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Listen "411 Michael Stuart: Why Impact Needs Evidence"
Episode Synopsis
My guest this week is Michael Stuart - Impact & Data Manager at Social Traders, and one of the leading voices pushing Australia’s social enterprise sector toward a more evidence-driven future.
Michael has spent more than a decade helping organisations make sense of their data, and today, he oversees how Social Traders captures, measures, and interprets impact across hundreds of enterprises. His work sits at the intersection of social purpose and hard numbers, ensuring decision-makers have the evidence they need to drive real, scalable change.
In this conversation, we unpack why the sector is “data starved,” how better insights can strengthen policy, funding, and procurement, and why accessible analysis is one of the most powerful tools for social impact.
Recorded live at Convene 2025, this episode comes with a little social enterprise sector chatter that refused to be silenced. We’ve mostly cleaned it up, but you might hear a few patches and some quirky voice distortion from noise cancellation - rustic audio, modern insights! Part of our Short Takes on Purpose series with Social Traders, spotlighting bold thinkers reshaping business for good.
🔗 Explore more from Michael's work here:
https://www.socialtraders.com.au/
Growing Your Business and Impact
Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.
Learn more at humansofpurpose.com
Promotional Partnerships
Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.
Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.
Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.
Gold Membership
Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?
Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:
Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access
To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.
CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.
Michael has spent more than a decade helping organisations make sense of their data, and today, he oversees how Social Traders captures, measures, and interprets impact across hundreds of enterprises. His work sits at the intersection of social purpose and hard numbers, ensuring decision-makers have the evidence they need to drive real, scalable change.
In this conversation, we unpack why the sector is “data starved,” how better insights can strengthen policy, funding, and procurement, and why accessible analysis is one of the most powerful tools for social impact.
Recorded live at Convene 2025, this episode comes with a little social enterprise sector chatter that refused to be silenced. We’ve mostly cleaned it up, but you might hear a few patches and some quirky voice distortion from noise cancellation - rustic audio, modern insights! Part of our Short Takes on Purpose series with Social Traders, spotlighting bold thinkers reshaping business for good.
🔗 Explore more from Michael's work here:
https://www.socialtraders.com.au/
Growing Your Business and Impact
Talk to us today about how we can grow your capacity to level up your business and impact with our fully trained and managed outsourced marketing solutions - delivered by our digital heroes armed with good strategy, the latest tech and big smiles.
Learn more at humansofpurpose.com
Promotional Partnerships
Like what we are serving up on Humans of Purpose? Our promotional campaigns have delivered great marketing and sales outcomes and ROI for our partners to date.
Whether you're seeking a 1-month, 2-month or season sponsorship, follow the flow below to become a partner before we run out of our remaining promotional slots.
Click Here to learn more about collaborating on a custom campaign package. Ready to partner? Just complete this short Partner Enquiry Form and we'll be in touch.
Gold Membership
Want a premium listening experience that directly supports us to keep making the podcast?
Join current members Michael, Pravati, Noel, Kathy, Andrew 1, Andrew 2, Chris, Nikki, Margaret, Ben, Misha, Sarah and Geoff and enjoy our range of member benefits:
Premium dedicated podcast feed
Removal of all three ads per episode
Early access to all episodes
Full transcripts of all episodes
Brokered intros to all podcast guests
Ask me anything page access
To take up this great offer, just head to our Gold Member page today.
CREDITS
Music intro and outro on this podcast was written and performed by Keyo Rhodes, with Harrison McGregor on drums and percussion. Sound engineering and mastering by Lachlan McGregor.
More episodes of the podcast Humans of Purpose
409 Sarah Clarke: Sustainable by design
16/12/2025
403 Yoan Noguier: Enabling Social Enterprise
04/11/2025
In God we trust