The Violet Co(llective) FY23 Social Impact Summary
As a certified Social Enterprise with Social Traders and a signatory to the legal profession National Pro Bono Target each year we need to report on our “social value” - the amount of pro bono work, volunteering, advocacy and “low bono” work we do.
The Australian Pro Bono Centre each year asks legal practices how many hours of pro bono, and “low bono”, services are delivered to our Community. The target that we are asked to meet is 37 hours per year, per solicitor.
The team at Violet Co have completed a total of 1,061 hours this past year. That is approximately 21 hours per week - 3 days per week of our Solicitors time.
So how do we calculate our pro bono legal services and what don’t we include?
We only include the time of our solicitors provided 100% free to our clients.
We provide discounted “low bono” rates to our clients ordinarily - as a boutique practice we charge much less than ordinary mid-tier practices and firms - by about 50%. However, we don’t count this. For us - we just think this is fair pricing. Counting “low bono” typically means that a legal practice is covering costs and can potentially be making a profit albeit smaller than the full rack rate.
If we counted our “low bono” work - we’d be at about 80% of our legal services!
What about “Social Value”? How do we calculate that?
As a certified social enterprise we commit to ensuring that 50% of our profits go back to “social impact”.
In our social value calculation we include: pro bono legal services, advocacy work and volunteering. We don’t include “low bono” and “discounted rates” in our calculation (reasons above!)
Our purpose as a business is to make profit through our fee paying clients (who are 100% aligned to our social purpose of - we don’t work for clients that aren’t) to then fund our operating expenses (salary, overheads etc) to enable us to do all of the pro bono legal work, advocacy and volunteering that we do.
What can be deceiving is that a “social value” is calculated on profit versus social value. The social value needs to be more than 50% of the profit.
Transparent reporting of our social value for FY23 - so what is it?
We are really conservative at estimating this. It’s not a competition - it’s about transparency. We are comfortable that all of our work aligns to our social purpose. We keep the business afloat and do the absolute maximum pro bono, advocacy and volunteering that we can!
In FY23 as a team we have contributed to our society at least 1,800 hours of work that is pro bono, advocacy and volunteering. This is valued at approximately $500,000. This is 16 times our profit.
So what? Isn’t it just numbers? You can do a lot and have no impact right?!
Exactly! It’s numbers right!? It doesn’t speak to how well you do the work or if you even contribute to creating social change.
Ethically, we struggle with number calculations of pro bono and social impact. You can do a hell of a lot of work, for no outcome. The whole concept of “pro bono” and “charity” can be deeply disempowering, patronising, elitist and colonialist.
We are committed to being a Pro Bono Target Signatory and a Certified Social Enterprise. We think that it is an important “line in the sand” and way that for-profit business can be “business for good”. We know these frameworks are a start not the end.
This year we are proud to have been part of positive social change - here’s how
In FY23 here’s a summary of some of the things we partnered on, participated in and supported:
We created the MakePoliceInvestigate.Org campaign to demand accountability from police towards victims of sexual assault and other serious crimes. The petition has generated over 47,000 signatures. It has been tabled in NSW Parliament. A proposal for legislative reform to create; a duty of care owed by police to victim/survivors, a minimum duty to investigate and independent transparent police accountability mechanisms, is currently being discussed with Attorney-Generals in a number of States, Territories and with our Federal Attorney-General the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC. A philanthropic fund to provide legal representation to victim/survivors has been established. Karen Iles has participated in the Attorney-General Roundtable on Sexual Violence Reforms, the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Inquiry into Current and Proposed Sexual Consent Laws and a number of other roundtables, forums and inquiries. The issue has been covered extensively in the media. All of this content is available on the campaign website.
Provided pro bono legal advice and representation to women who have experienced sexual assault and need a hand navigating the justice system.
Provided pro bono legal advice and representation to women, First Nations women, and men of colour, on employment law matters including (noting the intersection!) sexual harassment and assault, sex discrimination, racial discrimination, bullying and harassment, and dismissal.
Supported the St Mary's Cathedral anti-memorial actions that marked the death of convicted paedophile, and then acquitted on appeal, George Pell, with legal observer support, advice and representation.
Supported a range of sexual assault advocacy movements and grassroots campaigns including; Teach Us Consent (Chanel Contos), With You We Can and What Were You Wearing
Supported the Australian peak for restorative justice; Transforming Justice Australia
Volunteered on community organisation Boards, Committees, and events; including the National Justice Project, First Australians Capital, the Law Society of New South Wales, the Independent Collective of Survivors and Full Stop Australia.
Participated in activities to support reconciliation, the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the YES vote for the upcoming referendum to enshrine recognition of First Australians in our constitution and provide a voice to parliament.
Ensured that when we need to purchase things we do our best to purchase from other Indigenous women-owned businesses, social enterprises, B-Corps, Indigenous businesses and women-owned businesses.
It has been an incredible year and we look forward to working with you in FY24!