In a speech delivered at a Community for Economic Development Australia (CEDA) event today, Social Ventures Australia’s (SVA) CEO Rob Koczkar focused on the role private capital and better data could play in increasing impact in the social purpose sector.

The theme of the event was ‘Addressing Entrenched Disadvantage in Australia.’

Mr Koczkar commented:

‘We can achieve better social outcomes if we learn to better utilise capital investment for social purpose and apply some of the same disciplines used in business to increase the efficiency and efficacy of the sector.’

‘In business, venture capital supports growth by funding innovation, fostering replication and later providing the financial resources required for success at scale. If this same process were applied more often in the social sector I believe it could lead to the allocation of resources to programs that are achieving real, positive outcomes in the community. What is working would be funded, and where we need to transition from less effective programs we would make those choices on an informed basis.’

‘We need Government to provide more information, and to facilitate greater capacity for the sector to undertake and be more accountable to more robust measurement and evaluation. In business, early adopters provide the signals for growth. In the social purpose sector government has to play that role so that capital will flow to support replication of programs that work.’

‘We must never lose sight, in this complex capital equation, that people are at the heart of everything we do. When we as a sector are less than our effective best, when we fail, it’s not we who suffer most. It’s the 1.5 million Australians living in entrenched disadvantage that the recent CEDA report describes so disturbingly.’