATO)
PlatformsThe ATO offers essential tax and super info for businesses, including social enterprises, covering worker status, payments, and related obligations.
Certified B Corporations (B Corps) are redefining business success by proving financial performance and social responsibility can coexist. A recent B Lab white paper highlights how B Corps outperformed traditional businesses during 2019–2021, demonstrating resilience, stronger revenue growth, and higher job retention. Their stakeholder governance model, which balances the interests of employees, communities, the environment, and shareholders, is key to their success. This article explores the impact and growing influence of B Corps in modern business.
Dark Matter Labs examines governance in social enterprises as an interconnected system, focusing on balancing power, autonomy, responsibility, accountability, and risk. It challenges traditional hierarchies, linking governance to broader social issues, and introduces the "Beyond the Rules" initiative.
The Brand Pyramid and Keller's Brand Equity Model are complementary frameworks for understanding and building strong brands. The Brand Pyramid illustrates five stages customers go through in developing brand loyalty: Presence, Relevance, Performance, Advantage, and Bonding. Keller's model, depicted as a four-level pyramid, focuses on how companies can build brand equity: Brand Identity, Brand Meaning, Brand Response, and Brand Relationships. Both models emphasise the importance of understanding customer perceptions and emotions, and creating positive brand experiences.
This video features Aaron Dignan, author of Brave New Work, sharing insights on transforming outdated work practices.
This report by Social Enterprise Australia reveals that 12,033 social enterprises contribute $21.3 billion to Australia’s economy, employing over 206,000 people.
A 2-minute introduction to the Business Model Canvas - a tool that helps people design and develop business models for new ventures. This method comes from Strategyzer's best selling management book Business Model Generation and has been used by entrepreneurs and enterprises around the world.
The Common Foundations from Canada provide easy-to-understand general guidance on measuring impact. The report focuses on five essential practices that comprise a minimum standard of impact measurement.
Learn how to create an effective communications strategy with this practical fact sheet for community organisations. Covering key topics such as audience identification, crafting messages, platform selection, and evaluation, it provides a step-by-step guide with exercises and tips to help community foundations implement and refine their communications efforts.
This video introduces Doughnut Economics, a framework by economist Kate Raworth that balances human needs with planetary health. Challenging traditional growth-focused economics, it emphasises well-being within ecological limits. The concept offers a compelling perspective on sustainable development and highlights the role of social enterprises in the impact economy, engaging stakeholders effectively.
This Diversity Australia resource provides practical guidance on integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into workplaces. It explores key concepts, outlines benefits like improved culture and business outcomes, and offers strategies for fostering inclusivity. Highlighting leadership's role and the need for ongoing training, it frames DEI as both a moral and strategic imperative, emphasising that building an inclusive workplace requires sustained commitment.
This article provides a concise overview of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, promoting prosperity while safeguarding the planet. These goals emphasise poverty eradication, economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection to address global challenges effectively.
Earth4All’s two-year research investigates pathways to achieve global wellbeing within planetary boundaries by 2100. It examines two scenarios: ‘Too Little Too Late,’ continuing current economic policies, and ‘Giant Leap,’ requiring bold decisions and investments. The report identifies five critical turnarounds—poverty, inequality, women’s empowerment, food systems, and energy transformation—and calls for active governments, wellbeing economies, and urgent action this decade. Using system dynamics models, it highlights affordable economic shifts and proposes citizens’ assemblies to overcome political barriers.
‘Can you scale your social enterprise?’ is a question often heard. This blog by Gord Tulloch challenges a narrow view of ‘scale’, which usually refers to volume and growth. Tulloch suggests there are five pathways to achieving ‘scale’ or impact, including increasing numbers, changing the rules, changing beliefs, changing norms, and changing the conditions that enable agency and distributed action.
CPA Australia’s guide aids not-for-profits, including social enterprises, in finance management, governance, risk, compliance, and tax—vital for sustainable operations.
ICDA supports community sector governance with training, accredited courses, tech tools, free resources, and financial guides for not-for-profits and social enterprises.
Shifting Ground held an interactive webinar with agents of social change representing a cross-section of First Nations social enterprises and businesses. It explored the principle: "If you can get right what you do in relation to First Nations people, your work with all people and communities will benefit."
This is a long-form video lecture from Harvard Innovation Labs for conventional start-ups and business, but it provides a comprehensive framework for thinking about and planning 'go-to' market strategies.
This article by Sally Osberg and Roger Martin examines how social entrepreneurs drive systemic change, highlighting Andrea and Barry Coleman’s Riders for Health. By addressing transportation gaps in African healthcare, the Colemans exemplify how leveraging expertise and engaging stakeholders can create sustainable impact. The authors argue that successful social entrepreneurs focus on specific needs while aligning broader ecosystems, enabling transformative change that goes beyond business-driven outcomes.
This Stanford article outlines nine strategies for effective board leadership in social enterprises, focusing on building legacy, fostering respect, clarifying roles, and supporting executive success. Key tactics include tailored board experiences, efficient meetings, succession planning, professional recruitment, feedback, and addressing underperformance, all aimed at creating a collaborative, impactful board culture.
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This resource, adapted from the teaching profession, provides social enterprise leaders with strategies for navigating challenging management conversations. It highlights the ineffectiveness of "hard sell" or "soft sell" approaches in driving change and maintaining relationships. Instead, it introduces the "Open to Learning" framework, emphasising validity, respect, and commitment. Leaders are guided to approach conversations with shared decision-making and an open mindset, offering a practical tool for addressing performance issues and implementing change in dynamic work environments.
Theaster Gates, a potter by training and a social activist by calling, tells his story of transforming abandoned buildings to create community hubs that connect and inspire those who live there. A famously inspiring talk, it shows how problems can be reframed as opportunities, how to start with what you’ve got, how to make something out of nothing and how culture can be a catalyst for social transformation.
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Impact Boom Blog and Podcast
PodcastsImpact Boom has undertaken 100s of interviews with social entrepreneurs and change-makers from across Australia and around the world. Produced as podcasts and blogs, their platform provides an amazing range of impact insights and stories.
The free, self-directed Impact Investing Hub Playbook supports Australia’s impact investing ecosystem, offering modular content on Impact Investing, Impact Measurement, and Revenue Diversification, tailored for investors, advisors, and organisations seeking investment.
This playbook, developed by Acumen and EY, provides a practical framework and real-world case studies for building inclusive businesses that create value for low-income and marginalised communities while maintaining financial sustainability. ‘Inclusive business’ is a term that has become popular over recent years, often used in association with emerging markets. It has many overlaps with the concept of social enterprise. The playbook argues that market forces are not invisible hands but rather collections of human decisions that can be changed to create a more equitable economy.
The AIGI Indigenous Governance Toolkit supports Indigenous organisations in building strong, culturally-rooted governance.
This video series explores 'Indigenous Leadership in Business,' highlighting themes of collective leadership, stewardship, relationships, community benefit, and cultural responsibility to inspire empowerment and transformative change.
Protecting intellectual property is essential for social enterprises. IP Australia offers info on patents, trademarks, and more, including registration support.
This article introduces the 'impact economy', a model integrating social, environmental, and economic outcomes. It explores its definition, relevance in the Anthropocene era, and components like impact-driven business, investment, and trade. Key topics include political leadership, innovation, impact measurement, and challenges such as inclusion and new economic indicators. A valuable primer for understanding how reshaped economic systems can address global challenges and better serve people, places, and the planet.
A Theory of Change articulates the link between intentions, activities, outputs, and outcomes. It presents a hypothesis of how we think we can create change in the world. This short video uses an example to explain how to use the tool to define goals and the pathways to reach them.
This report by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship supports social enterprise leaders in tackling unique challenges like balancing social impact with commercial goals, managing diverse teams, and meeting stakeholder expectations. Grounded in global insights from interviews, case studies, and surveys, and developed with input from experienced social entrepreneurs, it offers practical, stage-specific guidance. Designed as a collaborative tool, it fosters knowledge sharing and equips leaders with strategies to drive mission-driven organisations effectively.
Dieter Helm’s video lecture series examines the steps needed for a sustainable economy, addressing polluter responsibility, resource maintenance, and investment, with detailed insights, downloadable slides, and an accompanying book.
On Monday 17 August 2020, the Australian Law Reform Commission co-hosted with the University of Melbourne a webinar with a panel of experts discussing the potential for a future ALRC inquiry into legal structures for social enterprises.
Discover Tyson Yunkaporta’s concept of “making embassy,” which fosters respectful, reciprocal, and meaningful relationships between people, groups, and systems. Rooted in Indigenous cultural practices, it emphasises relationality, shared purpose, cultural respect, and adaptability. Explore how this dynamic approach creates spaces for dialogue, collaboration, and the intersection of diverse knowledge systems.
This NextBillion article provides nine essential strategies for building strong management teams in social enterprises. It highlights the importance of fostering a high-performing culture, implementing supportive systems, and prioritising continuous learning. Key approaches include effective talent assessment, incremental onboarding, meeting management, and coaching skill development. The article emphasises how strong management is vital for scaling operations and achieving meaningful impact.
This Justice Connect guide outlines the key legal obligations organisations have towards volunteers. It provides practical examples, templates, and tips to help organisations navigate crucial areas, including the legal differences between volunteers, employees, and contractors; managing volunteer relationships; ensuring volunteer safety; addressing unlawful workplace behaviour; and handling intellectual property, privacy, and record-keeping issues.
A rich introduction to the history of measurement and how different drivers have informed how we think about, and practice, impact measurement and evaluation today. Also includes some useful graphics that help distinguish different terms and approaches from each other.
This guide by CSI explains what an outcomes fund is - a financing mechanism that pools funding to support organisations addressing social issues, with payments tied to achieving specific measurable outcomes. This guide by CSI shares more detail on what and who are usually involved in setting up and managing an outcomes fund.
This blog delves into power through a systems change lens, emphasising its importance in tackling sustainability challenges. It redefines power as a relational dynamic rather than a static state, exploring shifts from “power over” to “power with” approaches. Key themes include privilege, systemic challenges like climate change and inequality, and the fractal nature of power across scales. Combining theoretical insights with practical strategies, it provides tools for minimising hierarchical power, fostering collaboration, and building capacity for transformative, inclusive decision-making.
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Prepare for funding, SEFA
ReportsCreated by SEFA, this guide outlines four key areas—Purpose, Plan, Profit, and Prudence—for social enterprises to focus on when preparing for funding.
This handbook helps you answer, ‘what problem are we really trying to solve with our social enterprise or project?’ Understanding this helps to find better solutions. This canvas and supporting guide offer a selection of tools to help you frame problems, recognise different types of problems, and open up opportunities for action.
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