Australian Impact Investment Awards

Celebrating sector leaders and innovators in impact investing

2024 nominations launching soon. Winners announced at the Impact Investment Awards Dinner during the 2025 Impact Investment Summit

ABOUT THE AWARDS

The Australian Impact Investment Awards offers an opportunity for organisations and individuals to showcase and be recognised for their expertise, commitment and outstanding activity in the Australian impact investing ecosystem. The Awards are designed around similar criteria and categories to the Global Steering Group’s (GSG) Awards.

AWARD CATEGORIES

  • The honour will be conferred upon an institutional investor, superannuation fund, philanthropy/foundation, DFI/Government, Family Office/HNWI or Corporation, who during the year creates a market-leading benchmark in capital allocation, distinctive investment theme, significant documented impact, new portfolio approach, tools & frameworks, and in the process, sets new standards for the impact investment industry. Note this category is for organisations who own the underlying assets (there is also an asset manager category - see below).

  • The honour will be conferred on a Fund, Bank, Dealmaker or Intermediary, who sets a new sector benchmark in product innovation, marquee first-time LPs, attracting commercial or non-traditional capital, investment themes, significant documented impact or new portfolio approach, tools & frameworks, and in the process, sets new standards for capital allocation in the impact investment industry. This category refers to organisations that manage the underlying assets.

  • The honour will be conferred on a government, policy think tank or a professional services company or advisory firm, for example in research, consulting, impact measurement, talent management or auditing which pushes sectoral thinking, fosters collaboration or catalyses field development efforts.

  • The honour will be conferred upon either a profit with purpose company (i.e., a social enterprise) or a non-profit social service provider actively using impact investments, which demonstrates a scalable solution which truly innovates in technology, cost or impact, efficiency or effectiveness and sets new impact standards for research and development.

  • The honour will be conferred on an individual that has made outstanding achievement in the past year to support the growth of the Australian impact investment market. This award recognises an innovation, vision, significant change or development driven by the nominee that could be applied more broadly throughout the impact investing ecosystem.

Awards Rules and Guidelines

The judging panel will work to identify one nomination in each of the above five categories, from Australia, who nominates himself/herself or his/her organisation or is nominated by any member of the public. Across all five categories, the judges will look for catalytic action, courageous first movers, scaling of capital and impact and building critical infrastructure such as new institutions. The judges will be looking for real pioneers who’ve left the security of day jobs, taken professional and sometimes personal risks to till the ground and move the impact investment sector forward.

NOMINATIONS

Nominations for the 2024 Awards will open in 2024. Please sign up to the Impact Investing Hub community to receive updates.

Asset Owner
of the Year

Asset Manager
of the Year

Impact Market Builder
of the Year

Impact Enterprise
of the Year

Individual Outstanding Achievement Award

PAST AWARD WINNERS

2023 Winners

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Joint winners Giant Leap Fund and Synergis Fund

    Impact Asset Owner of the Year: Tripple

    Impact Market Builder of the Year: Remarkable

    Impact Enterprise of the Year: Australian Spatial Analytics

    Individual Outstanding Achievement Award

    • Michael Traill AM, Member of the Order of Australia, Chair of the Investment Committee at Australian Retirement Trust and Chair of the federal government's Social Impact Investing Taskforce;

    • Belinda Drew, Deputy Director General, Communities at Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts Communities and Chair of the Board of SEFA;

    • Keith Rovers, Social Impact & Sustainable Finance and  National Pro Bono Partner at MinterEllison and

    • Ben Gales, Chief Delivery Officer at the Paul Ramsay Foundation and Chair of the SEFA Investment Committee.

2022 Winners

  • Impact Entreprise of the Year: Covidence

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Conscious Investment Management (CIM)

  • Impact Asset Owner of the Year: Joint winners were The Snow Foundation and Alberts.

  • Impact Market Builder of the Year: LendForGood 

  • Individual Awards for Outstanding Achievement:

    • Rosemary Addis AM, Founding Managing Partner, Mondiale Impact

    • Giles Gunesekera, CEO, Global Impact Initiative

    • Paul Ronalds, Founder & CEO, Save the Children Global Ventures

    • Alan Burrell, Managing Director, Mercy Ships Australia

2021 Winners

  • Impact Entrepreneur of the Year: Jigsaw

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Affirmative Investment Management (AIM)

  • Impact Market Builder of the Year: Good Return

  • Individual Awards for Outstanding Achievement:

    • Jo Barraket

    • Kylie Charlton

    • Daniel Madhavan

    • Kerry Series.

2020 Winners

  • Impact Entrepreneur of the Year: Xceptional

  • Impact Asset Owner of the Year: Christian Super

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA)

  • Impact Market Builder of the Year: Red Hat Impact and Impact Investing Australia

  • Individual Awards for Outstanding Achievement:

    • John McKinnon

    • Sven Stenvers

    • Nigel Sharp.

2019 Winners

  • Impact Entrepreneur of the Year: Goterra and Nightingale Housing

  • Impact Asset Owner of the Year: HESTA

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Kilter Rural

  • Impact Market Builder of the Year: Pacific Trade Invest Australia

  • Individual Awards for Outstanding Achievement:

    • Lane Crockett, Head of Renewable Infrastructure, Impact Investment Group

    • Sandy Blackburn-Wright, Founder & Managing Director, Social Outcomes

    • Elyse Sainty, Director of Impact Investing, Social Ventures Australia

    • Lisa Siganto, Chairman, ImpaQt Queensland

2018 Winners

  • Impact Entrepreneur of the Year: Hireup

  • Impact Asset Owner of the Year: QBE Insurance

  • Impact Asset Manager of the Year: Social Ventures Australia

  • Impact Market Builder of the Year: Impact Investing Australia

  • 'X Factor' Award for Outstanding Activity: Kylie Charlton

Please note: Any nominee, finalist or winner of the Impact Investment Awards (the Awards) may be included in marketing and communications by Impact Investing Hub (an initiative of Social Impact Hub Ltd.) for the purposes of promoting the Awards only. Any mention or recognition of an entity, and/or associated fund or individual does not constitute an endorsement of the entity/fund as an impact entity/fund or constitute as an impact rating or assessment in any way. It does also not constitute an offer or invitation to make an offer, nor a recommendation or expression of opinion about any entity or product mentioned through any promotion channels used by the Awards. All entities and financial products listed as part of the Awards which are available for acquisition are being offered by the applicable issuers (not the Social Impact Hub). Please also see the privacy policy and disclaimers page for further information.