The First Chapter Single pages low res

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THE FIRST 

CHAPTER

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We would like to take this 

opportunity to thank our wonderful 

Founding Partners, donkey wheel 

Foundation and the Sidney Myer 

Fund, our incredible partner and fellow 

practitioners at NAB, and the McKinnon 

Family Foundation for their support. 

We would also like to acknowledge 

the commitment and work of our staff 

both past and present in making TDi 

what it is today.

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THE FIRST 

CHAPTER

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The more you do, the clearer your 

thinking will become. When you start 

something quite new you don’t have 

all the answers—you don’t even 

know what all the questions will be 

—but with action comes clarity. 

Peter Baines 

Doing Good By Doing Good

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Contents 

Preface 

The Setting — 

Stepping Intro the Unknown 

The Petronas Towers 

The Basics — 

Social Enterprise 

Impact Investing 

Investable Social Enterprise 

Blended Value 

Business Models 

The Journey — 

Worldview, a Self-fulfilling Prophecy 

Failing to Name the Real Problem 

The Buck Stops with Me 

Grasshopper Soccer 

The Work — 

What did we want to achieve? 

The Next Chapter — 

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10 

12 

16 

20 

22 

23 

24 

28 

29 

30 

32 

34 

40 

43 

44 

46 

90

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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the 

strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done 

them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the 

arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives 

valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there 

is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive 

to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; 

who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the 

end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, 

at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with 

those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Citizenship in a Republic

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PREFACE 

As I reflect on Theodore Roosevelt’s famous words I am proud of the fact that 

TDi is firmly ensconced in the practitioner camp. We are “in the arena”, our 

faces are “marred by dust and sweat and blood”, and we are “daring greatly” in 

pursuit of something we hold dear. That being, our confidence in the concept 

of Blended Value; that you can do good and make money in the same 

business model. 

TDi: The First Chapter is a beautiful opportunity for reflection, celebration and 

thanks. As Peter Baine said so powerfully “with action comes clarity”, this has 

certainly been true for us at TDi. We initially embarked on this journey five years 

ago as a project of the donkey wheel Foundation. We later evolved into a 

separate organisation, growing and refining its model, particularly over the 

two-year pilot period. 

As with any start-up, many of our assumptions about how the business model 

would work didn’t play out as planned… We were agile and changed. The 

market proved far more immature than we hoped… We were responsive. 

Funders didn’t follow through on their commitments of support… We were 

innovative and worked even harder. Everything took far longer than hoped… 

We were resilient! As a result we are still here, making us stronger and better 

positioned for the next chapter in TDi’s development. 

It’s our hope that reading, or flicking through, this book will give you a sense of 

our work, our approach and the exciting results we are beginning to see. This is 

truly only the The First Chapter. We have only just scratched the surface and we 

firmly believe that the best is yet to come. 

Bessi Graham 

CEO and Co-Founder

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THE 

SETTING

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STEPPING INTO 

THE UNKNOWN: 

PHILANTHROPY AND 

THE PIONEER GAP 

We live and operate in an era that 

requires great acts of bravery, 

creativity and fresh approaches to 

entrenched social problems. 

So, why do we need to be brave? 

We need to be brave because the 

stakes are high, the need is great 

and the challenges we face are 

complex. 

There is no denying that the ways in which humankind has sought to solve 

complex social and economic challenges has not been sufficiently effective. 

This is the time to begin to think differently about the way we act and enable 

change. Stepping out of the familiar, and into unchartered territory is, by its very 

nature, risky. If, however, our aim is to maximise the positive social impact we 

enable, then it is a risk worth taking. 

What does brave philanthropy look like? 

Brave philanthropy requires an honest assessment of the system in which 

we operate, the system in which we enable change. It also requires action, 

consistent action. If in the survey of the current landscape you uncover 

important issues with the potential to create positive social impact that lack 

sufficient advocates, resources, attention and long-term committed partners, 

this is the arena of brave philanthropy. 

What have we been doing? 

Our founding partner donkey wheel’s mantra is: ‘think different. act different. 

make a different difference.’ At first it may seem hard to interpret the depth 

of meaning within this mantra. So read it again, slowly: ‘think different… act 

different… make a different difference…’ 

Each part of this mantra is critical, and our desire to operate with it in mind 

means that the complexity of the system in which we operate provides 

exciting opportunities and challenges to put this mantra into action. Embracing 

innovative new approaches that push the boundaries, exploring how we can 

leverage what we have, and maximising our impact through enabling others 

is what we love to do. donkey wheel’s journey led them to seek ways to 

leverage their corpus funds to generate blended value returns, through an 

integrated approach. For them that integration comes through combining 

impact investment and social enterprise with ongoing grant making. It was out 

of this approach that The Difference Incubator (TDi) was born. 

Impact investment does not diminish the need for philanthropy. In fact, we 

would argue it both increases the need for it, and creates great synergistic 

opportunities for leverage. 

Social enterprise, through marrying profit and purpose, is positioned perfectly 

to deliver the blended value returns philanthropists, like donkey wheel, seek. 

At this point a caveat is necessary. This is a new space and is in its early days 

both here in Australia and internationally. donkey wheel has become more 

committed to impact investment and social enterprise being their most effective 

conduits to achieve social goals. Teaching us that the social enterprise sector 

is not yet mature enough to produce the commercial returns necessary to 

generate true blended value. 

So what is the role for philanthropy in the social enterprise sector? 

Impact investors enable social enterprise to scale once they begin generating 

both financial and social returns. However, courageous partners such as

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donkey wheel, Sidney Myer Fund and other brave philanthropists are required 

in the early stages of a social enterprise’s journey. For most philanthropists, 

their granting and support is driven by a desire to see social impact. Promising 

social enterprises are often able to achieve social impact very early in their 

development. The challenge is found when entrepreneurs need initial seed 

funding or grants to commence operations and develop the enterprise before 

they can start achieving their social purpose. 

One of the greatest potentials of the social enterprise model is that we are able 

to build capacity so that they can become Investable Social Enterprises (ISEs). 

This means that the enterprise is then able to attract impact investment, their 

reliance on grants will be decreased, hence releasing those grants for other 

socially focused organisations, that are still in a grant dependent stage. 

With all of this in mind, TDi was established to provide a nurturing environment 

that will help grow social enterprises into financially sustainable organisations 

who are less grant reliant but still delivering maximum social impact. Working 

with TDi allows enterprises to test and build whilst reducing the risk of failure. 

The danger here is often so high with start up businesses, particularly those 

that are driven to make great social change. 

Building the capacity of the social enterprise market will also open up a 

legitimate avenue for Philanthropists to invest corpus funds. The blended value 

returns generated by these investments enable ongoing grant making and 

significantly leverages Philanthropic capital in an integrated and holistic way. 

‘How will promising… business 

models get to later stages where 

they become investable without 

support earlier on in their journey? 

We call this critical gap in support 

the ‘Pioneer Gap’, and we believe 

that this is a key factor constraining 

the availability of investment 

opportunities for impact investors. 

Unless we address this pioneer gap, 

much impact capital will continue to 

sit on the sidelines or be deployed 

into sub-optimal opportunities 

for impact, and fail to achieve its 

potential in driving powerful new 

market-based solutions…’ 

— Blueprint to Scale

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‘As our interest in impact investment 

grew we became acutely aware 

of the dearth of investment 

opportunities capable of delivering 

blended, social and financial return. 

TDi is taking operational social 

enterprises and providing them with 

the capacity building advice to make 

them investment ready. We believe 

that this work in incredible important.’ 

— Elena Mogilevski 

Program Manager, The Myer 

Foundation and Sidney Myer Fund

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16 

THE PETRONAS 

TOWER AND 

STEPPING INTO 

THE UNKNOWN 

I love watching TV shows about 

major engineering projects; their 

complexity, drama and all of the 

unknown details that cause sleepless 

nights for those involved as they 

struggle to find solutions within tight 

deadlines.I recently watched a show 

that told some of the design and 

build story of the famous Petronas 

Towers in Kuala Lumpur. 

I was struck by the fact that the build was well underway before they had even 

finished testing. They hadn’t even decided on the “recipe” of the concrete to 

be used for construction. Building towers of this size using concrete, instead 

of steel, was tricky and it was crucial that they get the mix right to avoid delay, 

added cost or worst-case scenario disastrous consequences. 

They could have been paralysed by the pressure of that reality, spending years 

testing and refining the mix before beginning construction. Instead, they dove 

right in. They created urgency; they created a deadline; and they succeeded. 

We explain the difference in TDi’s approach to capacity building through talking 

people through TDi’s Evolution diagram. 

The story about the concrete in the Petronas Towers sounds a lot like the 

process shown at the bottom of the diagram. A typical approach of a social 

entrepreneur. They have a great idea and jump straight into building something 

without testing if it is robust or viable first. 

We all know the inherent limits of this approach. Yet research also shows us that 

there is something powerful about having restraint, deadlines, and seeking to 

drive innovation through approaches such as Lean methodology, hack-a-thons 

and intensives such as accelerators. Sometimes pressure produces brilliance. 

Learning how to tell when you should wait and when you should push forward 

is hard. Sometimes it’s best to sit patiently a little longer in the unknown to let 

creativity, design and hopefully innovation bubble to the surface. 

Deciding it’s time to forge on ahead into unchartered territory and trust that you, 

and your team, have what it takes to figure it out can be scary.

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There is a time and a place for both. At TDi we are constantly struggling with 

when to sit and when to charge on. We don’t always make the right decisions, 

but our choices are always intentional, and we are reflective on the results. 

I know for our team there are moments, many moments, when I am asking them 

to step far outside their comfort zones, outside what they know. I ask them to 

trust us, and themselves, and to speak into the void the best they know how. 

Sometimes it works; sometimes it’s a total mess! I ask them to trust us, and 

themselves, and to speak into the void the best they know how. Sometimes it 

works; sometimes it’s a total mess! 

For us this is a journey. This is an ongoing cycle of articulating, testing, 

reflecting, refining… repeat. I plan on us getting very good at this so watch 

this space! We do not have all of the answers. But we do have a damn good 

method and exceptional results; even in the short time we’ve been operating. 

• We have designed a program that has agility built into it. 

• It’s a program that recognises the need for, and power of, iteration. 

• A program that respects the need for “white space” to allow the “particular” 

of each organisation or situation to emerge within the “general” that is 

articulate in our method. 

• A program that refrains from the urge to drill down to detailed process and 

instead aims to powerfully capture the essence of our approach through 

communicating “method” not “process”. 

We’re still figuring out the concrete recipe while we build this ground breaking 

organisation, but I can tell you now this is going to be remarkable! Bring on the 

messy complexity of the unknown. We were born to create in this chaos and to 

restore beauty and order in the process. I see exciting times ahead.

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‘It is hard to over-state the 

importance of proving the concept 

as TDi is doing. Only through 

such an organisation, can social 

entrepreneurs be nurtured and 

resources be directed sustainable to 

some of our most intractable social 

issues.’ 

— John McKinnon 

McKinnon Family Foundation

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21 

THE 

BASICS

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WHAT IS A SOCIAL 

ENTERPRISE? 

A Social Enterprise is an organisation 

with a central social or environmental 

mission that has, or is developing, a 

sustainable business model. 

There are different, and often 

conflicting, definitions of social 

enterprise in use in Australia and 

internationally. 

At TDi we have chosen to take a 

broad approach in how we define 

social enterprise. We focus on why 

the business exists, what it does and 

how it does it. We are not concerned 

with its legal structure or how it goes 

about the reinvestment/redistribution 

of profit. 

Mission 

An organisation must have a social 

or environmental mission at the 

core of what it does in order to be 

characterised as a social enterprise. 

Mission is not about legal structure; 

we are agnostic to legal structure. 

Instead, mission speaks to the driving 

force or intention of the business 

and why it exists, or what it seeks to 

create in the world. 

We favour integrated models where 

the mission of the organisation 

is realised directly through the 

business, not simply funded by the 

profits of the business. 

Model 

A social enterprise’s integrated 

business model can be designed 

using the Business Model Canvas 

tool. This simple but highly effective 

framework can help an organisation 

design a sustainable business that 

allows it to achieve the desired 

social or environmental outcomes 

consistently through the operation of 

the business.

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WHAT IS IMPACT 

INVESTING? 

‘Social Impact Investments are those 

that intentionally target specific 

social objectives along with financial 

return and measure the achievement 

of both.’ 

Social Impact Investment Taskforce 

If we look at the definition of impact 

investment the two critical words 

are the “intentional” nature of the 

investment and the “measurability” 

of the investment in relation 

to the social or environmental 

impact. Management’s willingness 

to articulate the desired social 

outcomes of their organisation, as 

well as the measures or metrics they 

will use to evaluate their success, 

positions them well to be able to 

engage with impact investors. 

In this category you want to see 

alignment between the Mission, the 

Model and the ability of Management 

to deliver on the Mission and Model. 

Three key features of impact 

investments for TDi: 

1. We see impact investment as a 

lens through which we can view 

all asset classes and investment 

opportunities 

2. We focus on the intentionality of 

the investment, the intentional 

desire to invest in things that can 

generate both a social and a 

financial return 

3. We prioritise the importance of 

measurability as a way to ensure 

accountability and the delivery 

of desired outcomes. There are 

many ways we can describe the 

impact investment approach to 

business. One key aspect is that 

it is not corporate responsibility, 

nor is it about compromising 

on either the social and 

environmental goals or on the 

financial return required. Instead, 

it combines these goals to create 

the desired outcome ofblended 

value. 

‘If impact investing is what we do, 

blended value is what we produce.’ 

Bugg-Levine & Emerson 

Another helpful approach is to 

understand what impact investment 

is not. Impact investing is not a grant 

– A grant is usually provided without 

the expectation or requirement of 

a financial return, however impact 

investment refers to placing capital in 

an organisation with the expectation 

of a financial return. 

Impact investing is not a specific 

asset class – It is more accurate to 

view impact investment as a lens 

through which we can see all asset 

classes. The lens approach also 

prevents a narrow understanding of 

grouping all impact investments in 

one category and expecting there 

to be common risk return profiles for 

these investments. 

When investing in different asset 

classes with an impact investment 

lens, the risk return profile is that of 

the particular investment. 

Impact investing is not a negative 

screen – Choosing investments by 

ruling out those doing societal or 

environmental harm was an entrylevel 

activity for ethical investors in 

the early days of the movement, and 

for some it is still the main approach. 

However it fails to take a proactive 

and intentional approach to choosing 

what to invest in.

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WHAT IS AN 

INVESTABLE SOCIAL 

ENTERPRISE? 

An Investable Social Enterprise 

is an organisation with a central 

social or environmental Mission, 

a commercially viable business 

Model, and the right Management 

to deliver on the Mission and 

Model. 

Over the years at TDi we have 

sought to differentiate between a 

Social Enterprise and an Investable 

Social Enterprise (ISE). 

An ISE represents the next 

step on the enterprise maturity 

spectrum. If a social enterprise is an 

organisation that features a social 

or environmental mission and has a 

sustainable business model, what are 

the features of an ISE? 

At TDi we believe these features 

can be grouped into three main 

categories: Mission, Model and 

Management. Let’s break it down a 

little. 

Mission 

Similarly to a standard social 

enterprise, an ISE must have a social 

or environmental mission at the core 

of what it does. 












Model 

An ISE’s business model needs 

to be more than just sustainable. 

While sustainability is enough for a 

standard social enterprise, an ISE’s 

model must be commercially viable 

as the organisation needs to be able 

to service or repay the investment 

capital it takes on. 

An ISE’s integrated business model 

can be designed using the Business 

Model Canvas tool. This simple 

but highly effective framework 

can help an organisation design a 

commercially viable business that 

allows them to achieve their desired 

social or environmental outcomes 

consistently through the operation of 

their business.

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Management 

To appeal to investors in the area 

of management, an ISE must have 

the following three features: track 

record, a passionate and capable 

management team, and a willingness 

to be held accountable for social and 

financial returns. 

Track Record relates to two things: 

their mission and their financial 

history. Does the organisation have 

a proven history of delivering quality 

products or services that relate to 

their Mission? 

And, have they demonstrated their 

ability to deliver financially? A merger 

or acquisition can be very powerful 

for a social enterprise if you buy 

a business that has cash flow and 

historical financial data you can 

then point to as the basis of future 

financial projections. This really helps 

strengthen the investment case. 

However, we understand that 

historical financial track record is not 

always an option in a new emerging 

market. Piloting and prototyping are 

other approaches we use to help 

build this whilst demonstrating that 

we have tested assumptions, even if 

at a small scale. 

The existence of a passionate and 

capable management team is a 

critical feature of an ISE. People 

make or break a deal; a powerful 

combination of passion and capability 

helps provide the assurance 

investors need. 

We can guarantee that things will not 

always go to plan, so having a team 

who are equipped and agile enough 

to adjust and react well to anything 

that comes their way is imperative. 

A willingness to be held accountable 

for social and financial returns is 

the way in which management sets 

an investment in their company 

apart from a standard investment. If 

we look at the definition of impact 




of the investment in relation to the 

social or environmental impact. 

Management’s willingness to 

articulate the desired social 






The focus is set on community as 

we believe there to be a critical 

distinction between a team and the 

individual. The right mix here can 

actually make an impact investment 

less risky than a standard investment 

because of the passion and 

commitment of a group to deliver the 

Blended Value returns. 




to deliver on the Mission and Model.

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WHAT IS 

BLENDED VALUE? 

Blended Value is the delivery of 

both a social or environmental 

return AND a financial return. It’s 

a win-win that does not require 

compromise on either side of the 

social or financial equation. 

Blended Value is a central feature in 

the way we think about and practise 

Impact Investment at TDi. Antony 

Bugg-Levine and Jed Emerson 

captured the underlying drive for 

impact investment in their statement 

“If impact investing is what we do, 

blended value is what we produce” 

Bugg-Levine & Emerson. 

Maximising value while considering 

multiple aspects of performance 

means we no longer have to operate 

in a binary way; choosing for profit or 

not for profit, doing good or making 

money. Instead it creates the space 

in which we can design approaches, 

solutions and organisations that can 

deliver positive outcomes on multiple 

fronts. 

‘…the heart of the movement is the 

reorientation around blended value 

as the organizing principle of our 

work: using capital to maximize total, 

combined value with multiple aspects 

of performance.’ 

— Impact Investing: Transforming 

How We Make Money While 

Making a Difference, 2011

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WHAT IS A 

BUSINESS MODEL? 

‘A Business Model is the 

elegant expression of how all 

parts of a business work 

together for success.’ 

— Paul Steele, 

TDi Co-Founder 

The Business Model Canvas, created 

by Strategyzer, is elegant, clean, 

and simple. This is achieved through 

its incredibly clever design, refined 

by years of testing and incremental 

improvements. There are nine boxes, 

which when filled in reflect your 

entire operation, and all on a single 

page. 

We gain insight into our customers: 

who they are, what distinguishes 

them, how they interact with us, why 

they like us, how they pay. 

We see what goes on behind the 

curtain: what are our most critical 

processes and operations? Which 

team members are currently 

irreplaceable? 

We know how the dollars flow: When 

and how do we generate revenue? 

What are our main cost drivers? 

What’s our breakeven point? Can we 

sell enough to keep afloat? 

business that delivers social and 

financial returns simultaneously. 

It’s not easy but it is the best and 

most effective way to build a social 

enterprise. 

The canvas asks three thematic 

questions: 

1. What makes your product 

appealing to your customer 

group? (Desirability) 

2. What has to be done behind 

the scenes to make a desirable 

product? (Feasability) 

3. How does money enter and exit 

the business? (Viability) 

When you get all three of these 

areas working together your 

business becomes a powerful agent 

for change, and has the ability to 

scale. 

At TDi we use the Business Model 

Canvas to integrate the social 

mission of the social enterprises we 

work with into how they run their 

organisations. This is centred on one 

of our key mantras: “You get what 

you design for.” 

An integrated business model rarely 

happens accidently – you need to 

design and deliberately create a

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THE 

JOURNEY

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WORLDVIEW... A 

SELF FULFILLING 

PROPHECY 

Over the years we’ve watched 

the results different intermediary 

organisations get, both here at home 

and abroad, as they attempt to build 

capacity in social enterprises, and 

we’ve noticed a predictable pattern 

has emerged. We refer to it as the 

self-fulfilling prophecy. 

As with most things in life worldview is critical. In the area of capacity 

building for social enterprises, we have too many intermediaries and 

funders who, when push comes to shove, don’t believe that blended 

value (delivering both social and financial returns) is possible. 

If I had a dollar for every time I heard “there’s no commercial model for 

this kind of work”, “it’s about highlighting the social return in order to 

compensate for the lack of financial return” or “if it was making a financial 

return I would question the social”, I would be a very wealthy woman! 

Please contact me if you want my bank details in order to make a direct 

deposit for every time you uttered those words! 

If you start from the belief that there is no business model when “doing 

good”, you’re going to design a business that is not commercially sustainable 

and is continually grant reliant. Word of warning, you get what 

you design for! 

If you fundamentally believe – like we do at TDi – that blended value is 

not only possible but also preferable, you will build a business model 

that allows you to generate both social and financial return. 

It might mean your business looks different to how you first pictured it. 

It might mean you need to build a business five (or fifty) times the size 

you initially planned in order to become commercially sustainable, while 

delivering the level of social support for your beneficiaries 

It will clearly take time to achieve sustainability, during which time grants, 

subsidies and other forms of support will be necessary and completely 

appropriate. 

We use the business model canvas as the foundation on which we conceptualise, 

assess, refine and ultimately build Investable Social Enterprises 

(ISEs). If you’re stuck in an approach that keeps delivering the same 

results; if you’re stuck in an exhausting and stressful cycle of grant reliance; 

I’d encourage you to consider a different approach. Question your 

worldview; challenge your underlying belief that there isn’t a different 

way of doing things. 

If you really don’t believe you could possibly find a commercial model, I 

challenge you to enrol in a TDi business model workshop and let us help 

you design one. I bet there’s one there.

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34 

FAILING TO NAME 

THE ‘REAL’ PROBLEM 

At TDi we firmly believe that unless 

we accurately name the problems we 

seek to address we cannot hope to 

design effective solutions. So, what 

is the real problem when it comes to 

the persistent gap between social 

enterprise and impact investment? 

We believe that everyone has the responsibility to deal with the social or 

environmental problems we face in society. Even though most people would 

agree with that, discussions quickly descend into there being two types of 

organisations that change the world. It becomes a debate about not for profit 

versus for profit; a simplistic understanding says not for profits “do good” and 

for profits “make money”. What we really need is a type of organisation that is 

as powerful or influential as a for profit, but also delivers the “good” of a not for 

profit. 

To achieve this, TDi believe we need to take a marketplace approach as we 

seek to build models that can crack some of these big complex problems. 

Obviously, we are guaranteed to come up against significant resistance. 

Paul Steele, TDi Co-Founder, shares a the story of the platypus as an example 

of the level of doubt we come up against when sharing our vision for a 

marketplace approach. 

When the Australian platypus was first encountered by Europeans in 1798 they 

thought it was a hoax. It was thought that somebody had sewn a duck’s beak 

onto the body of a beaver-like animal! In the first description of the animal 

in the Naturalist’s Miscellany in 1799, George Shaw stated it was impossible 

not to entertain doubts as to its genuine nature. Helping people think about 

commercial approaches to making the world a better place feels a lot like trying 

to convince a skeptical British Scientist that the platypus is real – people always 

seem to “entertain doubts as to its genuine nature”! 

Our experience has shown time and again that the real problem is one of 

mindset. The ethos we take to our work at TDi and Benefit Capital is built on a 

belief in blended value. 

Blended value is the delivery of both a social or environmental return AND a 

financial return. It’s a win-win that does not require compromise on either side 

of the social or financial equation. 

Our fundamental belief that we can design solutions and business models 

that deliver blended value is an approach hat is actually quite different to most 

in the sector. Typically the social sector – including those who engage as 

service providers, intermediaries, not-for-profits, Government, philanthropy and 

investors – are still engaging with social enterprise and impact investment as a 

game of “finance first” or “impact first”. This is not the way TDi opperates. 

Some say ‘impact investment is about highlighting the social return to 

compensate for the lack of financial return, and increase fundraising.’ These 

descriptions couldn’t be more unhelpful or detrimental to all of us in the sector. 

Our approach to blended value shapes everything we do – the way we 

approach our work, the starting point, the design principle and ultimately what 

we produce.

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Three Unhelpful Obsessions 

If the macro problem is, “How do we solve social and environmental challenges 

with a marketplace approach?” there are three unhelpful obsessions that are 

read as “the problem” and subsequently lead to unsatisfying outcomes. 

Finance First 

A ‘Finance First’ approach takes the macro problem and names the issue as 

“Money”. This leads to “If I had more money I could…”, with the solution then 

being articulated as “Find more money”! This has led to solution designs like 

the Social Enterprise Development and Investment Funds (SEDIF). 

In the case of SEDIF, by focusing on ‘Finance First’ it failed to address the fact 

that there was a need for investable business models in the social enterprise 

sector, and that the establishment of the Funds would not address this. It heard 

a response that said: “Access to capital is the biggest challenge for social 

enterprises” and it failed to recognise that the important word in the response 

was ‘access’. The problem wasn’t that there wasn’t capital out there, the 

problem was social enterprises couldn’t access it. So the question needed to 

then be “Why?” Asking why a few more times would lead to the real problem… 

Profit Focus 

The ‘Profit Focus’ takes us back to the scarcity mindset and silo mentality that 

exists. For some reason we in the social sector are so hung up on the notion 

of profit, yet so often we miss the point entirely due to our short-sighted and 

ideologically driven aversion to profit. Definitions have a lot to answer for in this 

regard. One of TDi’s pet hates is the focus on the percentage of profit used 

for reinvestment or redistribution, and there are a few problems with this ‘profit 

focus’. 

A few problems with a Profit Focus: 

• Profit is a small part of the overall business for the vast majority. We want 

to focus on all of the money spent in the business, not simply what is done 

with the profits. 

• Profit pays for capital. Most people engaging with this topic and focusing 

on profit actually don’t understand where profit goes or what it enables. 

For a large organisation such as the National Australia Bank (NAB), if you 

examined where the bulk of profit distribution actually flowed it is into “mum 

and dad investors” often in the form of super fund investments. Our super 

fund investments making returns that enable us to cover the costs of postretirement 

life seems like an important social issue! 

• Profit is easily manipulated so purely relying on the reinvestment or 

redistribution of profit as the way in which a business model “does good” 

dramatically undermines your ability to create social change. 

• Redistribution of profits to “a good cause” is just prescribed philanthropy. 

We want more than that! We want integrated business models, not 

token percentages or side projects disconnected from the intent of the 

organisation. 

• Finally, most businesses need profits re-invested into their own business, so 

using this as a distinguishing feature of a social enterprise is unhelpful.

36

37 

Social Focus 

The ‘Social Focus’, or simply focusing on the ‘good’ we do, is prevalent 

throughout the sector. We often hear people say things like, “there is no 

business model for doing good”, or “there just isn’t a commercial model in what 

we do”. For too long we in the social sector have let ourselves off the hook too 

easily on this front. We hide behind how things have always been done and 

don’t do the necessary work to uncover different approaches and models that 

may allow us to produce blended value. At TDi we will work a business model 

until we find a way and we would love to see more people doing that also. 

Too often people breeze straight passed the fact that costs far exceed the 

revenue streams in their business model because they tell themselves – or are 

told by their advisors – that because they’re “doing good” SOMEONE will give 

them money to plug that gap. This is not a wise way to build your organisation. 

It certainly isn’t sustainable, nor does it set you up to have confidence in your 

organisation’s ability to deliver the social or environmental outcomes you seek 

to deliver. 

Grant funding, subsidies and philanthropy are all good things needed at certain 

stages of development and for certain issues we face in society. For too long 

though they have been used as a life support, rather than a foundation or 

leg up. Used correctly, funding can be massively leveraged through building 

capacity and then enabling organisations to access private capital (that they 

can now pay for). So, we get distracted. Distracted by our focus on the money 

(Finance First), distracted by our focus on the profit (Profit Focus), and distracted 

by our focus on the good (Social Focus). These distractions often pull us away 

from engaging the real problem. A mindset issue is at the heart here, with a 

need to truly believe in blended value. 

We now know that the platypus is real! At TDi we exist to grow Investable 

Social Enterprises (ISEs). For us, demonstrating that blended value is a reality 

is our mission. The solution is to design and build Investable Business Models. 

Sustainable, potentially scalable models that can solve the challenge you seek 

to address become possible when you take a blended value mindset and let it 

shape, influence and inform the design and implementation of your work.

38 

Our journey over the last few years has been one of growth and challenge. All 

of the hurdles that come up when you’re trying to grow a new business were 

present. All of the extra hurdles that come from trying to build a sustainable 

social enterprise were present. 

Like many start up organisations we have been trying to take the intuitive 

practise of a small group and tease it out into articulated method. Anyone who 

has tried to do that knows how excruciating that can be, for all involved! 

With the benefit of sitting here, at the end of 2015, I can honestly say that 

the hard work has been worth it. We have in no way “arrived” at our final 

destination but we have built something extraordinary with a solid foundation. 

We now have an exceptional Deputy-CEO, Annie Smits, who is helping take 

TDi to the next level; and we are about to embark on a rapid expansion of our 

team that will see our capacity and reach massively enhanced. 

We made an intentional decision at the start of our two-year pilot that we would 

go “head down, bum up” and focus on generating results rather than making 

press releases and shouting from the roof tops about our work. We are after 

all Practitioners so that sat well with our nature to step into action and get our 

hands dirty. There are pros and cons to the approach we chose to take. As 

I explain in some of these short pieces in this section we are beginning to 

move into a phase of more intentionally telling our story and learning how to 

communicate better. 

That too will be a journey, but hopefully even in reading through this little book, 

TDi: The First Chapter, you will get a bit more insight into us and our approach 

than you had before.

39

40 

THE BUCK STOPS 

WITH ME (AND 

OTHER THINGS 

I’VE LEARNT FROM 

OPRAH) 

Communicating my vision for TDi 

has been more challenging than 

I expected. When we decided to 

develop TDi we knew it wouldn’t 

be an easy task. As a “parallel 

entrepreneur” Paul has a reputation 

– a deserved one – for great 

success in building capacity in social 

enterprises. TDi aims to replicate 

and scale a combination of his 

approach and the Method of my 

husband – Brad Graham – and I, but 

for this to happen we needed to find 

a way to clearly articulate and make 

explicit what we’ve been 

doing intuitively. 

I’ve spent the last few years translating the ideas and practices that 

predominantly lived in the minds of three people – My beloved husband Brad, 

Paul and myselft– and developing it into a first draft of our method at TDi. 

Something that could then be transferred to our highly capable team so they 

could put it into practice, as well as helping me refine and shape it so we can 

reliably build Investible Social Enterprises (ISEs). 

A year or so into our two-year pilot, I was forced to accept that I hadn’t done 

what I set out to do. I hadn’t articulated what TDi actually was and how I wanted 

the team to engage. We’re moving past that point now, fortunately, but I thought 

it might be helpful to share what was going through my mind and the approach 

I have ended up taking. 

I saw people struggling, in what to them felt like a vacuum. I saw them fall back 

into how they’d operated in past roles with other organisations. I felt their anger 

and frustration as they expressed the fact that they didn’t know what they were 

supposed to do and weren’t clear on how to take the information they had from 

me and do the two things I needed: 

1. Drill it down to the delivery of effective sessions with incubatees; and 

2. Lift it up to understand and communicate to others how it fitted into a 

broader vision for TDi. 

I was desperately trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I wanted to 

better communicate my vision, offering enough detail to encourage people to 

step into the unknown. The work we were doing had a lot of grey area. I had 

to ensure my articulation stayed at the level of agile method and not detailed 

process, leaving enough room for the ‘white space’ that Brad was always 

talking about. So, in amongst this swirling mess of thoughts, disappointment, 

frustration and searching I turned to Oprah! 

You may be surprised to hear I’m a huge fan of Oprah. My respect and 

appreciation for her basically boils down to the uplifting nature of the work 

she does and the fact that after engaging with anything she puts out into the 

world I feel a beautiful combination of encouragement and challenge. I like that 

feeling… 

In her “Oprah Builds a Network” special I was struck by the following quote: 

“Being a CEO means the buck stops with you… Your energy, your essence… 

cannot be instilled unless you’re actually there.” 

Oprah, thank you for the wake up call. 

I am in fact too busy, running too fast and trying to do too many things to be 

able to be fully present in order to instil my energy, essence and vision for 

TDi. I have to clear more space in my diary, be on the ground modelling and 

communicating what this is and what it can be.

41 

From the beginning we had talked about Paul and I needing to drive this long 

enough that we could instil the DNA we wanted to create for TDi. After years 

of smashing my head against a brick wall to fund this thing and get it off the 

ground we are now in that position and it’s time to “instil the DNA”! 

So, just as Oprah did with OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) – she has now turned 

that sinking ship around and not only changed course and fixed the leak but 

has managed to achieve a profit – I plan on intentionally going back to the 

basics. I am going to be present. I will aim to model and communicate my vision 

for what TDi is and what I believe it can be. I will instill my energy and essence 

by actually being on the ground more in these crucial early days. 

For what it’s worth, despite this realisation it is an ongoing struggle to clear 

more space in my crazy diary, but I am conscious of it and I’m trying! 

We hope that what we, at TDi, put out into the world acts as a prompt to new 

conversations and a challenge for what we believe Investable Social Enterprise 

and Impact Investment can help bring about in the world. Beginning to better 

communicate our Method and learnings is the next step in us attempting to 

articulate what has been intuitive to us and help transfer some of the DNA! 

At the heart of what I’m trying to instil in TDi’s DNA is the belief in Blended 

Value. A belief that we can in fact do good and make money; and that in the 

process we can tap private capital for public good and genuinely have a 

chance at cracking the big problems that plague society. 

‘You have to be in it first, then you 

have to empower everybody else 

to at least know what the vision is in 

such a way that they can execute it.’ 

— Oprah Winfrey 

CEO, The Oprah Winfrey Network

42

43 

WHAT DOES 

GRASSHOPPER 

SOCCER HAVE TO 

DO WITH TDI? 

Sometimes it’s hard to completely 

disengage from work. Sitting at 

Grasshopper Soccer, watching 

my boys run in circles, I started 

noting parallels between being a 

kid’s soccer coach and generating 

Investable Social Enterprises (ISEs). 

Each coach ran their session their own way, using different techniques to 

interact with kids as young as two, trying to teach them the crucial skills they’ll 

need to play the game well… although that may be a few years down the track 

for the two year olds! As I watched I began to notice common elements across 

all their styles, and as I named each one I realised they applied equally to 

what we’re trying to do at TDi. Who knew there’d be a connection between 

grasshopper soccer and TDi? 

No matter what teaching style and techniques they use, all soccer coaches 

need the following knowledge: 

• To know how to play the game they’re training the kids to play (that may 

seem obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated) 

• To know the skills a player needs to master in order to play well. 

On top of that, the soccer program as a whole needs to make sure the 

following is done: 

• Identify activities, drills and techniques that will help develop the necessary 

skills kids need to play soccer 

• Teach coaches the activities, drills etc so that they: 

• Know the desired outcome 

• Know the rules 

• Use the same language. 

With those three important aspects in place there can be variance in the way 

the coaches develop their own specific way to explain and teach. 

How does this apply to TDi? Our ‘coaches’ need the following: 

• Know what an Investable Social Enterprise (ISE) is! 

• Understand what investors are looking for 

• Know the necessary elements in a functioning business 

• Know what tools and method can help grow ISEs. 

And TDi’s programs need to: 

• Identify ways to teach these skills 

• Train coaches so they are equipped to teach others and are clear on: 

• Desired outcome 

• Rules 

• Language. 

With those three important aspects in place there can be variance in the way 

TDi ‘coaches’ develop their own specific approach to explain and teach. 

Well, soccer is over for another week and it’s time to go to Hungry Jack’s for 

ice-cream. I’ve had some insight that I now need to reflect on and work into my 

practice as we build TDi. 

We love the idea of “simplicity on 

the other side of complexity” (Oliver 

Wendell Holmes, Jr). That’s where I 

want to get my articulation of TDi. 

I’ve got a long way to go but I’m 

going to try. 

We’re massive fans of Lencioni and his approach to organisational health. He 

constantly reminds us of the need to have clarity and to then over-communicate 

that clarity. This is something I personally want to get better at doing. TDi has 

lived in my head and in the conversations and practices of a small group of 

people for years now. That is no longer appropriate. It’s time to articulate it 

better and to then over communicate clarity.

44

45 

THE 

WORK

46 

WHAT DID WE 

WANT TO ACHIEVE? 

At The Difference Incubator (TDi) 

we grow Investable Social 

Enterprises (ISEs). Our focus is 

on helping bridge the gap between 

social enterprises and impact 

investors through targeted capacity 

building. We believe that there is 

capital in the market that can be used 

for good if only we begin to develop 

business models that can pay for 

capital while delivering measurable 

social benefits.

47 

What we set out to do… 

Our vision for TDi was to create 

a pipeline of enterprises able to 

engage with impact investors and 

deliver blended value returns, both 

social and financial. Part of building 

this pipeline was actually about 

demonstrating that these kinds of 

deals are actually possible. We knew 

from experience that a massive part 

of the lack of pipeline was related 

to a shortage of case studies and a 

mindset that questioned if you could 

actually do good and make money! 

We also had a strong focus on 

building a replicable model. We 

didn’t want others who were trying to 

build pipeline to have to start from a 

blank sheet of paper but instead be 

able to share our learnings and over 

time develop ways in which others 

could use our Method. 

What we did… 

We realised early that we needed 

to distinguish between a standard 

social enterprise (which for those in 

Australia who are engaging in the 

space is still typically seen as a grant 

reliant not-for-profit with some kind 

of trading arm that reinvests profits) 

and the types of enterprises we were 

seeking to build. 

We articulated our role as growing 

Investable Social Enterprises 

(ISEs), which we have got better at 

describing over time. The vision of 

creating pipeline through growing 

ISEs has never wavered although 

the ways in which we engage have 

changed significantly as a response 

to market and customer demands. 

Our replicable model has begun 

to take shape with a first iteration 

of this in early stages in Singapore. 

We have also built partnerships with 

practitioners in the U.S., Egypt and 

New Zealand. A central part of our 

work with the Department of Foreign 

Affairs and Trade (DFAT) also focuses 

on training locals in the Pacific to use 

our Methodology.

48 

EVOLUTION 

OF MODEL 

We initially pictured ‘Incubation’ as 

our central offering. A long-term, 

relational program to grow Investable 

Social Enterprises (ISEs). We quickly 

found that a model that only allowed 

further engagement with enterprises 

that could become an ‘Incubatee’ 

was too limiting and didn’t suit the 

immaturity of the market. 

In response we broadened our 

offering to include not only the 

Business Model Workshops and 

Incubation but also a Club (casual 

network), Coaching (cheaper 1-1 

sessions), Clinics (group delivery of 

key areas of content) and Consulting 

(bespoke individual sessions or 

programs). 

We articulated this offering and the 

ways to engage with TDi through 

the table shown. 

The expanded offering for social 

enterprises was a wonderful first 

step and increased the number of 

engagements we were having and 

allowed us to test the effectiveness 

of different delivery modes. We 

landed on a much clearer picture 

of what was needed and what 

was working. Since then we have 

refined our offering further to focus 

on the foundational skill of Business 

Modeling, our Two Feet Program 

(a six month fortnightly workshop 

series), Consulting sessions, and our 

Investment Readiness Program. 

HOW CAN YOUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE ENGAGE WITH TDi? 

CLUB 

Network regularly 

with other social 

enterpreneurs 

COACH 

Catch-up with 

a social enterprise 

expert 1-on-1 

CLINICS 

Participate in a learning 

session to develop 

a specific social 

enterprise skill set 

CONSULTING 

Engagae a TDi 

team to help address 

a specific social 

enterprise problem 

INCUBATION 

Become an Investable 

Social Enterprise 

(ISE) with the help 

of a TDi team 

WHAT 

WHAT 

WHAT 

WHAT 

WHAT 

Casual, regular 

networking events with 

other social enterpreneurs 

Personal training with 

TDi social enterprise 

experts 

Periodically scheduled 

Bootcamp style sessions 

on a range of topics crucial 

to the development of a 

social enterprise 

Tailored sessions with 

a custom TDi team 

gathered to address 

a specific need 

Regular, methodical sessions 

that cover everything a 

social enterprise needs to 

become investable 

COMMITMENT 

COMMITMENT 

COMMITMENT 

COMMITMENT 

COMMITMENT 

Bi-monthly networking 

get together 

Flexible, 1-on-1 sessions 

that let you go at your 

own pace 

Varies by topic, usually 

1 -2 days 

Delivery is flexible with 

each engagement 

Approximately 4hrs per 

week over 18 months 

WHO 

WHO 

WHO 

WHO 

WHO 

All social enterprises, 

particularly those starting 

their journey 

All social enterprises, 

especially those still 

considering their business 

model and/or market entry 

options 

Individuals and teams 

looking to learn ‘how’ as 

well as the immediate 

‘what’ of all things social 

enterprise 

Social enterprises with 

specific problems that 

require solutions on a 

deadline 

Social enterprises that 

have a scalable idea and 

require capital alligned to 

TDi expectations 

COST 

COST 

COST 

COST 

COST 

Per session 

Hourly rate 

Per clinic 

Per consulting engagement 

Annual incubation fee 

CAPITAL 

CAPITAL 

CAPITAL 

CAPITAL 

CAPITAL 

Not required; this is a 

chance to meet and 

network with people 

active in socila enterprise 

Not required; this is a selfpaced 

program that may 

not result in capital raise 

Not required; all social 

enterprises will benefit 

from Clinics, even if they 

do not need capital to 

scale 

Varies depending on the 

session 

Yes; incubation is only for 

enterprises that require a 

$500k+ capital investment 

within a 24 month period

49 

2 

4 

1 

3 

Business Model Workshops 

Two Feet Program 

Consulting 

Investment Readiness Program 

The business model canvas is 

a foundational tool in all of our 

work at TDi. We run Business 

Model Workshops across the 

country to teach enterprises how 

to use the Canvas, gain clarity 

and create stronger, sustainable 

businesses. 

Over a six-month period we work 

with social enterprises to further 

develop their business model 

and critical skills and disciplines 

to running their enterprise and 

becoming investable. 

Tailored sessions with a custom TDi 

team to address a specific need 

within an organisation. Consulting 

sessions act as a reality check 

providing clarity on the gaps that 

exist in the business and financial 

models as well as outlining next 

steps needed to begin addressing 

the gaps. 

Bespoke programs for 

organisations with a scalable 

model requiring TDi’s capital 

investment in the next 12- 

18 months. The Investment 

Readiness Program helps 

consolidate and grow 

Investable Social Enterprises 

with strong Mission, Model and 

Management.

50 

YOUTUBE 

In response to the immaturity of the 

market and the massive need to 

address the mismatch between the 

current state of social enterprise and 

where it needs to be to connect with 

impact investment we have begun 

to explore a TDi YouTube channel 

as a platform for education and 

awareness building. 

Our YouTube channel allows us to 

“speak to” those interested in this 

area without the limitation of us 

needing to have enough time in our 

diary to sit down physically with each 

of them and have a conversation. 

This conversational approach is 

far more appropriate for our style 

of engagement and brings a more 

human feel to our online presence 

rather than simply having written up 

case studies or research papers for 

people to read. 

We have filmed fifty short videos 

covering a range of topics from 

lighthearted snap shots on “How To 

Piss Off An Investor”, to a series on 

“The Delusional Social Entrepreneur”. 

We explain the difference between 

types of investments, talk about 

the issues of scale and the 

challenges that come with it, and 

discuss important topics like impact 

measurement. 

With some quality content as a base 

we look forward to strengthening 

our online presence over time and 

becoming the “go to” place for 

learning about growing an Investable 

Social Enterprise.

51 

EDUCATION AND 

AWARENESS 

BUILDING 

Education and Awareness Building 

We have had an increased focus 

on education and awareness 

building in the sector over the last 

twelve months. There is not enough 

understanding or assistance in the 

market for those truly seeking to 

build sustainable business models 

and work towards investability 

in the social sector. Most of the 

capacity building in the sector still 

results in grant-reliant not-for-profit 

organisations who cannot attract the 

kind of capital they need. 

We became aware very quickly that 

we couldn’t wait for earlier stage 

programs to deliver us enterprises 

with robust business models that 

we could then prepare for scale, 

replication or investment. As we 

often say to organisations who come 

to us, investment does not “fill a 

funding gap” in your current model. 

Investment isn’t a magic answer to 

a business model that doesn’t work. 

If your business is bleeding without 

investment and we scale it up, or 

pump investment capital into it, we 

won’t stop the bleed we will simply 

make you hemorrhage! 

For this reason our approach is 

to explain investment, explain the 

centrality of blended value and the 

foundational importance of business 

modeling. Our approach needs to 

be part of the design process right 

at the start, not added on as an 

after thought just before taking on 

investment.

52 

EARNED INCOME 

AND LEVERAGE 

The leverage story we are creating 

at TDi around the impact of catalytic 

granting we receive is one we are 

very proud of. During our two-year 

pilot we received $900k of grants. 

Through our capacity building work 

during that time we placed over 

$6.5m of investment capital into the 

social enterprises we worked with. 

We have also made great progress 

in building a sustainable business 

model for TDi. Our initial projections 

were that it would take 5-7 years 

to reach sustainability. In our first 

year we achieved 50% earned 

revenue and in our second year we 

reached 65%. We are building a solid 

foundation on which to continue to 

grow our business. This is rare for 

an intermediary and it positions us 

powerfully to grow and deliver more 

education and awareness building 

that the sector needs so badly as 

well as our powerful capacity building 

programs. 

Our approach in building our 

own business model has not only 

positioned us well to provide 

ongoing support for the sector it 

has also helped our customers, 

social enterprises, relate to us better 

because they see our genuine 

attempt to practice what we preach!

53

54 

‘One of the things I found with 

TDi was the way that they force 

you to ask yourself those slightly 

difficult questions where maybe you 

think you know the answer but by 

prodding and probing and asking 

more questions you realise there 

is more to it than you thought. 

— Peter Allen, CEO 

Ethical Property Australia

55

56 

GROWING 

CLARITY AROUND 

COMMUNICATING 

WHAT AN INVESTABLE 

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE IS 

TDi’s distinction between a social 

enterprise and an Investable Social 

Enterprise (ISE) is a really important 

one. The organisations we are 

growing at TDi are very different to 

what most people are building when 

they establish a social enterprise 

in Australia. Current approaches to 

social enterprise keep it niche and 

limit the capital organisations can 

access and ultimately the type and 

scale of impact they can help create. 

We initially articulated the features of 

an Investable Social Enterprise (ISE) 

with a five-part diagram identifying 

the key areas that needed to be 

present for investability. This was 

incredibly well received and helped 

focus conversations on areas 

enterprises needed to build capacity. 

First articulation of the features of an 

ISE in 2014: 

Refined articulation in 2015 

We then went on to refine the model 

to group those five areas in to three 

overarching categories of Mission, 

Model and Management. These 

three make up the current articulation 

of an ISE as described below. 

Insert the three M’s diagram (sorry! 

You can pick which colour you use 

at least, that might make it a bit more 

bearable!) 

Mission 

Similar to a standard social 

enterprise, an ISE must have a social 


of what it does. 












Model 

An ISE’s business model needs 

to be more than just sustainable. 

While sustainability is enough for a 

standard social enterprise, an ISE’s 

model must be commercially viable, 

as the organisation needs to be able 

to service or repay the investment 

capital it takes on.

57 

Management 

To appeal to investors in the area 

of management, an ISE must have 

the following three features: track 

record, a passionate and capable 

management team, and a willingness 

to be held accountable for social and 

financial returns. 

Track Record relates to two things: 

their mission and their financial 

history. Does the organisation have 

a proven history of delivering quality 

products or services that relate to 

their Mission? 

And, have they demonstrated their 

ability to deliver financially? A merger 

or acquisition can be very powerful 

for a social enterprise if you buy 

a business that has cash flow and 

historical financial data you can 

then point to as the basis of future 

financial projections. This really helps 

strengthen the investment case. 

However, we understand that 

historical financial track record is not 

always an option in a new emerging 

market. Piloting and prototyping are 

other approaches we use to help 

build this whilst demonstrating that 

we have tested assumptions, even 

if at a small scale. 

The existence of a passionate and 

capable management team is a 

critical feature of an ISE. People 

make or break a deal; a powerful 

combination of passion and capability 

helps provide the assurance 

investors need. We can guarantee 

that things will not always go to plan, 

so having a team who are equipped 

and agile enough to adjust and react 

well to anything that comes their way 

is imperative. 

A willingness to be held accountable 

for social and financial returns is 

the way in which management sets 

an investment in their company 

apart from a standard investment. If 

we look at the definition of impact 




of the investment in relation to the 

social or environmental impact. 

Management’s willingness to 

articulate the desired social 






The focus is set on community as 

we believe there to be a critical 

distinction between a team and the 

individual. The right mix here can 

actually make an impact investment 

less risky than a standard investment 

because of the passion and 

commitment of a group to deliver the 

Blended Value returns. 




to deliver on the Mission and Model.

58 

AN INTERVIEW 

WITH RIC BENJAMIN 

FROM GOODSYSTEMS 

Why did you first 

come to TDi? 

I came to TDi just as TDi was launching. A friend recommended to me that 

I meet with Paul Steele as he believed that we were both, independently, 

looking to solve the same problem - how to help the Not For Profit and Social 

Enterprise sector manage their back office functions better. The TDi/Donkey 

Wheel Foundation project was called Streamlined and after meeting with 

Paul it was agreed that I would work with the Streamlined project to see what 

synergies there were. 

Within a short period of time I recommended that Streamline be merged with 

my initiative (which became GoodSystems) because it had a more mature 

software platform for development - with foundation applications of Finance, 

CRM/Fundraising, Project Management and Human Resources. After the 

merger, the new TDi became two things to GoodSystems: 1) a small equity 

holder with myself and 2 other investors; and 2) the incubator to help develop 

and refine the GoodSystems’ business model and strategy. 

— 

What has the journey 

been like so far? 

This has been a great experience for myself and GoodSystems. As this is 

my first start up, it has been very important to have a safe place to challenge 

and be challenged across all elements of the start up journey. Through TDi’s 

process we networked with other social enterprises, met thought leaders 

and experienced impact investors - all of which helped shape and mature 

GoodSystems thinking, our go to market strategy and of course beginning the 

process of taking on investment beyond the initial ‘friends & family’. 

— 

Where were you before, 

where are you now and 

where would you like to 

be in the next few years 

– what is the effect of 

investment on this plan? 

This is my first start up, so the past 18 months has been all about launching 

GoodSystems. I’m very pleased to say that as of October 2015, GoodSystems 

has its first customer! The challenge is of course to get the next and the next. 

For GoodSystems to reach viability and then grow will mean an increase in 

marketing activities and an investment in the customer support infrastructure, 

and this is where a new round of investment will be critical.

59 

How much investment 

did you take on? 

Our initial investment in cash and in-kind was around $340,000 and we also 

have taken on $90,000 in debt 

— 

What are you hoping 

the social impact will be? 

GoodSystems has a unique proposition - a complete back office platform for 

the NFP - so we believe our impact will be to help organisations become more 

collaborative, efficient, effective and accountable to stakeholders and funders. 

We see these things as critical for NFPs as the health of their back office 

functions is one half of any social impact story. 

— 

What changes are 

in progress? 

As a software company we are always making enhancements and adding 

features to meet our customer’s needs, however we are thrilled to be 

undertaking a major piece of work that will integrate Microsoft Office365 into 

GoodSystems. This is great news for NFPs as both the O365 and Google Apps 

for Work are free to registered charities and they will now both be integrated 

into the GoodSystems’ applications. 

— 

What are your 

successes so far? 

Our first success was that we engaged a group of NFPs to work with us 

between Nov 2014 and Sept 2015 to help develop this fit-for-purpose 

application suite. Through their commitment to monthly workshops and 

feedback sessions we were able to incorporate all their critical business 

processes into GoodSystems. The next success was having version 1 ready 

for market and of course the most important success so far is securing our first 

customer. We see 2016 as a year of hard work, fun and great reward for the 

team at GoodSystems, our investors and of course customers.

60 

‘Often we are unable to provide 

capital to social enterprises if they 

are missing the financial rigour that 

underpins a fantastic social impact 

business idea. We would like to 

see more social enterprises that 

are investor-ready, which is why 

NAB is proud to support The 

Difference Incubator.’ 

— Corinne Proske 

Head of Community 

Finance and Develpment, NAB, 

Director of Government, Education 

and Community, VIC

61

62 

STREAT is a social enterprise 

that provides homeless youth 

with the life-skills, work 

experience and training to start 

a career in hospitality. 

WHO THEY ARE 

The enterprise’s vision is to 

stop youth homelessness and 

disadvantage, one mouthful at a 

time! They offer disadvantaged youth 

aged 16-25 a supported pathway 

from the street to a sustainable 

livelihood. 

The ten-year goal is to help one 

young person every single mealtime. 

That’s enabling 1095 youth each year 

to thrive in all parts of their lives – 

a stable self, stable job and a 

stable home. 

THE CHALLENGE 

‘When we arrived at donkey wheel 

house zero per cent of our revenue 

came from business operations, now 

70 per cent of income comes from 

the business and within two years it 

will be 100 per cent’ says CEO, Bec 

Scott. ‘We’ll be running 8 different 

enterprises in a $5m business.’ 

WORKING WITH TDi 

STREAT were the first social purpose 

tenant at donkey wheel house where 

TDi is based. By the end of their 

first encounter Scott had asked Paul 

Steele, TDi Co-Founder, to be her 

mentor. ‘Paul and I clicked straight 

away’, says Scott. ‘Scale was built 

into STREAT’s DNA and we were 

speaking the same language.’ 

Paul provided the support to model 

STREAT’s growth options, educate 

the board about impact investment 

and brokered relationships with 

potential investors. 

‘Paul ran the process with a probono 

law firm to create the new 

entity for the first $300k equity 

investment. Now we are working on 

a $2.5m impact investment.’ 

SNAPSHOT — 

STREAT

63 

TDi’S PERSPECTIVE 

STREAT was the first social 

enterprise TDi worked with 

intensively over 12 months to 

prepare for investment. The STREAT 

experience was fundamental to 

developing the method which 

underpins TDi’s current program. 

‘There is a gap in the market 

around the design of complex 

social enterprise deals’, says Bessi 

Graham, CEO of TDi. ‘We were able 

to structure it – getting the right mix 

of debt and equity, the positioning, 

the model and bringing together the 

investors.’ 

TDi has continued to work with 

STREAT on the back of the first 

$300k capital raise. ‘They’re 

remarkable and have worked 

incredibly hard to deliver’, says Bessi. 

‘STREAT are in a very strong position 

and we expect that they’ll no longer 

need us once the second capital 

raise is done and that is how it 

should be.’ 

— Bessi Graham, CEO and Co- 

Founder, The Difference Incubator

64 

CERES Fair Food is an online 

organic grocer and carbon neutral 

food delivery service in Melbourne 

that is helping to create healthier, 

happier, and more secure local 

food systems. 

WHO THEY ARE 

CERES Fair Food’s mission is to do 

good at every part in the food chain; 

Buy fair - buying food from local 

farmers and grocery producers at fair 

prices and stick with them season 

after season. 

Employ fair - giving asylum seekers 

and new arrivals, who make up 

around half of their 25 staff, that 

crucial first job in Australia. Build 

community - delivering food orders to 

a network of 67 volunteer Food Host 

pick-up points in neighbourhoods 

across Melbourne. 

THE CHALLENGE 

To date CERES Fair Food has built a 

fantastic track record as a revenue 

generating social enterprise for 

CERES, providing a third of their 

income. But in order to achieve 

broader social, environmental and 

financial goals the business needs 

to scale and expand its footprint 

geographically. 

Expansion would place strain on the 

current organisational structures, 

therefore requiring a dramatic 

redesign in logistics, systems and 

processes, in particular warehouse 

operations and order fulfilment 

capability. 

TDi worked with CERES Fair Food 

to prepare for investment that 

would enable them to scale and 

therefore increase our social and 

environmental impact. 


CERES Fair Food represents a 

beautiful potential case study for 

the Impact Investment community, 

because of the unique position their 

business is in. As a well recognised 

brand, with long-term connection with 

the community and an established 

operating business, CERES Fair 

Food will provide an example of how 

other community organisations can 

retain their roots and mission while 

becoming investable and scaling the 

impact they have in the world. 

TDi aimed to set up the broader 

CERES business for ongoing 

success, streamline future investment 

opportunities and produce templates, 

systems and processes that will 

position us powerfully for the future. 

SNAPSHOT — 

CERES FAIR FOOD

65 


CERES Fair Food is a great example 

of a business that can deliver 

great results in its current stage, 

but can do so much more whent it 

works at scale. They have a strong 

management team, solid track 

record, and a large group of loyal, 

happy customers. 

TDi’s work is focusing on customer 

acquisition and retention, as well as 

designing new ways of tackling the 

logistics issues that face any delivery 

business. Investment can make this 

possible, and there are a number of 

options for making it work. 

‘What I love about CERES Fair Food 

is that you can see so much social 

good coming from every single 

purchase a customer makes.’ 

– Isaac Jeffries 

Business Model Consultant, TDi

66 

BUSINESS MODEL 

WORKSHOPS 

Our two-day Business Model 

Workshops are our most popular 

offering and are foundational in all 

of our work. During our two-year 

pilot over 150 social enterprises 

participated in these workshops. 

There is a growing trend to refer 

to business models in the sector 

but very few people are using the 

business model canvas well. 

Paul Steele refers to the canvas as 

“deceptively simple” and in the way 

most people try and teach it they 

end up falling on the simplistic side 

rather than the simple side. Our 

workshop, and the way we train 

people to use the canvas, is one of 

our strongest contributions to the 

market. 

Business Modelling is a foundational 

tool in all the capacity building work 

we do. This workshop isn’t about 

doing a one off completed canvas 

for your business. Instead, during the 

workshop entrepreneurs learn the 

skill of business modelling. 

We teach the key skills around 

understanding your Value 

Proposition, how to make decisions 

around the critical aspects of the 

best ways to deliver your value 

proposition to your customer and 

improve the financial sustainability of 

your organisation. 

All of these areas are consistent 

gaps in the knowledge and current 

business models in the social 

enterprise sector and significantly 

strengthen the organisations 

we work with. At TDi we use the 

Business Model Canvas to integrate 

the social mission of the social 

enterprises we work with into how 

they run their organisations. This is 

centred on one of our key mantras: 

“You get what you design for.” 

An integrated business model rarely 

happens accidently – you need to 

design and deliberately create a 

business that delivers social and 

financial returns simultaneously. 

It’s not easy but it is the best and 

most effective way to build a social 

enterprise. 

In our Business Model Workshops 

we teach entrepreneurs about the 

three thematic questions addressed 

in the canvas: 

1. What makes your product 

appealing to your customer 

group? (Desirability) 

2. What has to be done behind 

the scenes to make a desirable 

product? (Feasability) 

3. How does money enter and exit 

the business? (Viability) 

When you get all three of these 

areas working together your 

business becomes a powerful agent 

for change, and has the ability to 

scale. 

‘As someone who didn’t know the 

first thing about developing a social 

enterprise business but was doing 

my best to run one, tdi provided an 

invaluable insight into the theory and 

mechanics of creating a successful 

model.’ 

– Past articipant 

During our two-year pilot 

over 150 social enterprises 

participated in these 

workshops.

67 

TWO FEET 

Over a 6-month period we work with 

social enterprises to further develop 

their business model and critical 

skills and disciplines to running their 

enterprise and becoming investable. 

We have refined our capacity 

building work over the years to 

ensure that we address the current 

market needs. 

Our Two Feet Program is the most 

effective way to begin building 

capacity in the emerging social 

enterprise market and provides 

invaluable insight into potential future 

Investable Social Enterprises (ISEs). 

Two Feet is the starting point to 

spotting winners! 

To address some of the key needs 

we have uncovered in social 

enterprises over the years we have 

developed our program to help them 

“stand on their own two feet”. 

Firstly, Two Feet helps build an 

organisation’s understanding 

and capacity on their journey to 

becoming investable. Secondly, 

for those social entrepreneurs 

experiencing the age-old problem 

of isolation, our program is designed 

to help support and connect them 

to others who are also working to 

develop their organisations. 

This six-month program is structured 

into fortnightly group sessions and 

a monthly one-on-one coaching 

session. Together we explore the 

key aspects that are needed in 

order to grow an Investable Social 

Enterprise (ISE). The topics we work 

on include: 

• Intent 

• Theory of change 

• Value Proposition 

• Piloting and Prototyping 

• Investment 101 

• Social Outcomes Measurement 

• Financial Modelling 

• Funding Options 

• Governance 

• Branding and Marketing 

• Whole of Enterprise reporting 

• Pitching to investors 

In 2016 we will be launching our 

Two Feet Program in Sydney and 

Brisbane in partnership with NAB. 

This expansion will not only help 

us gain visibility of enterprises in 

different regions that we can assist 

to become investable it will also help 

us increase the base level capacity 

of more enterprises as we attempt to 

increase the maturity of the market.

68 

CONSULTING 

Our consulting work has become 

very popular for those seeking to 

have a team of TDi consultants 

working with them one-on-one to 

address specific needs within their 

business. 

An example of one of our most 

popular consulting sessions is what 

we call a SCUBA. 

SCUBA consulting sessions have 

become a popular session for those 

who feel they are ready to take on 

investment. These sessions not 

only act as a reality check they also 

provide clarity on the gaps that exist 

in the business and financial models 

as well as next steps the enterprise 

needs to take to begin to address 

these. 

We have found these sessions allow 

us to set a ‘gate’ or milestone for the 

enterprise to work towards before 

reengaging with us. This approach 

is a better use of both organisations 

time and money. 

process is a necessary prerequisite 

to undertaking a capital raise. We 

provide a rigorous assessment of the 

business and financial model to give 

a realistic sense of an organisations 

investment readiness. 

A scuba session is designed as a 

one-on-one where TDi dive into 

an organisations business model 

in more detail. Over two half-day 

sessions we work with a social 

enterprise using the business 

model canvas to help them better 

understand their customer, value 

proposition and how that value 

proposition is delivered to the 

customer. We also do a high-level 

dive into their financials. 

At the end of this time enterprises 

have a deeper understanding of 

the strengths and weakness of their 

model. They understand the gaps 

and pathways to address these gaps 

and also have a picture of what the 

potential for impact investment is for 

their organisation. 

Developing a strategy, evaluating 

options and executing a transaction 

are tasks well outside the day-to-day 

remit of running an enterprise. We 

are here to provide expert guidance 

through this process. For groups 

looking to access impact investment 

as a source of capital, the SCUBA

69 

INVESTMENT 

READINESS 

PROGRAM 

Our Investment Readiness Program is 

for those we originally referred to as 

Incubatees. This is the smallest group 

of enterprises we work with but it 

is the most intense work and it is at 

the pointy end of actually getting an 

enterprise to the point of investability. 

This program is specifically tailored 

for each enterprise and brings 

together the appropriate TDi Method 

and tools to help address, strengthen 

and test the business, financial and 

impact models of the business. 

We are extremely selective about 

who makes it into this category, as 

we need to be confident that within 

the next 12-18 months they will be 

taking on investment of $500k or 

more. We have a strong focus on 

leverage and using any support 

given to organisations at this stage in 

a catalytic way to then access much 

larger amounts of private capital. 

Our success rate in this category 

to date is 70% in terms of those we 

have intensively worked with who 

has successfully gone on to take on 

investment. Not everyone is able to 

make the transition to investability 

and not every organisation that takes 

on investment will go on to deliver 

the blended value returns they 

sought to achieve. 

Failure is part of a pioneers journey 

and at TDi we are very aware of 

this and accept, even when it is 

incredibly disappointing, that failure 

comes with the territory. No matter 

how hard we work we can’t always 

control the outcomes achieved 

through our work. 

Our approach to capacity building 

and technical assistance dramatically 

increase the chances of an 

enterprise landing at investability. 

We focus on the need to provide 

long-term, relational support to 

organisations so that they can 

not only increase their chance 

of becoming investable but also 

their ability to consistently deliver 

blended value returns, both social 

and financial, once they take on 

investment. 

This long-term and relational nature 

is at the heart of true change and 

the sustainability that we seek to 

achieve.

70 

Green Collect is a not-for-profit 

social enterprise with a mission 

to build inclusive workplaces that 

create sustainable change in the 

world. 

WHO THEY ARE 

Founded by husband and wife 

team Darren Andrews and Sally 

Quinn, almost a decade ago, Green 

Collect specialises in ensuring that 

e-waste, office supplies, hard rubbish 

and clothing are reused, remade 

(upcycled) or recycled. It runs a 

regular collection service and two 

retail stores in Melbourne. 

Training and employment is also 

offered to people facing multiple 

barriers to work. It has employed 

more than 100 people, providing a 

flexible and inclusive workplace for 

those affected by homelessness, 

poor mental health and refugee 

experiences. 

THE CHALLENGE 

Green Collect faces a financial 

sustainability challenge, with 80 

per cent of operating income is 

generated from the business and 20 

per cent comes from philanthropy 

and grants. For several years they 

have tried to close this gap without 

success. 

They approached TDi with the 

goal of becoming a profitable, 

independent business that continues 

to deliver strongly on their desired 

social and environmental outcomes. 


‘One of the great things about 

working with TDi is having the 

external recognition that we’ve 

created something amazing, 

with enormous potential, that 

already demonstrates high social, 

environmental and business 

outcomes.’ 

TDi also brings confidence into 

the mix – confidence to say ‘Yes to 

scale, yes to profitability and yes to 

increased impact’, Quinn says. 

SNAPSHOT — 

GREEN COLLECT

71 


TDi has given Green Collect the 

tools to examine their current 

business model and the vision to 

expand operations by a factor of ten. 

The intent behind why Green Collect 

exists, its social mission and drivers, 

is most essential to the business. By 

placing equal value on social and 

commercial outcomes TDi could 

help Green Collect become an ISE 

that generates good returns with a 

high social impact. 

‘When we worked with Green 

Collect to identify its key drivers of 

success and the best opportunity 

for leverage, it became clear that 

collections had the potential to 

scale’. 

— Bessi Graham, CEO and Co- 

Founder, The Difference Incubator

72 

‘Organisations like Green Collect 

have a long history of doing this 

really well and we want to support 

organisations to build up the 

commercial side of their business 

operations so that they have the 

necessary revenue to do both 

sides - social and financial - 

in more sustainable ways.’ 

— Bessi Graham, CEO 

The Difference Incubator

73

74 

Digital Storytellers’ mission is 

to enable powerful storytelling 

for impact. They believe in the 

tremendous opportunity that social 

technologies have made available 

to them, and feel that now, more 

than ever, is the time they can use 

powerful stories to make a real 

difference in the lives of others, 

the wellbeing of our planet and 

future generations. 

WHO THEY ARE 

Digital Storytellers is led by Mikey 

Leung and Pete Dowson, and 

consists of a passionate and driven 

team of creatives who have come 

together as a social enterprise to 

catalyse change through the power 

of storytelling. 

With expertise in filmmaking, 

video production, design, web 

technologies, crowdsourcing and 

social media, they help stories for 

change come to life and reach wider 

audiences in a number of ways. 

They produce films, capture events, 

enable event broadcasts and live 

online participation, create platforms 

necessary to support these. They 

also run workshops and clinics that 

help changemaking organisations 

and individuals learn how to tell, 

produce, and get their own stories 

out in the world. 

THE CHALLENGE 

Their challenge is to develop a viable 

business model that allows them to 

meet both their social and financial 

goals. 

The changemaking and social 

sector can be thin on budgets, 

restricted by grant limitations, and 

unable to predict when the next 

round of funding might come 

though. Many of their customers 

are organisations that may also 

have experienced funding cuts, or 

are grassroots changemakers and 

social entrepreneurs with little or no 

funding. 

There also isn’t full understanding 

of the benefits that good digital 

storytelling can bring and hence, 

there is unwillingness to invest 

budgets in digital storytelling. 


“As a young start-up social enterprise 

experiencing massive growth, 

we knew we needed to operate 

differently yet had been struggling to 

decide on how. Just one clinic with 

TDi helped our team crystalise some 

key insights around our market’s 

needs and made us rethink how we 

structured our offerings.” 

As a result Digital Storytellers 

have launched a new offering for 

changemakers of all sizes to tell 

powerful impact stories even on a 

small budget, and have learnt that 

unbundling their services makes 

them more accessible. 

“By ensuring that the organization is 

constantly in the black, we empower 

them to say yes to the right projects, 

and start to increase the scale of 

their operations. This ensures their 

longevity, and enables them to tell 

more and more fantastic stories.” 

SNAPSHOT — 

DIGITAL STORYTELLERS

75 


Digital Storytellers initially worked 

with TDi as a partner, creating 

stunning video case studies on some 

of the social enterprises they work 

with. “From our perspective, the 

challenge was to restructure their 

pricing options, which enables them 

to take on a wider range of projects 

and still keep themselves financially 

sustainable,” says Isaac Jeffries. 

“We want to build a system that fits 

with a range of different budgets, 

whilst always ensuring their 

customers are delighted. The team 

always go above and beyond, and 

the response from customers is 

excellent, although there comes a 

point where over-delivering harms 

your long term viability.” 

This involves designing a new 

financial model, one that consistently 

generates a surplus. Many social 

enterprises live with constant stress 

and fear over their financial health, 

making it hard to focus on the 

opportunities in front of them.

76 

NATIONAL 

EXPANSION 

Based on our success in working 

with hundreds of social enterprises 

during our first two-year pilot TDi are 

expanding our National presence in 

partnership with NAB. 

In 2016 our Business Model 

Workshops and Two Feet Program 

will be run in Melbourne, Sydney 

and Brisbane. This expansion will 

allow us to gain visibility of a much 

broader range of enterprises and 

hopefully increase our pipeline for 

our Investment Readiness Program. 

In anticipation of this expansion 

we ran a campaign with NAB in 

October 2015 that involved a National 

Roadshow. Over a two-week period 

TDi performed a high-level “triage” 

of 60 enterprises across Australia to 

assess where they were at on their 

journey towards investability and then 

outline next steps for them as they 

continued to grow. 

With our growing reputation and the 

results that the organisations we work 

with are achieving we look forward 

to further expansion over the coming 

years.

77 

INTERNATIONAL 

EXPANSION 

The result of our hard work now 

sees us rapidly expanding our team, 

launching TDi Singapore and being 

actively engaged in a total of 10 

markets internationally where our 

method and business model are 

playing an influential role (Australia, 

New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S., 

Singapore, Egypt, Tonga, Samoa, 

Vanuatu and India). 

Our work with the Department of 

Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is 

a great example of the replicability 

of our Method. After a long period 

of engagement with DFAT we have 

embarked on a pilot project in the 

Pacific. 

Our Approach in the Pacific: 

The most effective and proven way to 

reduce global poverty is to promote 

sustainable economic growth. Our 

experience at TDi demonstrates 

that to bridge the gap from aid to 

trade we need to develop investable 

enterprises able to attract capital and 

move away from grant reliance. 

Our approach focuses on identifying 

and developing small business in the 

private sector that will in turn lead to 

economic growth and development 

in the region. We test and scale 

promising business approaches. 

Given the recent changes to 

Australia’s Aid program, which place 

stronger emphasis on building 

the capacity of the private sector 

within developing countries, there 

are strong links between the aims 

of the Department and TDi’s work. 

Our approach will help ensure that 

funds provided have the most impact 

on development outcomes, that 

enterprise opportunities in the Pacific 

region are built on solid business, 

financial and operational models, and 

that aid is used to leverage long-term 

investment and sustainable business 

outcomes. 

We look forward to strengthening our 

international presence in the next 

chapter of TDi’s development as we 

continue to develop and refine our 

Method.

78 

‘One thing, and I tell TDi on a 

regular basis, is we need more 

of you. If I could have a TDi in 

every capital city, to be able to 

harness all of those enterprises and 

entrepreneurs with all those great 

ideas, it would be amazing.’ 

— Corinne Proske 

Head of Community 

Finance and Develpment, NAB, 

Director of Government, Education 

and Community, VIC

79

80 

Team Wild runs a program to 

support disenfranchised youth in 

Cairns aimed to reduce recidivism 

amongst some of Queensland’s 

most challenging young offenders. 

WHO THEY ARE 

David Jackson, CEO of Team Wild, 

has a background in business 

management and yachting while 

General Manager, Scott White, is 

experienced in running outdoor 

youth outreach programs. Both men 

and their team are committed to 

creating alternative pathways for 

young people. 

Of the 56 young offenders, who took 

part on their program in 2012, 48 

have remained offence free, while 

the other eight have significantly 

reduced their contact with police. 

THE CHALLENGE 

Team Wild lost its State Government 

funding in 2012 and within six months 

youth crime in Cairns had spiked by 

30 per cent. 

The purchase of a tourism business 

gave the organisation a means to 

transition to a sustainable footing, 

independent of government funds. 

With TDi’s help Team Wild joined with 

a group of impact investors to buy 

the business that will fund their ‘Right 

of Passage Entitlements’ (ROPE) 

program on an ongoing basis. 


‘Without TDi, Team Wild wouldn’t 

exist’, says David Jackson. ‘We 

are now the makers of our own 

destiny. Rearranging our business 

model has given us immense 

freedom to grow, evolve and partner 

with other organisations running 

good programs.’ This change will 

significantly improve the results Team 

Wild can achieve with young people. 

‘TDi has a belief in and commitment 

to doing things in different ways’, 

says Jackson. ‘They combine a 

passion for social output, with 

business acumen that is second 

to none.’ 

SNAPSHOT — 

TEAM WILD

81 


Jackson has a clear vision about 

how to help young people, and is 

constantly coming up with clever 

ideas. Running through the Business 

Model Canvas with TDi helped him 

to clarify and sharpen his business 

case. TDi brings a suite of attributes 

to the table that can help bring a 

capital raise across the line. 

In Team Wild’s case it acted as a 

conduit between Jackson and the 

impact investors. ‘Our involvement in 

capacity building and structuring the 

deal gave investors the confidence 

to engage’, 

– Paul Steele 

TDi Co-Founder 

* Sadly Team Wild is no longer in operation. 

TDi is continuing to work with Scott White 

to design how best to build a new business 

model to underpin his wonderful social 

programs.

82 

Policy Booth is an engagement 

agency that specialises in 

consultation and strategic 

communication. 

WHO THEY ARE 

. It provides a high quality service to 

local governments and businesses, 

helping them to communicate more 

effectively with their stakeholders 

and improve their decision-making. 

As a social enterprise start-up, 

Policy Booth’s mission is to engage 

the disengaged, which it does by 

investing resources and expertise in 

social impact projects and employing 

young advocates. 

THE CHALLENGE 

The Policy Booth team were 

looking for support and a critical 

understanding of how their business 

could scale. Like other disruptive 

and transformative social enterprises, 

they didn’t fit the mould of the 

more traditional support programs 

available. 


The process TDi used to extract 

Policy Booth’s business proposition 

was ‘brutal but effective’, says 

McHenry. 

‘They helped us to commercialise 

our language and produce a really 

solid business offering which means 

our impact can increase tenfold.’ 

‘We are so far ahead of where we 

thought we would be at this time. We 

now have a long-term contract with 

a major engineering firm and we are 

benefiting greatly from the changes 

in our business under TDi’s direction.’ 

SNAPSHOT — 

POLICY BOOTH

83 


Policy Booth has no shortage 

of passion but had to tame their 

entrepreneurial enthusiasm to get 

clarity around the value proposition 

for their clients. There has been 

a strong emphasis on business 

coaching with a lot of refining of the 

existing business. 

TDi encouraged them to rework 

their pricing structure and provided 

important pitching practice. 

‘We see a large commercial 

potential in their offering, something 

people are cryingt out for. Without 

diminishing the social elements, we 

needed them to focus their pitch on 

what clients needed to hear, rather 

than what Policy booth wanted to 

say.’ 



84 

IMPACT 

INVESTMENT 

READINESS FUND 

(IIRF) 

TDi’s Design of the NAB IIRF 

At TDi we have been advocating 

for an Investment Readiness Fund 

in Australia for many years. Through 

countless conversations with 

Government, Philanthropy and others 

in the Social Sector there never 

quite seemed to be enough people 

who were willing and able to make 

this become a reality. In 2014 that 

changed when our long term partner, 

NAB, stepped up to the plate and 

placed the first $1m into a catalytic 

grant fund seeking to leverage small 

amounts of grant funding for targeted 

capacity building that would enable 

enterprises to take on investment. 

Bessi Graham, TDi CEO and Co- 

Founder, was engaged to design the 

NAB IIRF based on her experiences 

as a practitioner in this sector and 

her recent review and report on 

the progress made by the UK’s 

Investment and Contract Readiness 

Fund (ICRF). Her experiences have 

been invaluable to ensure the best 

chance of achieving the highest 

possible leverage of this catalytic 

grant fund to maximise the impact of 

the $1m investment. 

Context 

Both NAB and TDi have experienced 

the lack of impact investment 

opportunities in the Australian 

market. In May 2013 we ran a forum 

regarding the need for an Australian 

version of the UK’s Investment 

and Contract Readiness Fund. We 

continued to work both in partnership 

and individually around trying to 

strengthen investment opportunities 

by working with individual 

organisations in the social sector to 

develop their capacity for investment, 

and strengthening the broader 

marketplace. 

Traditionally not for profit and 

charitable organisations have 

been able to rely on government 

and philanthropy for their funding, 

justifying their continuation by 

demonstrating the depth and 

increasing effects of the social 

problems they’re attempting to 

address, such as homelessness, 

environmental degradation, and 

poverty. 

However, with the continuing 

decrease in available government 

and philanthropic funds, another 

approach is desperately needed. 

Despite the very necessary 

services they provide, for many their 

continued existence is under threat. 

The increasing interest in impact 

investment from potential investors 

means that investment capital is 

a viable method of making these 

organisations sustainable, however 

most traditional not for profits and 

charities do not have business 

models that would allow them to take 

on investments. 

The gap in the market that exists 

between organisations in need 

of funding and investors actively 

seeking impact investment 

opportunities is widely recognised. 

The Federal Government has 

previously attempted to address it 

through the establishment of the 

Social Enterprise Development and 

Investment Funds (SEDIF). But the 

last few years have shown more 

clearly than ever that we need 

to address the lack of capacity 

within organisations to meet the 

requirements of investment capital 

if initiatives such as SEDIF are to be 

successful. 

We’ve had growing success in 

coming to agreement on what an 

Investable Social Enterprise (ISE) 

needs to look like, and the interest 

from investors in engaging with these 

organisations is continuing to grow. 

In late 2014 NAB announced 

groundbreaking cornerstone

85 

funding to establish the NAB Impact 

Investment Readiness Fund. 

What will this fund do for the social 

marketplace? 

We envisage the introduction of 

this fund as the next step in helping 

unlock, not only the potential of 

SEDIF, but also the broader growing 

interest in the field of impact 

investment from a range of potential 

investors. Our focus in co-designing 

this much-needed fund has been on 

making sure we create a fund that 

delivers solid outcomes that see 

significant leverage of any catalytic 

grant capital distributed. 

This fund is not solely focused on 

traditional not for profits or charitable 

organisations, but has instead 

intentionally chosen to allow a broad 

range of organisations to apply. We 

believe that a business with a social 


of what it does can help solve some 

of society’s most complex problems, 

regardless of its legal structure. 

The fund recognises the challenges 

organisations in this field face when 

trying to simultaneously address their 

mission and a commercially viable 

business. We therefore seek to bring 

clarity to the parts of the business 

model that need assistance, and to 

provide necessary funding to cover 

those costs. We look forward to 

other Funders, both Government 

and Philanthropic, contributing to the 

Fund and expanding its reach. 

Innovative Features of the Fund - A 

World First 

While similar funds exist in other 

countries, this is the first time a fund 

of this nature has been initiated by 

a financial institution rather than by 

government or philanthropy. We 

believe this is a strong demonstration 

of the demand for impact investment 

opportunities in Australia, and an 

excellent indicator of the potential 

for successfully funding investable 

enterprises once their capacity is fully 

developed. 

A Payment by Outcomes Approach 

We have chosen to take a Payment 

by Outcomes approach in the design 

of this fund as we believe it will 

provide the greatest potential for 

organisations to successfully access 

investment capital. The NAB IIRF 

has been established to provide 

catalytic funding with targeted results 

of producing investable enterprises. 

A Payment by Outcomes approach 

will help ensure the funds available 

are used in the most efficient and 

effective ways. 

The fund will provide a grant of 

up to $100,000 to organisations in 

need of capacity building to become 

investable. The grant will go to 

covering the costs associated with 

engaging a Provider. The Provider 

will be paid 70% of a successful grant 

upfront to undertake the capacity 

building, with the remaining 30% 

provided once the organisation 

demonstrates it has obtained the 

targeted investment. 

A key feature of the design 

that will enable the Payment by 

Outcomes approach is incentivising 

Providers. If a Provider successfully 

navigates an organisation to its 

targeted investment several times 

it will receive a Gold Star rating. 

Conversely, if they fail to achieve 

the targeted investment funds on 

multiple occasions they will not be 

able to access the NAB IIRF again. 

We strongly believe Australia has 

the potential for a thriving impact 

investment sector, and the creation 

of the NAB Impact Investment 

Readiness Fund is a significant step 

towards realising this potential.

86 

Ethical Property Australia 

provides property solutions 

to socially or environmentally 

driven organisations. 

WHO THEY ARE 

Ethical Property Australia provides 

property solutions to socially or 

environmentally driven organisations. 

They bring together ethically minded 

investors who want the security 

of a property backed investment 

and organisations that are doing 

good but who could also benefit 

from being co-located by sharing 

resources and potentially working 

together on some projects. 

Ethical Property provides a range 

of services including purchasing, 

refurbishing and owning property, 

developing property on behalf of 

other owners, and then managing 

these properties. While they’ve 

only worked on commercial spaces 

so far, they would be interested in 

investigating the potential for ethical 

residential projects. 

THE CHALLENGE 

CEO, Peter Allen, has been 

re-examining the long successful 

European model of Ethical Property 

UK to make sure it’s suitable for the 

Australian market, and to see where 

it can be improved. 

However, Ethical Property still faces 

the challenge of timing, both within 

their business model and the product 

they supply. As quickly as possible, 

Ethical Property needed to become 

financially sustainable. 

Timing is also very important when 

getting a property project off the 

ground. Ethical Property needs to 

bring investors, tenants and the right 

property together at the right time, 

often at short notice. 


“When I first arrived it was really 

helpful to have TDi question me on 

the way Ethical Property did things in 

the UK,” said Peter Allen. 

TDi introduced Ethical Property to the 

Business Model Canvas, which was 

useful in understanding the various 

elements that make up a successful 

business. This has further supported 

Ethical Property in their development 

of a social and environmental impact 

reporting methodology and been an 

important networking tool to connect 

with other organistions in similar 

positions. 

SNAPSHOT — 

ETHICAL PROPERTY

87 


Ethical Property Australia is in 

situation in which investment is not 

always readily available. For a deal 

to go ahead they need perfect 

convergence of the right building, 

tenants, and investment funds to be 

available all at the same time, which 

can be quite difficult. 

TDi are crucial in assisting with the 

aligning of these three aspects on all 

investment future opportunities. 

“EPA’s buildings are such a beautiful, 

tangible picture of what an impact 

investment can be. The big question 

is about how we get an EPA building 

in every city, which requires a lot of 

diligence, creativity, and a strong 

investor network.” 



88 

Created in 2014, GoodSystems 

supports many community 

organisations with their IT 

systems and support. 

WHO THEY ARE 

Founded by Ric Benjamin, 

GoodSystems aims to help 

organisations do things smarter by 

empowering their staff with access 

to the information they need and 

workflow engines that enhance 

productivity by using cloud-based 

technologies. 

THE CHALLENGE 

GoodSystems is a fully-fledged 

software business designed for the 

sector. They deliver a fit for purpose 

integrated suite of software to 

manage all core back office aspects 

of an organization is a first. 

As their product is a sector first, 

GoodSystems faces the challenge 

of framing it to their customers and 

investors alike. This is due to it 

being aimed at a niche market that 

is historically not well funded and 

unfamiliar to the product. 


TDi’s business model framework 

methodology and adaptive approach 

in personal support 

helped maintain a focus on what 

needs to be done at every stage of 

the business process. 

Working with TDi provided a strong 

network of like-minded social 

enterprises who are on a similar 

business path. Through TDi’s 

incubatee workshops GoodSystems 

encouraged to look beyond the dayto-day 

issues and maintain creativity 

to solve immediate and emerging 

challenges. 

SNAPSHOT — 

GOODSYSTEMS

89 


TDi worked extensively with 

GoodSystems on their customer 

analysis and implementation 

planning but maintained a strong 

focus on financial modelling. 

Changing an organisation’s 

operation systems is often a huge 

headache, so helping customers 

overcome those early ‘switching 

costs’ was imperative. 

Now the challenge for GoodSystems 

is to build track record, as it heads 

towards becoming an Investable 

Social Enterprise. 

‘It was important that we create a 

financial model that makes it easy for 

customers to get on board, whilst still 

ensuring that GoodSystems can fund 

its own growth.’ 



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91 

THE 

NEXT 

CHAPTER

92 

LEARNINGS 

This pilot phase has been one of 

trial and error. Not in an unthinking 

way but in a very intentional and 

designerly way. We have constantly 

designed mini pilots that we have 

tested, refined and redesigned. 

It has been an iterative process 

and has led to us building a solid 

foundation on which to grow and 

scale our business with deep and 

real customer and market insights. 

Due to funding constraints we have 

been forced to be more responsive 

and customer focused. We believe 

that these are the perfect conditions 

for innovation and that’s exactly what 

our business model demonstrates. 

Without the luxury of ploughing on 

despite the fact that a service isn’t 

hitting the mark we have reflected on 

what our customers need and what 

they are willing and able to pay for. 

This has led to a much more targeted 

offering that we believe will bare fruit 

over the next 12-18 months. 

One of the areas we have not 

performed to a standard we are 

proud of is in our relationship 

management. Whether with the 

social enterprises we have worked 

with, the investors we have engaged 

with, with our staff or as a Board. We 

simply haven’t had enough hours in 

the day to give people the time they 

deserve and need. We have worked 

ridiculously hard and certainly done 

our best but what we’ve delivered on 

this front is not good enough and we 

want to do better. 

We need to not only add capacity by 

increasing the size of the team but 

also ensure we get the right cultural 

and skill set match to actually see 

the increase in what we can deliver 

and how well we deliver it. This is our 

next challenge. 

We always knew that the business 

model was foundational to our work 

but we have learnt over these two 

years that our approach to using it 

and training others to use it is unique 

in the market. Paul has always said 

that the business model canvas is 

deceptively simple and this is part of 

the reason why other players in the 

market who are trying to use it are 

struggling to use it effectively. 

We have done business modelling 

with over 150 social enterprises and 

really honed our method around how 

best to use this magnificent tool of 

the business model canvas to build 

Blended Value organisations. 

In our early interactions we found that 

social enterprises reacted strongly 

against the business model canvas 

if we jumped straight into it, as they 

felt uncomfortable with the pure 

commercial approach they felt that 

took. Most of the organisations were 

coming more from the social side of 

the spectrum and found the canvas 

“too mercenary”. 

Common struggles emerged with 

parts of the canvas that seemed to 

trip social enterprises up. Areas like 

articulating the customer segment 

were more complex for those who 

focused on their beneficiary group 

and confused this group for the 

customer. 

The Value Proposition was another 

area of confusion, as people would 

passionately place their mission or 

purpose in this box believing that as 

it was their motivating factor it must 

be the customers as well. 

Responses began to soften and the 

education process became more 

effective when we introduced the 

Intention box above the canvas. This 

can then inform the business you 

build moving forward and help in the 

decision making process. 

Our ability to use the canvas as a 

way to “triage” an enterprise and 

give feedback on gaps or strengths 

in the model has allowed us to more 

effectively target our interventions 

and next steps.

93 

It hasn’t all been success and growth. 

We have had the massive blow of 

Team Wild failing to live up to its 

potential. There is much to learn from 

the experience and we carried out 

a full “autopsy” of all our dealings 

to see if there were any signs 

we missed or intervention points 

where we could’ve done something 

different to achieve a different 

outcome. 

Our experience with Team Wild has 

also reiterated the importance of all 

three areas of an Investable Social 

Enterprise: Mission, Model and 

Management. 

The fact that in Team Wild’s case 

failures of management unraveled 

all of the good work that had taken 

place in the areas of Mission and 

Model is a lesson to us all. 

The autopsy process was in fact 

really positive in terms of the role 

TDi played and how the quality of 

our work stood up at all stages of 

the unfolding saga. 

While the behaviour of a very small 

number of players was incredibly 

disappointing the majority have 

shown the expected level of support, 

understanding and leadership which 

has positioned them as pioneers in 

the impact investment space. 

Overall, despite the massive financial, 

psychological and emotional loss 

that we all felt from Team Wild it has 

resulted in some really encouraging 

interactions with investors who have 

continued to support the wonderful 

social side of the program and 

we will continue to work to find a 

business model to support that 

moving forward.

94 

FUTURE 

Over the next 12 months we will be 

delivering on a number of significant 

projects that will require us to expand 

our core team. These include: 

• DFAT Pacific Project 

• Expansion of programs in 

partnership with NAB 

• Increasing engagement with 

Local Councils 

• Exploration of TDi’s role in 

building capacity of organisations 

effected by the NDIS. 

We will be continuing to focus on 

our core skills of business modelling 

and triage of the enterprises we 

work with to ensure appropriate 

interventions are designed for each 

enterprise. 

In 2015/2016 we aim to: 

• Triage 170 enterprises 

• Provide Business Modelling 

services to 100 enterprises 

• Take 50 enterprises through our 

Two Feet Program 

• Deliver consulting sessions to 17 

enterprises. 

This next chapter of our 

development will be an exciting one 

as the work we have put in over the 

last few years has positioned us well 

for growth. 

We will continue to play a leading 

role in educating the market and 

shaping impact investment and social 

enterprise development in Australia. 

Our YouTube channel and growing 

online presence provides us with 

a powerful platform to plant seeds 

and share stories of what is possible 

when you design for Blended Value. 

As our team grows we will work 

hard to improve our customer 

relationships and reduce the intensity 

of the workload that each staff 

member is required to carry. We will 

also continue to work on building 

multiple team members capacity in 

each area of our service delivery to 

reduce the personnel risk associated 

with only one or two people being 

able to deliver any given service. 

We truly believe that this is an 

inflection point for our business. 

The market is awakening to the 

importance of our work and we are 

well positioned to take advantage 

of the growing interest in both social 

enterprise and impact investment. 

Our incredibly capable team, 

combined with our powerful Method 

will be a force to be reckoned with! 

We look forward to moving into a 

phase of development that features 

more case studies and live examples 

of the impact of our work on the 

enterprise we enable. Even more 

importantly we look forward to the 

growing body of evidence for the 

positive impact the enterprises we 

work with are having on the social 

and environmental issues they seek 

to address. In the end this is what 

drives us; a desire to play a role in 

leaving the world in a better state 

than when we found it. 

Our continued focus will be on 

demonstrating that Blended Value is 

possible through growing Investable 

Social Enterprises.

95

96 

Chapter One 

Published by 

The Difference Incubator 

Level 1, 673 Bourke Street 

Melbourne 3000, VIC 

info@tdi.org.au 

Printed By 

Finsbury Green 

ABN 52 007 743 151 

Mail PO Box 102, Hindmarsh, 

South Australia 5007 

finsbury@finsbury.com.au 

finsbury.com.au 

Acknowledgments 

Lead Author 

Bessi Graham 

Design and Layout 

Sophie Hansen 

Content and Editorial Support 

Abbie Matthews 

Ashlee Steele 

Alexandra de Blas 

Photography 

Ashlee Steele 

Lucia Rossi 

Paul Steele 

Myfanwy Garven 

Digital Storytellers 

Enterprise images were provided 

by their respective companies 

Content may be cited 

Graham, B. TDi: The first chapter, 

The Difference Incubator, 2015 

All rights reserved. No part of this 

publication may be reproduced 

or transmitted by any means, 

electronic or mechanical, inculding 

photocopying, recording, or any 

information storage and retrieval 

system, without permission in 

writing from the publisher.

97

98 

TDi: The First Chapter is a small 

attempt to share some of the work 

and learnings from our first twoyear 

pilot. It is an opportunity for 

us to thank our wonderful partners 

for their support and celebrate 

the progress being made towards 

building a functioning impact 

investment market in Australia. 

We invite you to browse through the 

pages of this book like you would 

a coffee table book. Dipping in and 

out as your interest guides you. Our 

hope is that by the end you will have 

a better sense of our work and feel 

more connected to what it is we’re 

seeking to achieve. 

Together we can make Blended 

Value a reality and demonstrate 

you can do good and make money!

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