Partnering for Outcomes ↓

During 2019-2020 Sefa worked on Melbourne City Mission’s ‘Living Learning’ capital raise, an outcomes-based contract and partnership between the Victorian Government, Australian foundations and the not-for-profit sector.

The Living Learning program is supported by the Victorian Government as part of its ground-breaking Partnerships Addressing Disadvantage (PADs). PADs bring together the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors to address deep-seated disadvantage through a social impact investment model.

The Victorian Government has committed up to $15 million for this PAD with the final level of outcome payments to be based on the results achieved.

Partnering for Blended Finance ↓

Sefa provided advice on blended capital structuring options, targeting foundation investors using their corpus and granting arm with two different tranches (at-risk and commercial). $4m was raised from five foundations.

This investment structure is the first of its kind, allowing foundations to participate on equal terms with commercial investors, not only in the at-risk piece. It showcased the opportunity of impact investing to philanthropic trustees.

The commercial tranche activates the foundation corpus, generating a competitive financial return if the project achieves its social outcome goals. The at-risk tranche is a contingent commitment from the foundation’s granting arm – it is only called upon if the commercial tranche incurs a loss due to the project’s inability to achieve the target social outcomes.

For more details of this innovative structure, you can read this article from our partners in this project, Latitude Network. Sefa also presented the structure in a webinar hosted by Pro Bono News in May 2021.

Partnering for Education ↓

The Living Learning program provides education and support for young people aged 15 to 21 who are disengaged from employment, education and training and who have a mental health condition.

The program will provide three years of education and wraparound mental health support to 144 Victorian young people with complex needs.

As well as the personal benefit to participants, the program is also expected to deliver significant benefits to the community through reduced use of health and other government services.

Melbourne City Mission will deliver the Living Learning program at its Hester Hornbrook Academy campuses as an extension of its existing educational services.

For more info: Living Learning Fact Sheet.