What is Impact Collective? Impact Collective is a partnership between leading WA community services sector organisations including Chorus, Rise Network, Ruah Community Services and Alinea, who are utilising their wealth of sector knowledge and financial resources to address complex social issues.
How will Impact Collective work to achieve this mission? Impact Collective is working in partnership with Impact Seed, WA’s peak social enterprise and impact investment capacity builder who provides expertise in social enterprise development and capacity building support for social entrepreneurs, to help them ready their enterprises for taking on impact investment. As a member of the Impact Investment WA Alliance, Impact Collective is also part of a broader network of cross sector partners who are working towards growing finance for good, and government policy for social innovation, social enterprise and social procurement.
How will Impact Collective engage?
Impact Collective has just released its second round of expressions of interest for WA social entrepreneurs and change-makers to participate and partner with the Collective. Successful applicants will be asked to present their initiatives to the Collective, and a number of these will then be invited to receive bespoke advice, mentoring and support towards impact investment readiness.
How will Impact Collective support great ideas and social enterprises? Shortlisted applicants will have the opportunity to pitch their idea to the Impact Collective panel. Successful applicants will then work through a collaborative design and validation process to ensure the objectives of the social enterprise are best-aligned to support the impact mission and objectives of Impact Collective. Successful applicants will also receive:
- Practical one on one and group design, innovation and development support for their social enterprises towards commercialisation and investment readiness
- Business modelling, governance, market validation, impact strategy and measurement and team structure support
- Access to the network of Impact Collective’s organisational leaders and mentors
- Toolkits, resources and engagement frameworks to support an accelerated path to impact investment readiness , and potential investment to grow their social enterprise in partnership with Impact Collective
In a similar structure to Perth Angels, members of IC will then decide individually whether or not they will proceed to a financial investment.
What is the impact investment funding amount? Applicants will be assessed on their business model, maturity and funding requirement on a case by case basis. It is anticipated that individual investments from Collective members would range from $20,000 – $150,000 depending on the enterprise context.
What are the expectations and principles of working with Impact Collective? Impact Collective’s resources will support social entrepreneurs and changemakers through a collaborative design, validation and development process. The value our organisations add to the social enterprise’s capacity during these phases can be significant, with no expectation of flow-on effect back to Impact Collective. Therefore:
- We will ask that entrepreneurs work with us to spread the story about Impact Collective and the benefit we can add for early stage social enterprises.
- We work with people and organisations that want to create more social good in WA. As such we work together based on principles of goodwill, and in the interests of creating social good, rather than the interests of particular organisations or egos.
- As the MoU we ask you to enter into not legally binding, we operate on principles of trust and respect. We will not share confidential information about your enterprise/idea with others; and we expect that you will not share confidential information about Impact Collective in return.
As a changemaker or social entrepreneur, how will Impact Collective engage with me? We’re committed to transparency, collaboration and authenticity in engaging with our communities. So how does that work?
- If you’re a changemaker that just wants to find a good project to sink your teeth into with a social entrepreneur we’re already collaborating with, then we’d love to hear from you! No strings attached.
- If you’re a changemaker with a partly or fully formed idea for a social enterprise that might support Impact Collective’s mission, we’ll ask you to share your idea and then work with us on the best way to develop it in tandem with others
- If you’re a social entrepreneur with an existing social enterprise that supports Impact Collective’s mission where time and/or financial investment has already been made by you, then we’ll invite you to work with us on a no-obligation, no-fee basis to see if there’s a good fit with our mission.
If I am a successful social enterprise applicant, how will my intellectual property be protected through the collaborative design process? If we progress to investment, then we’ll offer you terms on any investment offered. If none of the IC members wish to proceed with investment in an idea, the intellectual property reverts completely back to you.
Are staff or clients of the Impact Collective member organisations able to participate? Absolutely. Impact Collective is as much an open social innovation process, as it is a social enterprise incubation and collaboration program. Our community is our beating heart, and we know we don’t have all the answers to how to best deliver for you, so please get in touch.