Jack Manning Bancroft, CEO of Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) and Fone Free Feb went head to head this morning with Rob Koczkar, Managing Director of Pacific Equity Partners, in a friendly debate hosted by Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and the Macquarie Group Foundation.
Part of a quarterly series held in both Sydney and Melbourne, the debates stimulate discussion around a topic raised in the SVA Quarterly, Australia’s leading management publication for the social sector.
More than 60 non-profit, corporate and foundation CEOs and board members participated as Manning Bancroft on the affirmative and Koczkar on the negative debated ‘the non-profit sector in Australia needs to be rationalised.’
SVA Consulting Executive Director, Duncan Peppercorn commented, ‘My sense from the work that we have done is that the major driver of tighter collaboration – and even merger – is better outcomes for those being supported, rather than reducing costs.’
Mr Manning Bancroft argued that business minded approaches have shown greater success in improving outcomes for the people and causes non-profits serve and that funding should be allocated to those organisations that can demonstrate measurable success.
‘We should be funding models that can be scaled in a cost-effective way, not dividing funds between multiple providers that are doing the same thing as each other’ he commented.
Mr Koczkar, who also sits on the SVA and Goodstart boards, countered saying ‘seldom is there a precise overlap between what the many organisations in this sector are trying to achieve, so comparing outcomes is challenging.’
He continued ‘non-profits are usually so lean it’s hard to find savings through mergers. Greater levels of funding for the sector overall is needed to really drive an increase in impact.’
The issue of non-profit mergers, collaboration and partnerships is explored in the latest issue of the SVA Quarterly, which is supported by the Macquarie Group Foundation.
It is available online now at www.svaconsultingquarterly.com.
