Melbourne Chamber member Social Traders is a leading social enterprise procurement intermediary and the only social enterprise certifier in Australia.

Social procurement is described as making purchasing decisions to generate social impact beyond the value of those goods or services, particularly around supporting local industries and enterprises that promote disadvantaged and Indigenous employment and environmental sustainability.

Social Traders’ report, Targets and Motivations for Social Procurement, explores how social procurement targets contribute to the overall motivations of business and government and the strategies used to achieve social goals.

Key highlights of the report include:

• 63 per cent of respondents have either public or internal social procurement targets, with a further 15 per cent currently developing targets.
• Setting targets has yielded success, with 74 per cent of respondents which have social procurement targets meeting or exceeding those targets.
• Customer expectation/reputation is a growing motivation for organisations to set social procurement targets, with 68 per cent of respondents selecting this as a motivation for setting their targets.

Social Traders’ CEO Tara Anderson highlights the growth of social procurement in the report: “In the last five years, Social Traders business and government members spent $607 million with certified social enterprises. And that number is growing at an average of 55 per cent year on year,” she said.

“Over 70 per cent of our members are increasing their social procurement spend year on year – through innovation, determination and driving internal change.”

The report does note that some hesitation remains with certain organisations to commit to social procurement targets, with 50 per cent of respondents without social procurement targets identifying a lack of organisational knowledge and resources to effectively manage targets.

“Let’s make social procurement business as usual. So together we can build a fairer and more equitable Australia. For all of us,” Ms Anderson said.

Impact of social enterprises

In a separate report, 2023 Profile of Australia’s Certified Social Enterprises, Social Traders offers a broad analysis of social enterprises in Australia. It finds that:

• The sector is growing rapidly. Employee numbers are up by 6 per cent; trading revenue is up by 32 per cent
• 45 per cent of the people employed by social enterprise would otherwise have been shut out of work.
• Over three quarters of revenue comes from their business activities rather than grants or donations
• There have been 110 certified social enterprises established since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Collectively, 518 social enterprises certified by Social Traders are spending $690 million annually on delivering social and environmental benefits, generating $2.25 billion in annual revenue and playing an instrumental role in providing employment opportunities to some of Australia’s most marginalised groups.

The full reports can be read here:

• Targets and Motivations for Social Procurement
• 2023 Profile of Australia’s Certified Social Enterprises (Pace 2023).