Macquarie Group Foundation
A robust partnership accelerating a growing social enterprise sector
“We’ve developed a better understanding of the value of working with the right intermediaries to drive the capacity and capability of the social enterprise sector. We’ve also learned the importance of appropriate capital to develop for-purpose businesses according to their maturity and particular market opportunity – and the need for a broader ecosystem of support for social enterprises.”
Anna Le Masurier
Regional Head for Australia and New Zealand Macquarie Group Foundation
Finding alignment with purpose
The Macquarie Group Foundation – which drives social impact for Macquarie Group – helps strengthen communities through financial support, volunteering and skills sharing.
At Sefa Partnerships, we have a longstanding connection with Macquarie. In 2011, the former Head of the Macquarie Group Foundation, Julie White, joined the board of directors of our sister organisation, Sefa, and Macquarie Bank provided a bridging loan – helping shape the early beginnings of the organisation’s operations and capability building pillar.
The benefit of the partnership was evident from the start: Sefa offered Macquarie Group Foundation invaluable social enterprise perspectives, while Macquarie supported Sefa’s mission. Sefa Partnerships only deepened this connection, partnering with the Foundation to focus on nurturing early-stage social enterprises through specialised programs.
Anna Le Masurier, Foundation Regional Head for Australia and New Zealand, said that Macquarie could see that Macquarie might be able to amplify Sefa Partnership’s social impact by helping connect Macquarie volunteers with Sefa-supported businesses to offer mentoring and advice on top of the organisation’s investment piece.
"We view Sefa Partnerships and Sefa as really valuable stakeholders in the overall ecosystem of social enterprise capacity development,” Anna added.
A kickstart for social enterprises
Kickstarter is a 12-week business building program that matches social entrepreneurs with Macquarie mentors to develop a business plan and test their business models. A Sefa representative has been a judge on the Kickstarter program panel since 2012, with Sefa Partnerships also providing participants with advice and support.
In 2017, as part of a two-year pilot grant, Sefa Partnerships became Kickstarter’s facilitator. Anna says it was the ideal collaborator to facilitate the program.
“Sefa Partnerships is a pioneer in looking at early-stage financing and building capability of for-purpose businesses outside of mainstream capital in this market. Its understanding of Macquarie’s perspective and its links to the social enterprise sector make it a balanced intermediary that can bring the two cohorts together. The team understand what social entrepreneurs need and can pair them with the right Macquarie mentor.”
What began as a trial evolved into a long-running signature program thanks to the overwhelming positive feedback from both supported enterprises and Macquarie mentors.
“Kickstarter offers a unique experiential opportunity for Macquarie directors to roll up their sleeves and work in a mentoring capacity with social entrepreneurs they might not ordinarily work with,” Anna said.
From partnership to supportive ecosystem
Since inception to 2019, when social change consultancy Orange Compass undertook a report on the Kickstarter program, 119 social enterprises had successfully completed the program, with more than $360,000 in grants awarded to participants. Eighty-four percent of Kickstarter respondents to an Orange Compass survey also said their social enterprise was still in operation at that point.
The partnership doesn’t end there. Over the years, we also ran several of Macquarie’s Future Skills Now programs, in which Macquarie staff collaborate with social enterprises on real-world challenges. We have also hosted several ‘hackathons’ and continue to connect social enterprise leaders with Macquarie’s workforce to support different ways of questioning and learning.
Anna can see that partnerships like ours are critical in creating an ecosystem of support for social enterprises.
“We've started to see this with more bodies and intermediaries buttressing the social enterprise sector. And there's now a much greater awareness from government about the difference that social enterprises can make to building a better Australia.”