Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI) Grants help social enterprises, including trading Indigenous owned or controlled organisations with a defined social benefit, grow their business, scale their impact and further their missions of creating positive social change.
The grants, valued at up to $120,000 each, are targeted towards supporting social enterprises to be more effective and efficient in demonstrating and increasing social impact for the people and communities they exist to support.
The initiative supports social enterprises across all states and territories that are delivering services for people living in Australia who are experiencing entrenched disadvantage, in a range of social outcome areas, including: communities, employment, education and First Nations Australians. View full list of the DSS outcome areas.
Grants are funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Social Services and are to be used to purchase business and impact capability building services from intermediaries, such as financial services, evaluation and impact measurement, business consulting and legal advice.
Eligible SEDI Grant applicants:
Definition: A social enterprise is a business that puts people and planet first. It trades like any other business, but exists specifically to make the world a better place. A social enterprise seeks to solve a social or environmental problem. It can be a for-profit or non-profit organisation, or a charity that trades.
Notes:
Applications for a SEDI Grant will remain open until December 2025. This cutoff date intends to allow those applying in late 2025 to have time to complete their grant activities by the end of the SEDI program in June 2026.
Applications will be assessed at the next available SEDI Grants Expert Panel session. Grants will be awarded based on the assessment criteria outlined in the application guidelines, with a particular emphasis on the additional impact expected from scaling using the capability building services (funded by the grants).
Complementing the SEDI Grants program is a whole-of-sector education and mentoring support system. This includes Understorey, an online tool to help social enterprises navigate the sector and to learn, exchange and contribute to a better future. Understorey brings together learning communities and leading practice resources. It is targeted at those in or interested in the social enterprise sector, aiming to feed curiosity, offer practical solutions, and inspire new possibilities for the future. Social Enterprise Australia is the steward and coordinator of Understorey.
The Department of Social Services (DSS) has received reports of an email scam where a scammer posing as a representative of DSS has emailed members of the public offering a $120,000 grant under the Social Enterprise Development Initiative (SEDI) program. The scammer requests the victim’s contact details, and then sends through a false ‘grant certificate’ to notify them they have been selected, which includes a falsified signature of a senior department officer. To gain access to the payment, victims are then told they need to pay a $250 fee to unlock a debit card.
What to do if you are contacted by a scam attempt
DSS does not contact members of the public through social media or email to offer grant opportunities. Legitimate grants will never require the recipient to pay a fee to access the amounts, and debit cards are not used to disburse grant payments. If you are contacted by one of these scam attempts, do not provide any personal or financial information. You can report it to DSS via contact details on their website or contact: fraud@dss.gov.au.
We value all forms of feedback (positive or negative). Details of our feedback policy and how to contact us with feedback on Impact Investing Australia and our activities (including the SEDI Grants program) is available here.
Impact intermediaries provide capability building services that help social enterprises scale their impact.
Note: There are no SEDI Grant ‘approved’ providers/intermediaries. The intermediaries listed on our website have not been accredited by IIA. We recommend you conduct thorough research to determine the suitability of an intermediary for your needs. The cost of capability building services is dependent on an organisation’s complexity, capability and what services are required. In procuring any services the social enterprise and the provider/intermediary should ensure they have a common understanding of what work is involved, what will be delivered, how much time it will take and what the risks are (e.g. unknown information).
Impact incubators and accelerators help social enterprises and purpose driven start ups grow their business and prepare for future impact investment.
Note: There are no SEDI Grant ‘approved’ incubators and accelerators. The incubators and accelerators listed on our website have not been accredited by IIA. We recommend you conduct thorough research to determine the suitability of an incubator/accelerator for your needs. The cost of services is dependent on an organisation’s complexity, capability and what services are required. In procuring any services the social enterprise and the incubator/accelerator should ensure they have a common understanding of what work is involved, what will be delivered, how much time it will take and what the risks are (e.g. unknown information).
If you are an impact incubator or accelerator and would like to be included on this list, contact enquiries@impactinvestingaustralia
The following organisations were awarded an Impact Investment Ready Growth Grant or a Resilience Grant between 2015 and 2023.