Stewardship: the costs of developing social enterprises

The Australian social enterprise and impact investment sectors are growing, but the process of building a pipeline of sustainable social enterprises that are developed enough to attract debt and equity financing is still painstaking. There is still a "stewardship cost" in developing those businesses that is borne by varying participants, including philanthropies, fund managers, financial intermediaries such as business incubators, and the not-for-profit (NFPs) organisations that are building the businesses themselves.