From pay-it-forward coffee schemes and free breakfasts, to helping at-risk youth learn life skills, these enterprises are doing good.

Wayside Chapel opens Heart Cafe in Bondi

Bondi needs another cafe like it needs another soap opera actor resident. But there’s always room for a new arrival with some soul. Heart Cafe opens its doors on Roscoe Street on November 15, a clever tie-in with the Wayside Chapel’s Wingspan Project. The social enterprise venue will give disadvantaged youth 12-month paid hospitality traineeships, hopefully creating a production line of budding cafe owners and staff.

Australian Eco-friendly ‘clothes Library’ Fights Fast Fashion

In a small shop along one of Sydney’s busiest streets, Sarah Freeman is encouraging Australians to slow down and break their addiction to fast fashion.

Project Rockit Partners with Social Media Giants

Facebook and Instagram are investing $1 million into an Australian anti-bullying social enterprise to create a network of young people driving social change.

Coffee Van Serves up Second Shot at Life for Homeless Woman

Second Shot is a social enterprise started by Brisbane man James Christie last year. It operates two mobile coffee trucks across the city and trains and employs young homeless and disadvantaged people to operate the vans.

Meet the New Social Enterprise Battling Poor Mental Health Within the Performing Arts Industry

Cherri On Top want to boost industry support and opportunities for performers.

Little Dreamers’ Perfect Pitch

Melbourne-based Madeleine Buchner, founder of Little Dreamers – an organisation supporting siblings of sick children, and kids who care for unwell parents – may soon have some big dreams realised after recently winning first prize of $30,000 at JCA’s Jumpstart pitch event.

World First Australian App to Transform Learning for Children with Autism

Autism Swim’s new project is a world first, which will embody their philosophies in a way that’s attractive and palatable for children. A move away from their focus on parents and swim instructors.

Wollongong-based Social Entrepreneur & University of Wollongong Help Develop Cyclone-proof Housing System

Wollongong-based social entrepreneur Ryan Mullaney of Lifting Point Construction Technologies has developed the ‘BuiltQuik’ housing frame system, with engineering design support from engineering company SMEC.

Eliminating Domestic Violence – Social Entrepreneur Chris Boyle Shares His Journey

Chris Boyle is the founder of ‘Commsync’ which harnesses the power of technology to eliminate domestic violence connecting vulnerable community members to their safety network, through the push of a button.

How One Woman’s Love of Art and Design Is about to Make Your Own City More Liveable

Social entrepreneur Lucinda Hartley has pioneered innovative methods to improve the social sustainability of cities. She co-founded Neighbourlytics, a company that uses big data to inform urban development decisions. Here, she shares how she uses technology to harness her creativity.

Meet the Woman Behind One of the Largest Food Rescue Operations in the World

In only 14 years, Ronni Kahn has taken OzHarvest from a small Sydney charity to an international organisation across five continents, and she shows no signs of slowing down soon. A new documentary, Food Fighter, follows her crusade against food waste.

Why Forbes 30 under 30 Member Natalie Kyriacou Left Her Day Job for Business Life

When Natalie Kyriacou started her My Green World business, her passion project was just one of her countless other projects on the go. It might have been an at times painful road, but Kyriacou says she was able to transition into founder life because she had a clear idea of the impact she wanted her business to make.

Toowoomba Woman Employs Inmates as Graphic Designers

Helen Black has prisoners completing real graphic design jobs for customers – now she wants to do the same thing with coding.

Exposing Myths Around a Midlife Career Transition

Maria Simonelli created The Career Redesign Program in a bid to help people, particularly for people aged between 40-60 years old, make a successful career move. In this opinion piece she addresses the myths that surround a midlife career change.

This Founder Started the ‘tinder’ for Suicide Prevention That Spread to 55 Countries

The inspiration for ‘Be A Looper’ began when CEO and Founder Amanda Hart became increasingly concerned with how to manage her deep personal relationships in her late teens following a string of suicides by friends.

Local Florist’s New Hire: ‘Must Have a Disability or Mental Illness’

Nip Wijewickrema started GG’s Flowers with one goal in mind: to provide meaningful employment for her sister Gayana, who has Down Syndrome. Five years on, GG’s has become so much more. With five full-time employees and 20 casual employees during the Christmas rush, Wijewickrema can proudly confirm that all staff employed have a disability or mental illness.

The Very Good Bra

There are around 2 billion women on the planet, and if recent research is to be believed the average woman owns nine bras, which means there are 18 billion bras headed for landfill. But social entrepreneur Stephanie Devine has come up with a solution – The Very Good Bra.

Four Australian Startups Just Won $1 Million from Google: Here Are the Secrets to Their Pitching Success

Google has awarded four Australian startups $1 million in grant funding each to scale-up their offerings and help people in need across the country and the globe.

Ethical Fashion’s So Hot Right Now

Thread Harvest’s managing director, Davyn de Bruyn, wants to make it as easy as possible for people to re-orient themselves in a world that has a warped view of fashion. His role, he says, is to help people become ethical consumers, providing them with what they increasingly want.

Humanitix: Australian Start-up Turning the Ticketing Industry on Its Head

There’s few things more frustrating than forking out a whole lot of money for tickets to a show or festival only to be slogged with extra fees on top of already exorbitant prices. But what if that money was going somewhere, instead of into the pockets of big companies? Enter Adam McCurdie and Joshua Ross.