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Guide to the Australian social enterprise sector

The Sector Guide helps you understand the people, organisations and activities shaping Australia's social enterprise sector. Explore the different roles across the ecosystem and how they contribute to a stronger, more connected sector.

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Social enterprise

A social enterprise is a business that puts people and planet first. They trade like any other business but exist specifically to make the world a better place. While they work across industries and have different legal structures, they all:

  • Exist to solve a social or environmental problem.
  • Prioritise people, planet, and their purpose over profit in operational decisions.
  • Have a self-sustaining revenue model.
  • Reinvest most of any surplus in their purpose.
  • Choose legal structures and financing that protect and lock in purpose long-term.

Together, they contribute to the Social Enterprise National Strategy, a shared roadmap owned and delivered by Australia's social enterprise ecosystem and coordinated by Social Enterprise Australia.

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Purpose Precinct

Social enterprise models*

* This classification draws on Barraket et al's 2017 paper, 'Classifying social enterprise models in Australia', published in the Social Enterprise Journal (Vol 13, No 4, pp 345–361); Social Enterprise Australia consulted the paper's lead author, Jo Barraket (Director, Melbourne Social Equity Institute), in developing the above approach.

Types of actors

Explore the key terms

Areas of activity

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