In this interview with Coralie Nichols from the Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation, we explore the uphill battle of raising capital for social enterprises—and the pivotal role the foundation played in helping Beacon Laundry come to fruition.
Beacon Laundry, the social enterprise commercial laundry that “gives a sheet”, officially opened its doors in the Northern Rivers region in April 2024. The laundry exists to create local jobs, career pathways and a workplace where people from all backgrounds can thrive. The launch was marked by a special visit from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who praised the role of social enterprises. His presence underscored the significance of the initiative, not only for the Beacon team but also for the social enterprise sector as a whole.
In just nine months, Beacon has become Bangalow's largest employer, employing more than 100 locals, many of whom had been long-term unemployed.
It is the fourth jobs-focused social enterprise White Box has successfully incubated. Yet, unknown to most people, Beacon almost didn’t make it. It took five years and countless setbacks for the dream to become a reality.
How it all began
It all began with a phone call. In late 2019, Richard Uechtritz, the former CEO of JB Hi-Fi, moved to Byron Bay. Inspired by Vanguard Laundry, a successful social enterprise founded by White Box’s CEO Luke Terry, in Toowoomba, Uechtritz reached out to Luke with a bold proposal. Not only would he help secure contracts with local resorts, but he’d also contribute $2 million to bring the concept to Byron.
It made a lot of sense. There was market opportunity – a high volume of hotels and accommodation in Byron, but no large scale local commercial laundry – and there was need. The community had been hit hard over the last decade with droughts, bushfires and floods, and the area experiences almost double the state’s average unemployment rate.
Raising impact-first capital is hard
But despite the contribution from the Richard and Lorena Uechtritz Foundation, and a federal government grant of $750,000 – an election commitment from local member Assistant Minister for Social Services, Justine Eliott in 2022 – the next stage of the raise proved challenging.
Large scale commercial laundries aren’t cheap to set up, and many impact investors can be hesitant to back social enterprises, often due to the risk and lower immediate returns (read this article from White Box COO about The state of social enterprise finance and why it needs to change).
Throughout the Beacon raise, White Box approached more than 120 foundations and individuals who identify as being impact investors. Initially, all investors appeared interested but as deals went through their traditional channels the offers never saw the light of day.
Coralie Nichols, CEO of the Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation, which later became a major backer, explains: “Social enterprises by their very nature are often asset poor and have high-cost structures due in large part to the wraparound supports. It’s also businesses breaking new ground—we don’t have years of evidence-based data that shows it is absolutely going to work.”
Coralie also points to a reluctance to embrace new measures of success, which go beyond traditional economic returns. Social enterprises need patient capital—investors willing to back ventures for their long-term impact, not just short-term profit.
“We went through those periods of triple bottom lines and quadruple bottom lines, but it never became the prevailing wisdom,” she says. “I think that's the shift that probably needs to come in into play.
“We also need to recalibrate around our risk profiles.
“I suppose that's why we backed White Box in this space, because we want to be able to have these exemplar projects that show that with long-term patient investors, that get involved in the business, there are a whole lot of different returns than just being a traditional investor.”
Almost pulling the plug
In the case of Beacon, after trying to raise capital for over two years, White Box hit a wall. It seemed like the only option was to pull the plug, until a meeting with Coralie, and Tracy Norman, the foundation founder and chair, turned things around.
“On this day, we were having lunch with Luke and we enquired after the laundry. He explained he didn’t think it was going to go ahead,” Coralie recalls.
“You could see he was at the point of being emotionally exhausted by the extreme difficulty of getting people to buy in to something that really is a no brainer.”
Seeing the potential collapse of the project, Coralie and Tracy were clear: failure wasn’t an option. The Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation stepped in with a renewed commitment to make it happen.
Last minute saviour
“We’d been taken by it from the get-go and had made contributions to that,” Coralie says.
“So after Luke left, Trace said to me, ‘we will not let him fail. That is not an option. This is important work. The sector needs this success story, social enterprise needs it, and people need to see this work’.
“After that, I rang Luke and asked ‘What do you need from us, because we've decided that you will not fail’.
“I think it was both a relief and a moment of exhaustion for Luke, realising he would have to find the energy to keep pushing.”
A beacon for the sector
Reflecting on why they decided to dig in and back Beacon, Coralie acknowledges the foundation has a high-risk appetite, a young board, an ability to be agile plus a high level of regard for Luke and White Box’s work.
There are also a lot of synergies between the two organisations, not least a belief in the power of place-based approaches. But ultimately, the foundation was driven by a belief that social enterprises can fill critical market gaps and a desire to demonstrate the power of impact investment.
“We are motivated to see the social enterprise sector succeed. We think there's a legitimate place in the Australian economy for this type of business. We think that social enterprises are really addressing a market failure. And when you see market failures and when you see gaps, that's where philanthropic organisations or governments, rightly, should step in,” Coralie explains.
“We feel that if we can back some proof of concepts, in real time, around real people's lives and record the impact on those people's lives—and then get some success stories out, it promotes to others this is a legitimate way to engage in the economy and is something worth supporting.
“Not all returns need to be economical returns. There are other reasons why you get involved. Our involvement with White Box does allow for some conservative returns. But our real investment is around social return.”
The final push
Beacon Laundry finally opened its doors on Dudgeon’s Lane in Bangalow in April 2024, having raised $12 million—$1 million shy of its original target. The final stages of fundraising in January and February were marked by a last-minute effort, where the team launched a family-and-friends offering of mezzanine and subordinated notes of $25,000. This brought 11 new investors on board, with some contributing up to $100,000. These investors, a mix of old and new supporters, all aligned with the vision of creating jobs for anyone seeking one in northern NSW.
Of the $12 million raised, $4 million was put into a property trust, while the remaining $8 million was structured as a business loan. In total, 75 per cent came from 13 impact investors, including Richard Uechtritz and the Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation. The laundry also received philanthropic funding from corporate and family foundations. Investor returns were designed with a variety of options: senior notes with an average 3% return over 10 years, followed by mezzanine notes at 8%, and subordinated notes at 12%.
The challenges Beacon faced in securing capital serve to highlight why White Box has been pushing so hard to launch the Sustainable Employment Loan Fund (SELF), a patient capital fund aimed at providing jobs-focused social enterprises with low-cost financing to scale and create more opportunities for disadvantaged Australians. This initiative has also received support from the Ian and Shirley Norman Foundation.
Laundry opens
For Coralie, the opening of Beacon was not just professionally significant; it was personally meaningful.
“Quite coincidentally, in a previous life, I was born a Dudgeon. Many years ago, the land that the White Box laundry is on, on Dudgeon's Lane, was a dairy property, run by the Dudgeon family,” she explains.
But what truly stood out was the impact on the community.
Coralie recalls a tour of the laundry led by two young brothers, both recently employed by Beacon. One had never worked due to severe anxiety, while the other hadn’t held a job in a decade.
“These two young boys were newly recruited to the community. And they were immensely proud. They knew all the stats and they were really invested in sharing the story of Beacon Laundry,” Coralie says.
“There was another woman on the tour. When we got to the end, she was quite emotional. It turned out those boys were her sons. And seeing them, making their mum proud and I suppose finding their place, that was the moment of the day for me.”
A testament to partnership and persistence
Beacon Laundry’s journey illustrates the challenges and rewards of building social enterprises. It required not just vision, but relentless drive, patient capital, committed partners… and love.
“We believe the role of philanthropy is about love,” Coralie says. “When you love on people, what are you doing? You're supporting them, you're caring about what happens, you're joining them on the journey, you're there to pick up the pieces and you're there to celebrate.
“I don't think anyone can underestimate the load that White Box is carrying. Changing the world is really hard work.
“Part of our partnership is not just being excited about the bright shiny stuff, but also travelling the journey with them in relation to the hard yards they’re undertaking as a small, innovative, agile, incredibly committed team trying to change very ingrained practices and structures.”