What is impact? +

Impact is the positive social, cultural or environmental changes, or outcomes, that happen as a consequence of an action.

Impact comes in many shapes. It could involve offering employment opportunities for marginalised or differently abled people, creating more connected communities, waste reduction, efforts to support biodiversity or regenerate our environment. Impact could be delivered by social enterprises, charities, governments or any business that works to be impact-driven, in many different ways.

At Ākina, focusing on impact involves designing strategies to maximise the positive outcomes your actions could have. This might mean modelling how an action will lead to change and measuring whether change has happened or not. This could involve using data to prove that what you are doing is working, and to inform decision-making in order to maximise your impact

What is social procurement? +

Social procurement means using procurement as a tool to generate benefits (impact) beyond the products and services required.

Social procurement is procurement practice that considers value for money in a borader sense – considering broader social, cultural and environmental outcomes alongside price quality and risk.

New Zealand businesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year, which means business-to-business (B2B) procurement offers a huge untapped opportunity for social, cultural and environmental impact. Not every business can operate like a social enterprise, but every business can look at impact, and work to find ways to maximise positive impact. Any business that buys from other businesses can tap into social procurement by buying from social enterprises, which are impact-driven rather than profit-driven.

By harnessing the combined purchasing power of corporate and government buyers, social procurement directs spend towards impact through social enterprise suppliers.

In November 2018 Ākina launched New Zealand’s first social procurement programme, which connects buyers with certified social enterprise suppliers.

What is impact investment? +

Impact investment is investing with the intention of generating a measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return.

An impact investment will generally have the following characteristics:

• The investor chooses to invest because of the social or environmental benefits created.

• The investor also expects a profit. This profit may or may not be at the same level as tradition investment.

• An impact investment can take many forms, including giving a loan or buying into a social enterprise.

• The social or environmental benefit is measured so that both social and financial returns can be demonstrated to the investor.

The development of the impact investing sector in New Zealand and globally has been driven by the recognition that philanthropic and public funds are insufficient to address the scale of social and environmental problems we face today. Impact investment is attracting a variety of investors (including individuals, philanthropists, institutions and governments), and provides a broader range of financing options to solve social and environmental problems, while also yielding a financial return.

While impact investing is still a small subset of the investment sector, it covers all asset classes, different sectors and exists globally. Unlike grants, impact investments are expected to generate a financial return, while also having a positive effect environmentally and/or socially. Impact investments can be finance-first, which includes impact funds that seek to make market-rate returns while limiting investments to companies, organisations and assets that are have a positive impact on people and the planet. Impact investments can also be impact-first, such as a loan to a social enterprise at a below-market rate.

What is social enterprise? +

Social enterprises are purpose-driven organisations that trade to deliver positive social, cultural and environmental impact. They are often profit-making businesses, but they reinvest profit in their purpose.

Social enterprise is a part of a wider 'impact economy' that also includes community enterprises, charities, Māori enterprises (Pakihi Whai Kaupapa) and other impact-led businesses.

Because there is no formal legal definition of social enterprise in New Zealand, there are differing views about what defines it; is it a specific business structure, or is it a way of doing business? At Ākina we find that it is useful to have a framework to use when considering social enterprise. We use the following key elements to define social enterprise:

• The social, cultural and/or environmental mission provides public or community benefit and is the primary purpose of the organisation;
• The majority of income comes from trading a product or service;
• The majority of either expenditure or profit is spent on fulfilling the purpose of the organisation.

Some examples of well-known social enterprises can be found in the Business of Impact report, created as part of The Impact Initiative.

What services does Ākina offer? +

Ākina specialises in four key service areas.

• Impact Strategy and how you can measure and grow your impact
• Social Procurement and how you can spend your money with suppliers that will make a difference
• Impact Investment and how you can be ready for investment or invest in social enterprise
• Capability Building for all organisations, but especially social enterprises looking to review their business and impact models

For consulting services, visit our corporate and government section of the website.

For social enterprise, visit our social enterprise section of the website to find resources and support opportunities.

What is Ākina’s legal structure? +

Ākina is a registered charitable trust (the Ākina Foundation).

Ākina operates as a social enterprise by pursuing the generation of positive impact for New Zealand through all of our activities, including our consultancy services. As a charity, Ākina cannot operate for private gain – any profit from contracted services is reinvested in furthering our impact.

See more about our impact here.

Where does Ākina’s revenue come from? +

At Ākina, we generate revenue through delivering contracts for services to clients. These clients could be government agencies, corporates, not-for-profits, or social enterprises, to name a few.

These contracts are usually for consulting work, for example social procurement or impact strategy services. However, we also deliver partnership contracts through funding partners such as Foundation North where we deliver capability building services to Auckland and Northland based impact-led businesses.

Our Impact Supplier programme allows large businesses to sign up to our social procurement marketplace on a yearly membership basis.

From 2018 until March 2021, we were funded by the government to deliver The Impact Initiative - a programme to help establish conditions for a thriving social enterprise sector in New Zealand. This funding was not ongoing, and the programme ended in March 2021 with a series of recommendations for how the government can support impact-led business going forward.

You can see our work on this programme at theimpactinitiative.org.nz.

What is Ākina’s history? +

We’ve been around since 2008! In 2008, the Todd and Tindall Foundations established the Hikurangi Foundation to support practical action on climate change and the environment. As Hikurangi Foundation, we funded and supported a wide range of grassroots and community-led innovation across New Zealand.

Over time, we started to see that social enterprise could provide a powerful and proven vehicle for driving transformation and change. Hikurangi’s mission evolved to focus on five impact areas (transport; housing; consumption & waste; land and ecosystems; energy), and we built an incubation model that supported a range of social enterprises and social entrepreneurs throughout the country.

In early 2014, the Government announced funding to expand our incubation and development services for high potential social enterprise across New Zealand, and set out a position statement on social enterprise for the country. In May 2014, we broadened our mission and adopted a new name for our foundation, Ākina, to help us describe the next chapter in our story.

In 2018 Ākina was named as the strategic partner to the Government in a three-year programme to develop New Zealand’s social enterprise sector. Publicly named The Impact Initiative, it aimed to enable a thriving social enterprise sector and map the way forward for future government support. Find out more about the programme by visiting The Impact Initiative.

Today, Ākina continues to work with social enterprises but is also focussed on creating the bigger picture economic conditions for a more impactful economy – one that sees more enterprises operating at scale to deliver significant positive outcomes – alongside traditional businesses which measure, understand and value their impact. We do this through a bespoke and evolving range of consulting services and advocacy work.

What does 'Ākina' mean? +

Ākina is a Te Reo Māori word meaning ‘To challenge, to encourage, or urge onwards’. It’s a powerful call to make change through bold action, that we have also incorporated into our tagline:

Be Bold. Challenge yourself. Challenge others.

I’m starting a social enterprise, what do I do first? +

That’s great to hear! We have a Starting a Social Enterprise Checklist to help you get started. It covers everything from investigating your idea, to setting up a company.

Get the checklist

What is the best legal structure for social enterprise? +

There is no specific legal structure for social enterprise in New Zealand. However, there are ways of getting around this.

The most common options for registering are:

• Limited Liability Company
• Limited Liability Company with Charitable Trust
• Charitable Trust

Before getting into deciding a legal structure, make sure you are at a stage where it makes sense to register, for example, you have proven your product or service is something people want, and that your intended impact will be positive.

Then, take a look at the pros and cons of different legal structures. The options will be different depending on things like how you intend to operate, governance, how you might raise funding, and long term plans for your social enterprise.

For more general information, check out this free tool from Ākina: A guide to legal structures for impact-led organisations

Does Ākina give grants to social enterprises? +

Ākina is a not-for-profit social enterprise. We are led by our purpose and work to advocate for impact businesses with government and business leaders to support bigger change across Aotearoa New Zealand's economy.

As a social enterprise, we generate our own revenue to help fund our organisation and our various impact programmes. As a result, we are generally only able to offer impact consulting or advisory services to paying clients.

Ākina does not give grants to businesses ourselves, rather acts as a facilitator of funding.

Any grant funding Ākina gives out is on behalf of others, and we will support the funder/s to identify the best recipients for funding. For example, our Impact Investment Readiness Programme is run by Ākina, but is only possible because of Bay Trust, Tindall Foundation, Foundation North and Russell Mcveagh contributing funding for the grants.

To find out about opportunities for funding like this as they become available, keep an eye on our opportunities page for social enterprise.

Does Ākina focus on only social enterprise? +

No, we work with all kinds of businesses to support them in creating positive impact. We call businesses that are delivering positive impact, “impact-led businesses'', and these may or may not be social enterprises. We recognise social enterprise is a strong model for delivering positive impact, but it is not the only one!

How does Ākina support enterprises that aren’t able to pay for coaching or consultancy services? +

We know that businesses that need the sort of support we provide often aren’t in a position to pay market rates for consulting services. That’s why we’re always on the look-out for opportunities to offset these costs in other ways, in order to offer more accessible support.

If you’re a smaller business, check out our opportunities page and check out:

• Our free tools and resources
• Subsidised support under the Regional Business Partner Network
• Other opportunities for free or subsidised workshops and support

If you’re based in Auckland or Northland, you may be eligible for support under our partnership with Foundation North, so please get in touch.

What is The Impact Initiative? +

The Impact Initiative was a partnership between the Department of Internal Affairs and the Ākina Foundation, with support from the Community Enterprise Network Trust (CENT).

The programme launched in April of 2018 and wrapped-up in March of 2021, and focussed on supporting the overall conditions for a thriving social enterprise sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, and determining how the Government could support social enterprise in the future.

Find out more by visiting The Impact Initiative.

What happened to Social Shifters? +

If you’re wondering what happened to Social Shifters, the pilot phase of this platform has now finished, and based on feedback and evidence we (Ākina) are not continuing with the platform after the end of The Impact Initiative. All of the tools that were on Social Shifters are now available here.