For Social Businesses
Foresters Community Finance, Australia’s leading Community Development Finance Institution, is undertaking an innovative piece of action research to inform the design of finance products specifically tailored to the needs of social, eco and micro enterprises.
Our research sponsor is mecu Limited, one of Australia’s largest credit unions who are committed to a sustainable way of banking. mecu is a signatory to the United Nations Environment Programme for financial institutions and is recognised by Global Reports for its sustainability reporting.
Businesses that have a social or environmental purpose form part of the emergence of highly innovative responses to a range of social issues. The entrepreneurs that operate within these organisations have an eye for creative solutions to problems that are at times seemingly intractable.
Like any business, these enterprises or businesses require access to appropriately structured capital to ensure they are properly resourced to pursue their goals.
At present these kinds of businesses, which are often asset poor and which focus on positive social and/or environmental outcomes, are frequently unable to access finance from mainstream lending institutions.
The finance products developed as a result of this research will be designed to support the needs of businesses that operate for a social or environmental purpose, as well as micro enterprises established by people excluded from the mainstream employment marketplace.
During this research initiative, foresters will interview people working with twenty local enterprises to explore their finance experience and needs. A report will be produced analysing their finance experience and this will inform the development of pilot products that will be tested in supported, controlled lending to willing enterprises.
Foresters anticipates it will be able to introduce its social, eco and micro enterprise finance products more broadly in by around late 2009 to early 2010.
Click here, to go to the mecu website.
