Social Enterprise

There has been a lot of talk about charities acting like businesses.  I was having lunch today with my friend and colleague, Jill Andres, about social enterprise and how there is such a broad spectrum of what this could mean. Read more »

This is a link to my first Calgary Herald blog post in the Business Section.

For some, what I am about to say will send shivers for foreboding down their spines; for others exclamations of Hallelujah.  Now, I’m not talking about RIM crawling out of its impending doom, nor am I heralding back to the discovery of Penicillin.  I’m talking about a significant social shift that will have ripple effects across the financial services sector and will be re-shaping the way that Canadians interact with organizational systems.  I am talking about how we have industrialized our philanthropic sector.

What makes up an industry?

1. Standardized practices and formalized structures
2. Peer-reviewed publications and academia
3. Policies and regulations
4. Professional Associations
5. Data

To read the rest of this post click here.

I recently joined a group of Calgary’s thought leaders and social entrepreneurs in a workshop discussion on Collective Impact hosted by the Innovation UnSchool in partnership with the Innovation Exchange (IXYYC).

For years we have been talking about how charities need to collaborate more, and how funders need to fund organizations that work co-operatively towards meaningful social change, so the idea of collective impact shouldn’t be a surprise.  But it is... for many.  This idea takes collaboration to a whole new level – by bringing together organizations who, independently are striving to make shifts in complex social issues, but when mixed together with policy makers and funders, can actually move the needle forward.

This past weekend I was part of a facilitation team taking a group of individuals and organizations through a course on starting a social enterprise.  The workshop was hosted by Canada Bridges and there were about 25 individuals ranging in age, ethnicity, and most especially in the ideas that they felt they could get to market that would make meaningful social change. Read more »

In the fall, I posted a brief for the House of Commons Finance Committee on social enterprise and social finance policy development.  The final version, along with others that were submitted can be found here.

The Finance Committee is expanding their work and is now looking at charitable tax incentives.  The crowdsourcing of the last brief proved to be quite successful so I would like to try it again.

Attached is a draft of the submission for the Finance Committee. I will be sending in the final version on January 14th. Please share your thoughts and comments on this blog post. If you would like your name added to the reference list of this paper please let me know so that I can ensure that appropirate credit is made.

My career has been shaped in the charitable sector. It spans two countries, several sub-sectors and a lot of fundraising time. When I decided to launch my own company it was at the begining of the formal social enterprise discussion in the States. I realized early on that what the charities value as their business and revenue models is not what the traditional markets value.  This seems obvious, when charities talk about their business, they talk about the lives that they have saved and how they do it on so few dollars.  When companies talk about their business, they talk about profit and commodities and consumers.  So it was with great interest that I read this past week's issue of the Globe & Mail on renaming the sector from non-profit to Social Profit.

Last month I started a blog post about creating a social enterprise dictionary. A discussion was started with comments coming from a variety of individuals.  Last night, over a glass of wine and some "old-fashioned" social networking with David Ian Gray, more was added to the #socent lexicon. Read more »

In preparing for the SoCap Conference I was thinking about the direction that I want to take my company and the opportunities for social capital growth and investing in Canada. I'm not going to lie, raising capital for a social venture is tough... This is due in large part to the nature of the space I work in.  Social ventures, as a defined type of business is an emerging market.  Therefore part of the task of the entrepreneur is educating the market about what a for-profit social venture is, then it is sourcing out the non-traditional investors who understand the multi-line reporting of how investment success will be measured, then of course you have to sell them on your idea (which in new spaces is always a challenge) this all culminates with quickly taking your concept to market. Phew! That's why they call it the five-year over night success story.

The latest revision of the briefing to the Finance Committee of the House of Commons is below.  I have included references to the Manitoba Corporate Tax Credit for Social Enterprises and the British Columbia's advisory committee on Social Entrepreneurship.

Thank you to those who have shared their thoughts, research and ideas on what should be included in this brief to the House of Commons Finance Committee.  Attached is a draft version of the document. I have not completed the bibliography and it needs to be tightened up but your feedback is most welcome, especially on the recommendations that are being presented to the committee (page 5).

If you have written a brief for a House Committee before, please share how you think this document should be laid out.

Thank you for your contributions!