Good Return Annual Report 2025

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This year we delivered our CAFE financial capability training in five countries - Nepal, Cambodia, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The program relies on local partners, who help identify community leaders to become coaches. We onboarded seven new partners this year to grow the program - M’lup Russey Organisation (Cambodia), Life with Dignity (Cambodia), Taytay Sa Kauswagan, Inc or TSKI (Philippines), Lutheran Hope Cambodia Organization, Avodah (Cambodia) and Komunitas Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Perempuan or KomPEP (Indonesia). We also signed a three-year agreement with the Cambodian Government which will enable and support Good Return to extend our financial capability training to larger numbers of people living with disability. 

The Good Return My Money Tracker app has been a well received tool by Cambodian micro-entrepreneurs to track their household and business expenses and takings. The app is designed for people with low digital and financial literacy, and requires only a small amount of internet data to upload and update. My Money Tracker has also launched in the Philippines, using localised symbols for banking and business. Our Facebook campaigns share tips and resources on running business and tracking budgets, and have led to increased downloads in both countries.

Good Return’s specialist team uses our assessment tools to analyse gender practices in the organisation. We use a collaborative approach, including workshops and discussion, to devise a bespoke gender action plan which includes recommendations on policies and training. In the past year, three financial service providers - Unique in Nepal, SECDEP in Philippines and Crowde in Indonesia - were supported to put a Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion policy in place. Those partners plus another four - Wing Bank in Cambodia, Merchant Finance in Fiji, Chamroeun Microfinance in Cambodia and M’lup Russey Organisation (Cambodia) - are implementing their new gender action plans. Seven partner organisations were supported to put a social safeguarding policy in place. 

Our Responsible Inclusive Finance (RIF) Academy is an e-learning platform that provides an accessible way to train staff in financial institutions in social inclusion concepts and practices. We have seen 1,620 learners complete a course this year on the RIF Academy, with 97% of learners rating the quality of modules as high.

This year, our Impact Investment Fund continued to support women to grow their businesses, using a guarantee mechanism backed by Australian investors. During the year, 97 SMEs were funded, bringing the total number of loans made via the fund to 602. 90% of the loan recipients were women, and the injection of capital has supported jobs and income for 4,100 people (since the fund commenced operations in 2021). We were pleased to onboard Merchant Finance in Fiji as a new partner, helping them to launch a new loan product for women in agriculture. 

Our microloan program funded 90 loans to entrepreneurs in Cambodia and Indonesia, helping store owners diversify their stock offering, farmers to buy more seeds and tailors to purchase more equipment.

In the past year, we have strengthened the foundations of the movement and set up new partnerships and structures to ensure it takes flight. The Maganda Makers is now managed by Enterprise Partnerships WA, using their expertise in building entrepreneurial capabilities to nurture and support the club members. The women met at a camp in East Kimberley, providing an opportunity to share stories, showcase their products and host women from Elcho Island in the Northern Territory who are also looking to boost business opportunities for their own community. 

We took time to reflect and listen, working with the women to design a new outcomes framework that looks at how Indigenous women’s self-employment contributes to flourishing communities. We published an ecosystem map to capture the flow of capital to, and support for, Indigenous entrepreneurship, with the goal of connecting the right people to provide the right support. And we started the design process with the women on a blended finance model which will combine loans and grants to improve access to capital.