Greatest Good Newsletter August 2023: Social Impact Updates

Happy August!

Momentum is building in the for-purpose/social sector with the Federal Government's support of a more inclusive society with improved social outcomes.

We are seeing an increase in grants and other resources being offered to meet people where they are at and help support smaller for-purpose organisations increase their impact.

Closer to home, we are thrilled to announce that Greatest Good has been selected as a finalist in the social enterprise category of the Australian Women's Small Business Champion Awards.

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• The Christie Centre appeared on the front page of Sunraysia Daily detailing the launch of the Social Enterprise Visitor Inspiration Point as the Mildura Powerhouse Precinct edges closer to completion 
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• Monica Davidson from Creative Plus Business will be speaking at Artlands 2023 at the National Gallery Australia
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  The team at Hotel Etico have won another award, winning the prestigious 2023 NSW Accommodation Award for Excellence - Best Innovation Project

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• CuriousWorks has welcomed three new management committee members
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• SisterWorks is a 2023 Qantas Regional Grant Recipient. The grant will be used to run workshops where Sisters learn new skills to help them gain employment in Geelong - a new Mobile Hub for SisterWorks! 
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Measuring What Matters

The Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has released the first iteration of the national wellbeing framework that will track our progress towards a more healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous Australia. Going beyond the standard GDP measures normally used to track prosperity, it introduced 5 key themes, supported by 12 wellbeing themes dimensions and 50 underlying indicators to monitor and track progress over time.

Other News

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  Social Enterprise Australia has been engaged by the Department of Social Services (DCS) to gather stakeholder views on supporting and building capacity of social enterprises providing services in the areas of: community and inclusion; employment, training and participation; early childhood development; health and disability; culturally/linguistically diverse; and Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples. Initial workshops and surveys have been completed for capacity building grants, with two further workshops in September to gather views on online education and mentoring

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  The energetic Elise Parups has moved from her role as CEO of Queensland Social Enterprise Council (QSEC) to CEO of Impact Club to help increase the amount of capital flowing to the impact sector

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  Social Enterprise Australia turned one and celebrated by hiring Caragh Porter as a Finance and Systems Officer

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  Carmel Shaw joined the Social Enterprise Council of NSW & ACT (SECNA) team in a part time Operations Lead role

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  Neighbourhood Circle is running a series of free and paid Thursday evening events throughout August and September, taking a self-organising, community approach to building neighbourhood, networks and connection. Greatest Good founder, Jenni, is running a workshop as part of the series of pop-up markets, walking tours, events and more...

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 (the sometimes boring, but always important stuff)

Legislative changes: 

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  Domestic violence leave for small organisations became applicable for small organisations (less than 50 employees) from 1 August 2023

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  Red tape has been cut with the recent passing of legislation which transfers responsibility of 4 of the 52 deductible gift recipient (DGR) categories from various Federal Government ministers. Effective 1 January 2024, the departmental registers of environmental organisations, harm prevention charities, cultural organisations, and overseas aid organisations categories will transfer to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The Government estimates that this will reduce the DGR approval process from up to two years to around one month. The responsibility for the other 48 categories already sits with the ATO. 

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  Guidance has been issues for the positive duty obligations under the Respect@Work obligations which apply from December 2023.

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Privacy attitudes and experiences in Australia 

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  Following various quite public data breaches over the last year, the Office of the Information Commissioner have released their latest annual report on the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy.

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You can more on these items and other regulatory updates in our monthly regulatory updates and other updates posted on the Blog page (use the Regulatory Updates filter). We can't provide legal advice but you can find proposed and upcoming legislative changes to discuss with your legal advisers.

Looking to find a role with more meaning and purpose? Or just have some extra time to volunteer for a cause you care about?

You can find a variety of member paid and volunteer roles on the Volunteer/Work page. We update these roles at least weekly, so keep jumping on the Greatest Good ecosystem to find the role right for you.

Collaborations - asking for help and offering assistance

Support and free resources
We been working to add the latest offers of help. We've heard your request for more filters to quickly find resources, in addition to the asks for help and offers of assistance which we've added. So jump on the Collaborate section of the ecosystem, to find ways to donate items, find coworking spaces, and a range of free mental health/wellness programs and other small business support, as well as marketing and other tools and resources to help support you or your organisation to help you do you greatest good....

Grants
Community Engagement and Marketplace members can log in to access the grants directory and use the 60+ filters to find relevant grants in seconds. We are updating these regularly so that you always have the latest active grants at hand.

Support and free resources
We been working to add the latest offers of help. We've added extra filters to help you quickly find relevant resources. So jump on the Collaborate section of the ecosystem, to find ways to donate items, find coworking spaces, and a range of free mental health/wellness programs and other small business support, as well as marketing and other tools and resources to help support you or your organisation.

Greatest Good is a social enterprise that connects conscious consumers with for-purpose organisations.

We are a directory, community, marketplace and ecosystem that helps consumers to find, engage with and support social enterprises, B Corps, charities and other not-for-profit organisations.