Overview
For our first meeting of 2025 we will hear from Jess Moore, CEO of Social Enterprise Australia (SEA) with an update on the key sector developments and the focus for 2025.
Jess will be joined by Sherryl Reddy, Network Lead of Social Enterprise Australia to share key learnings from The Economic Pathways to Refugee Integration (EPRI) program – a 2-year $24.6m DHA funded program for social enterprises to create employment opportunities for refugees and humanitarian entrants. Sherryl will be joined by Alex Haynes from Whittlesea Community Connections to discuss their experiences of the program and two key recommendations for the future of the programs, as outlined in their EPRI: Requests of the Australian Government.
Please come prepared to join in the conversation, connect with your fellow funders, and discuss and reflect on the session together.
Online event
Details will be provided after the registration is submitted.
Date and time
Monday 31 March 2025
12:00pm - 1:00pm AEDT (ACT, NSW, VIC)
11:30am - 12:30pm ACDT (SA)
11:00am - 12:00pm AEST (QLD)
10:30am - 11:30am ACST (NT)
9:00am - 10:00am AWST (WA)
Audience
This event is for Philanthropy Australia Social Enterprise Funders Group members. We welcome other funder members at the New Gen, Active/ Engage (individual), Engaged/ Engage (organisation) or Impact membership tier who are interested in funding social enterprises.
If you are already a funder member of Philanthropy Australia, contact programs@philanthropy.org.au to sign up to this funders group or to learn more about the philanthropic work in this area.
Not yet a Philanthropy Australia member? Please email membership@philanthropy.org.au.
Note
Presenters will share their thoughts and views in conversation but will not offer any financial advice.
Speakers
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Jess Moore - CEO, Social Enterprise Australia
Jess is passionate about social and environmental wellbeing, and people working together to create change. Her work has always been in social innovation, in peak organisations, social enterprise and people-centred services. She was a Director at the Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT. She was CEO at Community Resources, one of Australia’s largest jobs focussed social enterprises, employing over 650 people.
Prior to this, she led social enterprise Green Connect through startup and scaleup. Jess came into social enterprise from a background in public policy, advocacy and community development, and has led collaborations that changed government policy and decisions.
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Sherryl Reddy - Network Lead, Social Enterprise Australia
Sherryl is energised by impact ecosystems that shift and share power differently; ones that lift marginalised voices and perspectives in self-determined, empowering ways, and centre equity and wellbeing for people, place and the planet. Her background is in human rights and community development. She has extensive experience working with communities, government, non-government organisations and the United Nations in inter-agency coordination and community partnership roles. Sherryl led SCARF Refugee Support before taking up diversity and inclusion strategy development roles with various government agencies and as an independent consultant.
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Alex Haynes - CEO, Whittlesea Community Connections
Alex Haynes has a strong record of achievement in a wide range of organisations in the for-purpose, education and commercial sectors and in successfully leading complex and difficult projects. She has a deep understanding of the importance of place based approaches to addressing disadvantage that she brings to her current role as CEO of Whittlesea Community Connections, an integrated community organisation in Melbourne’s growing outer north.
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Alex has a longstanding commitment to effective community engagement in the development of services, policy and investment frameworks. She has expertise in research design and management in both the International development context and Australian urban and rural contexts and has worked in the areas of learning and education, community development, community services, gender, urban and community planning, environment, food security and climate variability.
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Peer Network Co-chairs
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Belinda Morrissey - Chief Executive Officer, English Family Foundation
Belinda Morrissey is passionate about how we collectively build forward just, sustainable and inclusive economies. She is the CEO of the English Family Foundation, one of the few Australian foundations with a sole focus on driving transformational change through the growth and development of social entrepreneurs and social businesses.
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With deep experience within the Australian social enterprise sector and an extensive leadership background in both corporate and not for profit organisations spanning three continents, Belinda works across sectors to develop systems-based solutions that will mobilize capital and the ecosystems needed to create long term social change both within Australia and globally.
She is the Chair of Social Enterprise Australia, the national peak body for social enterprise in Australia, and is Co-Chair/Founder of the Social Enterprise Funders Network within Philanthropy Australia. In her personal capacity, she is also Chair of ActionAid Australia.
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Sally McGeoch - Senior Advisor, Westpac Foundation
Sally is a senior advisor at Westpac Foundation, a philanthropic organisation, independent from Westpac Group. Sally works on the design and delivery of grant and capacity building programs for community organisations and social enterprises that create jobs and employment opportunities for Australians facing complex barriers to work.
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Sally has worked at the intersection of philanthropy, business and social enterprise for close to 16 years and is a founding member of The Bread & Butter Project. She is also currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne on the role of cross-sector collaboration in supporting Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISE) to scale.
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