A social enterprise that is LGBTIQA+ owned and led
Pride in Business is published by Just Gold, Australia’s first management consultancy and creative agency to be certified as a social enterprise. This page sets out how the business works, what its commercial work pays for, and the LGBTIQA+ work it has done since 2019.
Ownership and leadership
Just Gold is Autistic and LGBTIQA+ owned and led, which means that ownership of the business and responsibility for its decisions rest with people from those communities. Many members of the team have lived experience of disability, neurodivergence, cultural identity, parenthood or careers that did not follow a conventional path, and that experience informs how projects are designed and delivered.
Just Gold’s position as an LGBTIQA+ owned business is one of the reasons it publishes Pride in Business. Australia’s supplier diversity systems recognise some forms of ownership and not others, and the effect of this on LGBTIQA+ business owners has not been measured.
How commercial work funds the impact program
Just Gold launched as a for profit social enterprise in 2018. In 2019 Social Traders certified it, making Just Gold the first management consultancy and creative agency in Australia to be certified as a social enterprise. It delivers consulting, creative, training and impact work for government, peak bodies, social enterprises and major organisations, from offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Fifty per cent of Just Gold’s enterprise surplus is returned to public impact initiatives through its impact program, which backs Autistic Pride Day, pro bono work for organisations doing good and the Aurum Foundation, a separate registered charity. Pride in Business is the program’s LGBTIQA+ economic research publication. All profits from Emu and Pigeon, Just Gold’s merchandise, go to the same program.
Just Gold measures its impact through employment created, access to leadership and evaluation co led with the communities affected. The measures are described on its impact page.
Employment for professionals excluded from traditional industries
Every Just Gold engagement creates paid work for skilled professionals who are routinely excluded from traditional industries, including LGBTIQA+ and disabled people. They work on client projects to the same standard as all other staff, and clients receive advice from people with direct experience of where systems fail.
This work covers consulting, creative, advisory, production and training roles, with structured internships, placements and leadership pathways on client projects. The model is designed to employ LGBTIQA+ professionals together with neurodivergent professionals, disabled people, young people, migrants and women returning to the workforce.
LGBTIQA+ work since 2019
Pride in Business draws on seven years of LGBTIQA+ work at Just Gold, most of which has brought people with lived experience together with the institutions that make decisions about them.
- 2019
The Just Gold Pride Program
For the fiftieth anniversary of Stonewall, more than $40,000 in grants and services for LGBTIQA+ social enterprises and not for profits: strategy and communication vouchers, Find Your Hashtag workshops and The Disruptive Rainbow, a podcast on sexuality and cultural identity. Read about the program.
- 2019
The LGBTIQ+ Multicultural and Faith Project
A Victorian Government project with Social Change Projects, the Australian GLBTIQ Multicultural Council, Greek and Gay and the Australian Asian Rainbow Alliance. Just Gold interviewed non LGBTIQA+ parents of Greek cultural background in Victoria about how acceptance is communicated.
- Think
Think Pride and Think Talks
Think Pride, funded by the Victorian Government’s Pride Events and Festivals Fund, brought LGBTIQA+ speakers and artists from different sectors, ages and cultural backgrounds together for a filmed public conversation on identity, institutional trust and what communities needed after the pandemic. It is part of Think, the program Just Gold runs with the Aurum Foundation, whose talks are published with captions and transcripts on Think Talks.
- Research
Mardi Gras and the NSW Police Force
Trauma informed research for Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on relations between LGBTIQA+ communities and the NSW Police Force.
- 2026
Pride in Business and the LGBTIQA+ Advisory Board
Pride in Business launched with a draft research framework, and expressions of interest opened for the Just Gold LGBTIQA+ Advisory Board, funded through the Victorian Government’s LGBTIQA+ Organisational Development program. Expressions of interest close on 6 December 2026. Read the position description.
- 2027
The State of LGBTQ+ Business in Australia
The research begins in March 2027, co designed with the advisory board and published free with its method and data. Read the research brief.
That work focused on representation and trust, and it repeatedly identified a gap in evidence about the economic lives of LGBTIQA+ people, including who owns businesses, who buys from them and what support reaches them. Pride in Business has been established to address that gap.
Information for buyers
Social Traders certification means that Just Gold meets social procurement standards, so government and corporate buyers can add social value through work they already need done. Just Gold delivers in line with the Modern Slavery Act and state based social procurement frameworks.
Purchasing from Just Gold has no bearing on what Pride in Business publishes. Organisations cannot buy favourable coverage, inclusion in the research or the removal of a finding, and relevant commercial relationships are disclosed alongside the work concerned. Read our editorial and research principles.
