Further Australian feedback to the Impact Investing Australia report dominates today’s SIB News…
Impact Investing a Golden Opportunity for NFPs
Pro Bono Australia
Never has there been a more exciting time for the Not for Profit sector to seize the golden opportunity that is offered by impact investing to deliver unprecedented gains for those in need, writes Wendy Haigh, Executive Director of Social Investment at The Benevolent Society.
One form of impact investing is through social benefit bonds. The Benevolent Society is one of the first NFPs in Australia to undertake a social benefit bond. In collaboration with CBA, Westpac, and the NSW Government in 2013, the bond raised $10 million to fund an innovative program called Resilient Families that provides an intensive wrap-around service to keep children safely with their families and out of foster care.
Two years on, the program is tracking well. The 2015 results show 88 per cent of the families referred to the program are still together and 27% fewer children entered foster care than a control group.
It’s Time For The Super Fund Industry To Be Used To Change Disadvantaged Lives
The Guardian
This week sees the launch of the inaugural Impact Investing Australia investor report. In late 2015, Impact Investing Australia surveyed 123 investors who account for $333bn of Australia’s $2tn funds under management. The report found more than two thirds of all investors expect impact investing to become a more significant part of the investment landscape in the coming years. The impact areas that active and non-active investors are likely to invest in relate to children, issues affecting young people, clean energy, homelessness, Indigenous peoples, education and health. And most investors expect competitive market rates of return from their impact investments, along with well-documented evidence of social impact.
The early market for social benefit bonds is another positive example. Anchored in the simple but powerful idea that government pays investors for the quantifiable benefits associated with social purpose outcomes, the bonds provide a smart mechanism that delivers financial returns for investors who are taking genuine risks on program performance.
The first such bond in Australia, the Newpin program run by Uniting Care in New South Wales, is now in its third year of operation. It is delivering on target ratios in reconnecting children with their birth parents. The quantifiable savings of preventing young children from the expensive burden of continuing foster care drives savings for government, a portion of which are passed on as returns to investors.