An exciting new initiative to develop new social enterprises has been launched in Victoria. The Crunch involves a $1 million investment fund; nine talented social entrepreneurs and six corporate partners. The nine teams have 122 days to develop their business plan that will transform exciting ideas to address some of Australia’s most challenging community issues into viable social businesses.

The organisation behind this “friendly competition” is Social Traders. Established in 2008 they seek to establish commercially viable social enterprises throughout Australia. Talking to David Brookes, Social Traders Managing Director, at the launch he said, “The Crunch incorporates the fun elements of competition and creativity with serious business thinking and investment opportunities”. He added, “it’s a targeted approach: it’s not a grant or a handout – they must develop a business model for an enterprise that is financially sustainable with a social mission at its core.”

The Telstra Foundation, Telstra’s philanthropic giving arm is very excited to lend their support and champion this initiative inside the company. Since 2005 social innovation has been a guiding principle for our community investment. For us social innovation is about ideas and imagination. It is about advancing individual and community wellbeing by changing traditional perceptions and practices and introducing new and different ways of thinking, understanding, creating, adapting, influencing, organising and working together. The Crunch is a great demonstration of this.

Over the next four months teams will form and work with the nine social enterprises – for Telstra our people are helping Activate Australia and Renew Australia. Six Telstra people have been handpicked by their business unit’s group managing director to mentor and support the social enterprise to prepare a detailed business plan and investment pitch to convince the Social Enterprise Investment Panel of their worth as a strong investment proposition. As David told me, “it’s not a grant or a handout – they must develop a business model for am enterprise that is financially sustainable with a social mission at its core”.

Activate Australia founded by Nicole Endacott, is a not for profit organisation based at Broadmeadows that provides leadership development to young people facing tough realities. Activate wants to develop a social enterprise that involves young people in leadership programs for the corporate world.

Telstra people Kristen Boschma, Jane Oakley and Brad Joyner will provide business mentoring for Activate Australia. Kristen shared her enthusiasm with me, “I can think of loads of people who I think can help. Plus I like the idea of helping people reach their potential; everyone has something to offer and I think some just need to be given a chance to shine”. Jane sees her involvement as a two way street, “I believe the opportunity to share with others and see them grow will give me the opportunity to be part of an amazing journey to enhance the social fabric that centres around collaboration with no boundaries”.

Renew Australia is an idea arising from the Renew Newcastle projects, where empty retail spaces are made available to artists and community initiatives leading to significant urban renewal. This social enterprise will implement the Renew model in Victoria, across Australian and internationally. Marcus Westbury, founder of Renew Australia told me, “the more I have been working in this area the more obvious it has become to me that there is a role for brokering renewal projects, providing advice and support, and activating dormant cities and town centres that councils and companies will pay for. We aim to provide those services to paying clients to cross subsidise artists, creative enterprises and community groups to access space.”

Telstra’s Bill Mundy, Richard Kervin and Dan Mandaru are making up the team who are going to help Marcus develop his business plan and pitch. Bill shared with me, “the idea of turning disused or underutilised buildings, in regional areas, into places where cultural groups or community groups can raise funds and breathe life into decaying or underutilised buildings sounds like a great initiative and one I relate to in my role with Telstra Country Wide – many regional towns have areas that could be revitalised and become productive spaces for those communities,”

Richard agreed,  having lived and worked in economically depressed areas he said, “being a mentor in the Crunch is a way for Telstra to contribute to the community, as it already does in many ways via the Telstra Foundation, Telstra’s Kids Fund, staff volunteering activities, and our telecommunications-focussed activities”. Dan Mandaru shared, “these types of opportunities don’t come around often and if there’s a chance to make a difference and contribute then I think we should try and grab it with both hands”.

The Crunch is modelled on a highly successful UK program called the Spark Challenge. It is being piloted in Victoria in 2010-11 and will be expanded to other states in future years. Westpac, Transfield, Australia Post, Leadership Victoria and the Melbourne Business School are the other corporate partners.

The Crunch was officially launched on Wednesday 13 October 2010 by the minister for Community Development, the Honourable Lily D’Ambrosio, each of the nine Crunch Enterprises were presented with a ‘Crunch Survival Kit’.

Follow the nine teams and their journeys between October 2010 and February 2011 at thecrunch.socialtraders.com.au

Five, four, three, two, one ……. the clock is now ticking!

More Information:

Telstra Foundation, telstrafoundation.com.au

Spark Challenge, sparkchallenge.org

The Crunch, thecrunch.socialtraders.com.au

Activate Australia activate.org.au

Renew Newcastle, renewnewcastle.org

Social Traders, socialtraders.com.au