Submissions to the  Senate inquiry into the development of a capital market for social economy organisations have been called for following the release of its issues paper, ‘Financing the not-for-profit sector’.

 

Under terms of reference handed down in February, the State Economics References Committee is examining:

 

  • the types of finance and credit options available to the not-for-profit sector, social enterprises and social businesses and the needs of the sector and international approaches;
  • the role and current activity of financial intermediary organisations and how these can be strengthened;
  • strengthening diversity in social business models;
  • the development of appropriate wholesale and retail financial products and services;
  • government actions that would support the potential for social economy organisations involved in the delivery of government services to access capital markets;
  • incentives to support investment in the sector;
  • making better use of the sector's own financial capacity—including practices relating to purchasing of products and services and use of reserve capital;
  • making better use of the corpus of philanthropic foundations and trusts to make investments in Australia's social economy organisations, expand SRI and impact investment and any current barrier to their investment;
  • policies, practices and strategies that affect the availability of capital markets for social economy organisations on social innovation, productivity, growth and workforce issues in these sectors.

 

Submissions close on 15 April 2011, and the Committee is scheduled to report by  31 October 2011. The discussion paper and other information are available here.