Lessons from Failure: A Funder's Perspective | Part 2
- Date:30 Apr 2026
- Time:
- Duration: 75 minutes
- Location: online
Join Think Impact for an engaging conversation with social enterprise leaders reflecting on failures they’ve experienced and lessons they’ve learned in building and scaling social enterprises.
About this webinar
Join this interactive, honest discussion and exploration of productive failures and lessons learned to help build a stronger and more resilient social enterprise sector.
Kevin Robbie
Managing Director
Think Impact
Kevin is the Managing Director at Think Impact with over 25 years' experience in impact measurement, social innovation, social valuation, social enterprise development and collaborative leadership. His breadth of experience spans business, government, philanthropy and the for-purpose sector. Prior to Think Impact, Kevin held a range of leadership roles including CEO of United Way Australia and Executive Director at SVA. where he was responsible for the leadership and development of their Social Enterprise Hubs, providing advice and support to over 100 social enterprises. Kevin is an advanced, accredited Social Return on Investment (SROI) practitioner. Originally from the UK, Kevin was Chief Executive of Forth Sector, one of Scotland’s leading social enterprise development organisations for nearly a decade and acted as special advisor to the UK Government Cabinet Office (2007/08) on the role of impact measurement in social investment and the role of social enterprise in job creation.
Sofiah Mackay
Senior Consultant
Think Impact
Sofiah has worked in Australia and internationally as a consultant, facilitator and program manager for over 25 years specialising in social change across diverse sectors including international development and social enterprise. She’s experienced in business model development and social enterprise incubation/growth having designed and facilitated numerous incubator and accelerator programs. This included coaching and supporting the growth and development of more than 150 social enterprises around Australia for the School for Social Entrepreneurs and leading a micro business start-up initiative for multicultural communities in Melbourne’s west for the Centre for Multicultural Youth. At Think Impact, she's worked in depth with social enterprises to build their impact foundations (theory of change, outcome frameworks, data collection approaches and impact reporting), map/design participant journeys, transform business models, develop strategic plans, and build team capability to implement for impact.
Lisa Waldron
Senior Advisor
Westpac Foundation
Lisa brings a strategic, partnership‑led approach to philanthropy focused on long‑term social and sector impact. She works closely with social enterprise partners to invest in social businesses and build trusted relationships to unlock the talent of people breaking through barriers to employment. Working beyond traditional grantmaking and alongside partners, Lisa acts as a collaborator, convener and learner to strengthen individual organisations and the broader ecosystem, contributing to a more inclusive economy that works for everyone.
Anita Hopkins
CEO
Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation
Anita is a highly experienced philanthropic executive, strategically working with private, corporate and community foundations, as well as individual donors. She has led a number of philanthropic entities, including the Portland House Foundation and the Jack Brockhoff Foundation, and has been the inaugural CEO of the Brian M. Davis Charitable Foundation since 2022. She holds an MBA (Monash) and is currently completing a Masters of Social Impact (CSI, Swinburne).
Matt Knopp
Head of Investments
DEInvestments
Matt Knopp is Head of Investments at DEInvestments , a new philanthropic collective designed to work at a systems level to transform disability employment in Australia. The model prioritises demand-side employer activation, testing new approaches that shift hiring behaviour, strengthen commercial capability and create durable pathways into mainstream work. Matt previously spent six years at Paul Ramsay Foundation, where he led social enterprise funding, including oversight of a $45 million portfolio across 30 Work Integrated Social Enterprises. This provided rare, practical insight into what drives sustainable job outcomes, where models struggle, and how capital impacted scale, transition and long-term viability. Originally from the UK, Matt spent more than 15 years as co-founder of Eastside People, a leading UK social impact consultancy. He worked nationally on major bid consortia, non-profit mergers, procurement-led enterprise growth and investment and contract readiness. Across his career, he has focused on how enterprise, when deployed well, can create deep social impact, and how funders and commissioners can use capital and purchasing power to shape stronger markets and outcomes.
Dr Alberto Furlan
Senior Program Manager
The Ian Potter Foundation
Dr Alberto Furlan is the Senior Program Manager at The Ian Potter Foundation, where he manages the Community Wellbeing funding area and leads the program management team's implementation of the Foundation's strategic approach to grantmaking. After completing a degree in Philosophy at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy Alberto moved to Australia in 2001 to undertake doctoral studies in Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Alberto spent over five years in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, first as an academic fieldwork researcher and later as a regional anthropologist employed by the Central Land Council in Tennant Creek, working on the management and protection of sacred sites. Alberto volunteers on the Board of The Social Studio, a Melbourne-based social enterprise comprising a fashion school and clothing label that operates to create meaningful and long-term social change for young people of migrant and refugee backgrounds facing barriers to employment and education.
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