Hello from our CEO
Hello!
I hope that you and your families are staying well and enjoying the return to a new normal.
Today is day 74 of the Sefa team working from home and day 73 since my CEO appointment, after taking over in an acting capacity in December 2019. It has been an unexpected but rewarding time to lead an organisation that had already undergone significant changes in the previous six months. But then there’s never a groundhog day at Sefa or Sefa Partnerships. We work with many different organisations across a wide range of financial solutions but the past couple of months have certainly honed our ability to reflect, adapt and think outside the box.
Here are some developments at the core of our operations that I would like to share with you:
Sefa and Sefa Partnerships are now working as a collective across the social finance and social investment landscape – view our refreshed strategy (or impact statement). This strategy shows how we are creating partnerships to grow capacity for impact, through capital and capability. As part of this closer collaboration between the two organisations, we have established a new investment committee that will oversee a broader range of financial mechanisms for purpose-driven organisations and the strategic partnerships that we see as essential to drive our desired outcomes.
In times where many people unfortunately saw their jobs disappear, we are grateful to have grown the Sefa team by welcoming three amazing women. Meet Luisa, Leo and Renee.
We have shown compassion to our existing clients by providing flexible repayment holidays and opened up conversations on loan restructures. We have kept our investors updated on how we’re helping our borrowers in these unprecedented times. We are amazed by the resilience purpose-driven organisations demonstrate and have come across a number of positive stories, a few are outlined in the story below. We hope you can add to these stories - if so, please get in touch.
You can also learn about one of our newest clients, The Sydney Retreat, in this newsletter. We are so pleased to support these leaders in addiction recovery.
At the March Board meeting, we signed off on a new business plan for Sefa and Sefa Partnerships to deliver on our strategic impact statement. When we stress tested the plan against the virus, we realised that whilst the core principles remained valid, there was the need to pivot to add value to communities and organisations navigating our new world.
Two main work streams emerged that we see as part of the medium to long-term recovery phase and we invite you to join us on this journey:
Encouraged by our shareholder NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) we are shining the light on the entrenched issue of food security in regional and remote Indigenous communities, that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. We have investigated, listened, validated and generated ideas on how to make a difference that we would like to pursue together with partners; and
We believe that purpose-driven organisations are well placed and show the resilience to ‘build back better’ by creating employment for marginalised groups, especially outside urban regions as the future of work and digital connectivity will have changed forever. There are some exciting opportunities emerging related to capital and capability and we look forward to sharing updates with you over the coming weeks. Please join us on LinkedIn to stay up to date between newsletters.
Wishing you a relaxing long weekend – perhaps a little further away from home this time!
Hanna Ebeling
CEO, Sefa