Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing

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Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing

The Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing (AAB) is a founding member of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG). The AAB is uniquely positioned with multi-sector leadership and global influence to drive development forward in and from Australia. A proactive national advisory board – or NAB – is a requirement for a seat at the global table and the board has commitments as part of the global movement to continue to drive a catalytic agenda.

Rosemary Addis founded the AAB as Australia’s representative to the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce in 2013 and led its agenda and breakthrough strategies to catalyse and scale impact investment in and from Australia as Chair until July 2019. She remains an Ambassador of the AAB and its endorsed nominee for the GSG Board of Trustees.

The AAB is one of 23 such national advisory board members of the GSG, and one of the first established. It has been a leader in catalysing engagement and market building leadership well beyond Australia. Like its peers, it brings legitimacy to the field, laid the ground for field definition and mapping, led policy engagement and ecosystem development and played a key role in awareness raising, outreach and intelligence gathering. The AAB does this within a framework of leadership, action and policy that framed its 2014 breakthrough Strategy, Delivering on Impact and its strategy, implementation and operating capacity is provided by Impact Investing Australia.

In 2018, the Australian Government announced a partnership to scale impact investment in and from Australia and the AAB mapped out a platform for distributed leadership for the next evolution in market building strategy, Scaling Impact: a blueprint for collective action to scale impact investment in and from Australia.

2014
Invisible Heart of Markets

Invisible Heart of Markets
2014
As an active member of the G8 Taskforce, Rosemary contributed to its landmark report Impact Investing: The Invisible Heart of Markets and the 4 working group reports that accompanied it.
2014
Delivering on Impact

Delivering on Impact
2014
As Chair of the Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing, Rosemary led on development of the strategy to catalyse impact investing in and from Australia, Delivering on Impact which set a delivery focused framework for leadership, action and policy.
2015
Growth Grants

Growth Grants
2015
Agreement with National Australia Bank to capitalise grant funding for investment readiness funding for purpose driven enterprises and design of the fund to roll out March 2015. Since then, NAB’s contributions of $1.75m enabled an impressive range of enterprises to secure advice and raise capital including Hire Up, Maths Pathway, Vanguard Laundry, averaging more than 20 x leverage on grant funding. In 2018, the fund was recapitalised by administration of $7m in Australian Government sector readiness funding which will run through to 2021.
2015
Blueprint to Market

Blueprint to Market
2015
Chaired working group of leaders to design and document blueprint for Impact Capital Australia, a game-changer, specifically designed to accelerate development and achieve scale for impact investing in Australia. Its mandate is mobilising more capital and transforming the way Australia deals with social and environmental challenges.
2016
Practical Guide to Understanding Social Costs

Practical Guide to Understanding Social Costs
2016
Oversaw delivery of initiative Chaired by Louise Sylvan AM and carried out by Deloitte Access Economics to deliver a practical guide to understanding social costs that could inform applied understanding of social costs and the costs of delivering better outcomes.
2016
Impact Investing Investor Survey

Impact Investing Investor Survey
2016
Oversaw first Australian investor survey of interest and activity in impact investment led by Working Group Chair Fabienne Michaux and Impact Investing Australia CEO Dan Madhavan inb collaboration with RIAA and Melbourne Business School.
2016
Leaders’ Delegation to Canberra

Leaders’ Delegation to Canberra
2016
Coordinated and led delegation of 30+ senior leaders for 3 days of meetings with Ministers, parliamentarians and senior officials in Canberra.
2016
Benchmarking Impact

Benchmarking Impact
2016
Co-authored report of first benchmarking of Australian impact investment activity and performance, Benchmarking Impact with the aim of establishing market-based data to understand impact activity and set early baselines to measure growth and development. The methodology and branding has been transferred to the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia to carry forward. They undertook the second benchmarking in 2017, which showed fourfold growth.
2017
Australian Field Scan

Australian Field Scan
2017
In 2017, the Australian Advisory Board went to practitioners and stakeholders of the field in Australia to seek views on what had changed since 2014 and what was needed next. Led by Rosemary Addis in collaboration with Regina Hill and the Impact Investing Australia team and funded by Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the results of the scan were released publicly report and video form.
2018
GSG Working Group, The Impact Principle

GSG Working Group, The Impact Principle
2018
Rosemary led a global working group across 10 countries for the GSG on the seminal issue of widening participation and deepening practice to drive impact investment at scale, covering a vision for an impact economy, field definition, theory of change together with roadmaps for concrete action.
2018
GSG Working Group Policy

GSG Working Group Policy
2018
Providing expert advice and review and Australian insights to
2018
Growth Grants

Growth Grants
2018
In 2018, the Growth Grants fund was recapitalised with Impact Investing Australia being awarded administration of $7m in Australian Government sector readiness funding which will run through to 2021.
2018
Australian Advisory Board Blueprint, Scaling Impact

Australian Advisory Board Blueprint, Scaling Impact
2018
The Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing blueprint for collective action, Scaling Impact, was launched in late 2018 following a market engagement and strategy development process which Rosemary led in collaboration with Fabienne Michaux, then head of the AAB Strategy Working Group.
2018
Impact Investing Australia Market Builder of the Year

Impact Investing Australia Market Builder of the Year
2018
Impact Investing Australia recognised as market builder of the year in the inaugural Australian impact investing awards.

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“When your country builds a NAB you get this whole network and the GSG committed to developing the ecosystem in your country.”

Amit Bhatia, GSG CEO

“NABs stand out as a different kind of institution in the field of impact investing. The NABs are tasked in principle with goals of educating specific places about impact investing, promoting the field, and helping to develop public policy environments that support it. That they originated in a Taskforce associated with the G8 highlighted their role both in engaging in policy discussions and helping to legitimize the field.”

Harvard IRI Study, National Advisory Boards and Impact Investing: the Power of Cross-Sector Collaboration

A member of

Global Steering Group

Australian Advisory Board on Impact Investing