The Benevolent Society is hosting the Australian premier of The Invisible Heart – the world’s first documentary about social impact bonds.
What happens when capitalism and charity intersect? From Wall Street to life on the street, The Invisible Heart tracks the birth of one of the fastest growing social innovations in modern history: social impact bonds.
As we know through The Benevolent Society’s own Social Benefit Bond initiative, this burgeoning financial model represents a somewhat unorthodox marriage between government services and private-sector investments – but what are the pros and cons of social impact bonds?
The Benevolent Society’s journey with social benefit bonds began back in 2010 when we started working with the NSW Government, Westpac and Commonwealth Bank to build a social benefit bond to support the delivery of our Resilient Families program that kept families together and children out of out of home care.
In 2013, we launched what was then one of Australia’s first social benefit bonds with funds from private and institutional investors. The results to-date have been fantastic and behind the scenes we, in combination with our bond partners, have had many learnings and experiences.
This year, our bond will be the first social benefit bond in Australia to mature and we are excited to share the results and our learnings later this year.
The Invisible Heart Trailer
The Invisible Heart reveals the challenges associated with introducing a profit incentive to the delivery of social services. It asks the questions: How important should profit potential be in designing a program? Who will decide the payment trigger and rate of return? How will we know whether the programs we fund are truly improving lives?
At the heart of this film is one central question: What impact will market forces have on social services and the people they help?
Set in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, this compelling 90-minute documentary follows some unlikely people banding together to battle social inequality.
We hosted the first screening last Tuesday 5 June in Brisbane and tickets are already sold out for the upcoming screening at Sydney’s Palace Verona on 13 June.
Thanks for everyone who supported us on Brisbane, and for all those who have already booked their tickets for the Sydney screening. We look forwards to seeing you all there.
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