In an Australian-first for an aid organisation, Save the Children launched its first Impact Investment Fund in 2020 and raised $7.425 million to support enterprises that emphasise social innovation and address pressing social and humanitarian issues while making a financial return. These included Oho, Zeraki, Ngutu College, Inquisitive, Dataro, ThinkMD and Intellischool and Zeraki.

The success of this first investment fund and its significant investments in the education, child protection and health sectors has paved the way for the launch of Fund II, with a greater financial target: aiming for $25 million, of which at least $10 million will be invested in Australia.

Save the Children Impact Investment Fund Director Paul Ronalds said Fund II offers socially minded investors the opportunity to earn competitive returns while achieving impactful change for children.

“To accelerate progress on the most critical issues affecting children, we can’t rely on traditional charity operating models alone. We must find new ways of intervening that are both more efficient and effective to drive meaningful change. This requires patient capital that supports creativity, innovation and scale.

“Through our work delivering on our initial offering, and seeing the very real impact it is having, we are more confident than ever in our approach and its potential,” he said.

Helping children to keep learning, grow up healthy and stay safe, while also working on solutions to address climate change are the key impact areas for Fund II.

“We thank our existing partners and investors who are motivated to have a positive impact with their investment portfolios.”

To express your interest in investing, or if you have a great social enterprise you want to take further, we would love to hear from you. Email: Julianne Wilkin, Head of Impact Investing at impactinvesting@savethechildren.org.au.