Once in a while, you come across an organisation doing something truly fabulous – something that makes you stop and just think “Wow”.  Well, we are delighted to share with you the story of one of our clients who is doing just that!

ForPurposeCo. is “a sustainable, socially focused, profit-generating business with people, planet and purpose at its heart”.

Led by Chief Visionary (and CEO & Founder of OzHarvest), Ronni Kahn, ForPurposeCo. is a profit-for-purpose social enterprise that exists to increase funding for OzHarvest.

What does that mean?  Put simply, a profit-for-purpose business is a business venture with a mission to achieve a specific social benefit.  The business venture is designed to:

• achieve the organisation’s mission through its trading activities; and
• make profits, which can also be directed toward the organisation’s mission;

all the while trading to meet a consumer need.

Heralded as “the business model of the future”, the profit-for-
purpose movement has been growing in Australia in recent years and when you think about it, it’s no surprise!  The concept of profit-for-purpose underpins a significant and hugely positive paradigm shift.

Where previously organisations were thought of as either “profit-making businesses” or “non-for-profit charities”, profit-for-purpose organisations combine the two with double the impact, making social purpose an integrated part of everyday business and challenging the assumption that making profit and social advancement are mutually exclusive.

It’s exciting to think that this shift in thinking could truly revolutionise the world of business, transforming the world we live in into a place where business is genuinely driven by meaningful purpose and social goals are more than just another KPI tick-box in an annual report.

The purpose of ForPurposeCo.

Most Australians will have heard of OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue organisation.  It was established in 2004 to direct surplus food from landfill to those in need as part of its mission of seeking to build a sustainable food culture, where everyone can access a fresh, nutritious and affordable meal.

Understandably, OzHarvest needs significant ongoing revenue in order to carry out this mission rescuing food, reducing food waste through education, training, lobbying and advocacy, and finding new ways to reduce food waste.

ForPurposeCo. exists to expand OzHarvest’s mission through innovative business, focused on food and waste technology; and further supports OzHarvest by donating profits.

Business activities

ForPurposeCo.’s activities focus on:

• Seeking out ground-breaking ideas that will delight a customer, solve a world problem and generate revenue in the food and food waste technology market; and
• Investing in new ideas, products and services that are aligned with OzHarvest values, that are proven successful in global markets, bringing them to life in Australia.

Juice For Good is one product launched by ForPurposeCo.  “It is the first fresh orange juice vending machine which uses rescued oranges, providing consumers with a delicious and healthy beverage and at the same time, saving good quality produce from going to waste”.

We were blown off our chairs to hear that nearly half of all Aussie-grown fruit and vegetables do not make it off the farm!  This horrendous waste is happening every day, unbeknown to many an ordinary Aussie, and is both clearly unsustainable and deeply disheartening when we think of all the farmers who are already doing it so tough in the current drought.

Juice For Good is a brilliant business that helps to mitigate this waste by taking oranges that are semi-perfect on the outside and giving them purpose.  After all, it’s what’s on the inside that counts!

Investing

All businesses require some level of capital investment in order to fund their start-up and growth.  ForPurposeCo. acquires funds through a combination of raising share capital and obtaining loans from investors.

Working with Catalyst

Needless to say, when we were approached by ForPurposeCo. to help with the accounting and tax side of things, we jumped at the opportunity!  Although the business is in its relatively early stages, Catalyst has been able to help in a number of ways.

Selecting the right structure is important for any business, and a profit-for-purpose business is no exception!  Catalyst was initially involved with helping ForPurposeCo. with a re-structure to ensure the longevity of the structure and allow oversight and direction by the appropriate people.  We helped by advising on the tax consequences of the restructure, and reviewing the external business valuation to ensure it was accurate, thus minimising the tax implications.

We have also assisted ForPurposeCo. with tax planning to understand the business’ tax position, utilise tax concessions in the most effective manner, and avoid the unintended and adverse tax consequences of certain transactions.  This has helped to ensure that the business’ profits are maximised, allowing those funds to be reinvested into the business and maximise the financial support given to OzHarvest via donation of profits.

Mary Sue Rogers, Catalyst at ForPurposeCo., shares her thoughts on how Catalyst Financial has made a difference in ForPurposeCo.’s journey.  “As a start-up you need fit for purpose advice and guidance.  Catalyst provided both strategic and operational advice that was very appropriate for where we were in our lifecycle.  Getting the legal structure of the organisation locked into the best short and longer term tax efficient environment was key to ForPurposeCo. as we want the maximum amount of money possible to go to OzHarvest.  Catalyst helped us achieve this”.

The future

There is no doubt that ForPurposeCo. has a bright future ahead.  “We have two products today, both focused on food waste reduction, and we are trialling several other products to hopefully add to our offering and generate more money for OzHarvest.  Sign up to our newsletter on our website (URL at the end of this letter) to hear about our new products and solutions”.

Get involved!

We also asked Mary Sue how people can get involved.

1. “Support OzHarvest – donate or volunteer to help them rescue more food, feed and educate more people.
2. We are still looking for loans to expand faster. Anyone interested in this please reach out to have a chat.
3. Buy the products we support that generate money for OzHarvest – whether that is a cup of juice or intelligent scales for commercial kitchen (Winnow Solution) for each sale we can do more for OzHarvest”.

If you’re interested in hearing more about what OzHarvest does, there is a great interview with CEO Ronni Kahn on a recent episode of The Squiz (16 October 2019).

There is also more information about ForPurposeCo. and Juice For Good on their website – www.forpurposeco.com and of course on social media.