Trico Charitable Foundation was established in December of 2008 by Wayne and Eleanor Chiu. The Chiu’s built a company, Trico Homes, that achieved financial success while being socially-minded in terms of serving and giving back to the community.  The Foundation’s focus on social entrepreneurship emerged from the Chiu’s passion for entrepreneurship and a keen awareness of the need for creative solutions to ensure sustainability in the non-profit sector.

The Trico Charitable Foundation seeks to close gaps in society by provoking innovation and building capacity in social entrepreneurship. Its work focuses on the Canadian context in three key areas:

1. capacity building tools: including its Rethinking Social Entrepreneurship curriculum and coaching;
2. funding through: a) grants to charitable Alberta social enterprises; and b) a series of Canada-wide and Alberta-specific social entrepreneurship awards (including charitable, social profit, and for profit organizations) such as the Social EnterPrize, What’s Next YYC, and the NU Student Awards;
3. advancing the social entrepreneurship ecosystem by: a) supporting events such as the biennial Pivot on Purpose; b) participating in stakeholder groups like AB SEED; and c) working to advance social entrepreneurship in post-secondary education, including supporting the Trico Changemakers Studio at Mount Royal University and the Trico Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business.