Eye on social enterprise

Tara Anderson has worked in charities and for-purpose businesses around the world, but it’s in social enterprises that she feels she can do the most good. She is this week’s Changemaker.

Tara Anderson was about nine years old when she noticed that not everyone had the same opportunities.

Even at such a tender age, she could spot differences amongst the people she knew and would often say: “that’s not fair”.

“Some of my friends always had shiny new things, went on expensive holidays and ate at nice restaurants. Some of my other friends lived in run-down housing and didn’t always have enough to eat,” she recalled.

“I had noticed inequality. Back then I didn’t understand it, but I knew I didn’t like it.”

She would often say to those around her: “that’s not fair”.

The response she usually got was “sometimes life just isn’t fair”.

Time wore on, and an older Anderson was listening to a speech by former Victorian premier, Joan Kirner.

“She was talking about how her granddaughter would often say ‘that’s not fair’. Joan’s response? ‘What are you going to do about it?’ That was the response I was looking for. It was my call to arms,” Anderson said.

She has dedicated her career to doing something about inequality and creating a fairer society, working in charities, for-purpose businesses and social enterprises here in Australia and in the UK, and volunteering in Africa, Australia and England. 

She undertook a Masters in Social Innovation in Austria, analysed for-purpose business models for an MBA in the UK, and has studied large-scale systems change through collective impact.

Her career path led her to set up an international for-purpose consultancy, but when she joined a peak body in the social enterprise sector in England, she felt the stars align.

“What made sense to me was using business to deliver purpose, and influencing the wider economy to move in that direction. And using collective impact approaches to bring together all for-purpose organisations, government, philanthropy and business to change the economy from the inside out,” Anderson said.

Since late 2022, she’s been the CEO of Social Traders, working to strengthen the social enterprise system in Australia.

Where does your passion for social enterprises come from?

Social enterprise just makes sense, because they use business (their own working capital) to generate impact. Social enterprise is a both/and solution. It blends the head of a corporate with the heart of a charity, to create a model that delivers sustainable impact. And also, businesses make up the majority of the economy. Changing how business operates is our biggest opportunity to shift the economy — from one dominated by economic value creation to one that prioritises social value creation too.

My big hope is that in our future world, every business will be a for-purpose business. Any business that exists solely to create returns for shareholders will be an anomaly. We’ll have conversations about the ‘olden days’ where businesses were set up to make money and nothing more. We’ll laugh and have the same looks on our faces as my niece when I tell her we didn’t have iPads when I was growing up.

What challenges are facing your organisation and the sector more generally, and how do you plan to navigate through these?

We have a big growth agenda at Social Traders – to grow social procurement spend $5.5 billion by 2030. That means increasing our reach all the time. A big part of that is convincing C suite executives that social procurement and ESG should be on their agenda, today. A lot of it is about change-management, and supporting the champions within our business members that make it happen.

We also need government to back the sector and create policies to drive social procurement. And we need philanthropy to partner with us in the work too. We have an incredible team at Social Traders working across these opportunities, and wonderful partners across philanthropy, government, business and the social enterprise sector.

As a broader social enterprise sector one of our biggest challenges is breaking out of our bubble and growing awareness and engagement beyond the current converts. We need to engage all governments, as well as many more businesses and consumers. That takes ambitious collaboration. That’s where the Brand Social Enterprise network started, now part of Social Enterprise Australia. There’s lots more to do on that front this year.

What does your role at Social Traders involve and what attracted you to it? What does a typical day look like?

Before I came back from seven years in the UK I did my research on the Australian for-purpose sector. Social Traders was top of my list. A role came up a week later! It was an obvious choice for me — a leading social enterprise intermediary, with a trailblazing mindset, wide-reaching impact, and a great team.

There is no typical day at Social Traders, which is part of why I love it. It’s a real privilege to lead an energised and talented team, to work with pioneering change-agents across business, government and philanthropy, and to hear the stories of lives changed through social enterprises winning new contracts and growing their impact. It’s a genuine joy to come to work.

Can you explain a bit about the role of social enterprises in creating good, and the power they hold?

How long have you got?! Social enterprises are unique because they deliver social impact and financial sustainability in tandem. They are the ultimate expression of using business to create impact. And they’ve been doing it globally for decades.

Our Pace data shows that 71 per cent of the revenue of certified social enterprises is trade (meaning the majority of their revenue is self-generated rather than relying on grants). Pace also shows that 29 per cent of total revenue is reinvested into impact costs. So we know that social enterprises use their own working capital to create impact. That’s incredible!

What’s most exciting to me is the example set by social enterprises. They are the proof that it’s entirely possible to merge business and purpose. Big businesses like Danone and Patagonia are now purpose-led. There’s no reason that more and more businesses can’t build impact into their operations.

What would you like to achieve in your role here? What do you want your legacy to be?

My big ambition is for social enterprise to become business as usual. So we can reshape the economy to one that prioritises people and planet. I’m on a mission to flip the perception of social enterprise. Traditionally, the corporate world has ‘supported’ the social enterprise sector. Now, corporates are the ones grappling with the challenge of how to deliver ESG outcomes and fuse purpose into business. Guess who’s been doing that for decades — social enterprise. It’s corporates that can now look to social enterprises for advice on how it’s done. 

I hope as a sector that we can be collaboratively ambitious. I would love to see a stronger-knit sector where collaboration is the heart-set. A sector that talks together with curiosity and creativity, so ideas can intercept and influence each other. As part of that, I hope we can create a shared voice for our sector that’s unified, clear and powerful.

I hope we can scale the social enterprise sector – to draw more traditional businesses to the social enterprise model, see new social enterprises start-up, and see existing social enterprises grow.

What advice do you have for other changemakers in the for-purpose sector — and do you remember a piece of advice that has been influential for you and your career?

The best advice I’ve received was actually a criticism. In my first general manager role, my CEO told me that I was “just too idealistic”. I took it as a personal challenge. To prove that you can be a practical idealist. I’ve always had big ambitions centred around creating greater equality. I used the feedback to challenge myself to make my big ideas practical.

So my advice to others is – if you have a vision that outsizes the imagination of the people around you, don’t let that stop you. There’s a Chinese proverb I love that says: those who say it can’t be done shouldn’t interrupt the person doing it. Find other people to bring into your circle who share your ambition. People who challenge business as usual and don’t accept the status quo. People who see what could be. People who don’t ask why, but how. I’m grateful to be surrounded by them in my career now, and it’s a big part of where I get my energy and inspiration.

How do you wind down at the end of a busy week?

When your work is also a personal passion, switching your brain off isn’t always easy. I try to find ways to weave downtime into the week — gym, dance classes, fiction novels, good food and wine, and any opportunity for time in the sun (I’m solar powered, so time outside is a must!)