One of the key pieces to unlocking the Impact Investment market in Australia is facilitating non-profit organisations and social enterprises accessing advice and resources they need to take on impact investment. An Impact Investment Readiness fund was a breakthrough action identified in Delivering on Impact. National Australia Bank seeded such a fund with an initial $1 million. The goal of the fund is to provide mission-driven organisations with grant funding to enable them to engage appropriate providers to provide targeted advice and support to help them secure investment for scaling up their social or environmental impact.
Designed building on the experience from similar funds elsewhere and enterprise development funds in mainstream innovation and industry programs, the IIRF is designed to develop the intermediary and adviser markets as well as enable the enterprises themselves to access relevant advice and services. The IIRF was launched in March 2015, the IIRF is a partnership between NAB and Impact Investing Australia was been designed in consultation with The Difference Incubator. In her role as the Chair of Impact Investing Australia, Rosemary Addis played a role in facilitating the fund’s creation, provided insights to inform design and process and together with a member of the NAB Executive team provides the final Governance sign off on grants recommended by the review Committee.
