Australia’s Social Venture Ecosystem: Understanding the Support and Development Landscape

"Australia's Social Venture Ecosystem: Understanding the Support and Development Landscape" is a 2021 research report by the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne, commissioned by the Paul Ramsay Foundation. It examines support programs for early-stage social ventures, which are businesses that earn income from trading to create social benefit. It also looks at "Apex" organisations, which work at a systems level to build the wider social enterprise and impact investment fields.

The report groups early-stage programs into four types. It finds gaps in areas such as navigating what support exists, accessing the right kind of capital, and help for ventures after launch, known as the "missing middle". It also finds that many Apex-style functions are performed by organisations that are not traditional peak bodies. The authors conclude that these gaps and overlaps reflect a young, resource-constrained field, where ventures often cannot pay the full cost of support, so ongoing subsidy is likely needed.

Readers gain a clear map of the ecosystem and practical areas for improvement. The report speaks to funders, support program providers, ecosystem builders and policymakers.