
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.
28 results found
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.
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 MIT D-Lab article introduces participatory design as a powerful approach to fostering equity and creating sustainable solutions by engaging end-users as co-creators. It explores the benefits of building skills, trust, and ownership while producing durable, context-specific outcomes. By tailoring methods to different challenges, participatory design promotes inclusivity and addresses systemic inequities.
‘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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 article introduces participatory budgeting, a democratic process empowering citizens to influence public fund allocation. It covers its origins in Porto Alegre, Brazil, outlines key stages, and highlights benefits like transparency, trust, and community empowerment, making it an ideal resource for those exploring the concept.
The Acumen Academy offers free online courses and resources for social entrepreneurs. Their blog series on fundraising and pitching social enterprises provides valuable insights for changemakers seeking to refine their pitching skills and increase their chances of securing support and funding.
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.
This article by Adam Kahane introduces ‘radical collaboration’ as a transformative approach to tackling systemic challenges. By integrating love, power, and justice, it fosters empathy, empowerment, and fairness among diverse stakeholders. This method aims to align differing interests and capacities, enabling inclusive and impactful systems change while navigating inherent tensions in collaboration.
This framework categorises leadership into seven stages, from Opportunist to Alchemist, reflecting increasing complexity and transformative impact. Each stage highlights unique approaches to challenges, relationships, and organisational goals. Leaders can progress through feedback, self-reflection, and embracing new responsibilities, with growth beyond the Achiever stage requiring deep self-awareness and the ability to challenge assumptions. Teams led by Strategists are most adaptable, benefiting from diverse perspectives and innovation to navigate complex challenges and drive organisational transformation effectively.
Community-owned cooperatives are growing in regional Australia, particularly in Victoria, as innovative responses to market failures and threats to local businesses. By providing essential services and reinvesting profits locally, examples such as Yackandandah Community Development Company (YCDCo) and renewable energy projects demonstrate their impact. These models prioritise community ownership, resilience, and local economic benefits, yet are underrepresented in mainstream business education. The article examines their increasing adoption and potential to address community needs effectively.
Discover the basics of customer journey mapping—an end-to-end visualisation of your customers' experience. This article explains how journey mapping helps you understand customer needs, improve design processes, and boost satisfaction and loyalty. Learn its benefits, how to create a map, and use insights for better customer experiences.
A stakeholder map captures the ecosystem surrounding a product or service from a specific perspective. This article explores what stakeholders are, the importance of stakeholder mapping, and the steps to create an effective map. It includes downloadable templates, a walkthrough video, and guidance on prioritising stakeholders, illustrating relationships, and analysing value exchanges.
Systems change offers a way to address complex social issues like poverty and homelessness by moving beyond traditional, linear problem-solving. This blog contrasts ‘clock’ problems, which are solvable with structured solutions, with ‘cloud’ problems, requiring ongoing adaptations. It emphasises the need to shift from quick fixes to fostering resilience, healing relationships, and supporting long-term system health to address deep-rooted challenges effectively.
Frederic Laloux's article explores Teal organisations, a progressive management model emphasising self-management, wholeness, and purpose. It outlines organisational paradigms, highlights successful examples, and offers insights for social enterprises to balance purpose and effectiveness, even with partial adoption.
This blog introduces the concept of ethical leadership, where decisions prioritise integrity, societal impact, and the common good. It outlines six key principles—respect, accountability, service, honesty, justice, and community—that foster trust, equity, and collaboration in leadership practices.
Psychological safety is crucial for innovation, teamwork, and organisational success. This article highlights its role in fostering inclusive and high-performing cultures. It outlines leadership strategies to build trust, such as open dialogue, curiosity, and equitable participation. Learn how consultative, supportive, and challenging leadership styles enhance team resilience, creativity, and productivity, particularly in remote and hybrid work environments.
This article explores inclusive leadership, which fosters belonging, psychological safety, and respect within diverse teams. It highlights six traits—commitment, humility, bias awareness, curiosity, cultural intelligence, and collaboration—demonstrating how inclusive leaders drive team performance, decision-making, and collaboration through consistent behaviours.
This is a pivotal article by entrepreneur and educator Steve Blank, published in the Harvard Business Review in 2013. The article introduces the lean startup methodology, which emphasises rapid experimentation, customer feedback, and iterative product development.
This short blog focuses on developing a pitch deck for ventures seeking funding. It shares practical tips, a template to structure your pitch as well as common questions. Since it’s from a conventional business perspective you’ll need to consider where your impact proposition should be included.