Trico Foundation and Futurpreneur have collaborated in the creation of Debt Financing for Non-Profit Social Enterprises: Workbook for Boards and Senior Staff. This workbook is intended to be a resource to help non-profit directors and managers become more aware of the resources they may need to be ready for debt financing and how to use them.
While attending to his full-time graduate studies in policy studies focusing on immigration, settlement, and the diaspora at Ryerson University, Peter Haastrup dedicates much of his time working with the Kenya Village Project. With this project, Peter has worked for the last three years to bring a better and more sustainable means of cooking to the villagers.
Zoya Jiwa is hoping to make a statement in the fashion and social impact worlds by creating an online platform where people with health conditions can creatively come together. At the young age of 14, Zoya was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease that can create inflammation in an individual’s organs. She also lives with fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by intense pain in muscles and soft tissues.
A duo of extremely ambitious and determined entrepreneurs are looking to make a buzz in entomophagy (human consumption of insects as food). Jorge Hoyos and Chris Blachut have been working on their social venture Heilu for almost a year. The venture seeks challenging conventional food industry, which can be wasteful and unsustainable by providing daring, environmentally friendly, and healthy food products.
Stepping into the University of Calgary’s Entrepreneurship 317 class, three Haskayne Business students could not have predicted a class project would transform into a successful social venture creating change. The project tasked students Miranda Mantey, Willis Tat, and Justin Wood to address a world issue. The result was the creation of One World Blankets a social enterprise that sought to employ local weavers in India to make blankets that would be sold in North America. Proceeds would not only provide employment in India, they would be utilized for vaccinations in India.
Mount Royal University (MRU) alumni Paisley Dressler is a leading example of a social entrepreneur who is making a difference internationally. Graduating in 2015 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, with a minor in social innovation and non-profit management, Paisley is the now the Operations Director of her social venture Project STOKE.
Held at the MaRs Centre for Impact Investing Incubator, the 8th annual Social Finance Forum (SFF) event in November 2015 brought together Canadians to discuss best practices of business and community building. Through discussions around key insights and takeaways with several individuals who attended the event, it is clear the SFF stimulated some crucial themes: collaborating in new ways, networking, and navigating support.
The Trico Charitable Foundation is inviting Canadian post-secondary institutions to apply to undertake case studies on its Social EnterPrize recipients. In total, five social enterprises will be studied:
three Vancouver-based organizations: The Cleaning Solution, Mission Possible, & Potluck Cafe;
one Hawkesbury, Ontario-based organization: Groupe Convex Prescott-Russell; and
one Calgary-based organization: Women In Need Society [WINS].
Where to Begin offers a deep dive into models of post-secondary social innovation and/or social entrepreneurship hubs across North America. Commissioned by the Mount Royal University (MRU), Scaled Purpose conducted a wide scan of programs and their offerings across campuses in Canada and the United States, and then dove deeper into interviews with eight campuses to get at the heart of why certain programs have worked, and what we can learn from failures.
“It (the Social Finance Forum) was a wonderful opportunity to access information with various people that can help provide more energy and ideas on how we can grow the business” – Shaugn Schwartz
With over 500 attendees at the 8th annual Social Finance Forum (SFF), hosted by the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing this past November, many different insights and themes were inevitably going to emerge