Ten social enterprises have been selected as 2021 finalists for What’s Next YYC, a biennial award created by the Trico Charitable Foundation in 2019 to celebrate and advance excellence in social entrepreneurship in Calgary.
Three semi-finalists for the Social EnterPrize award, AccessNow (ON), Alinker Inventions Inc. (BC) and Living Works Education Inc. (AB), will share their unique ventures at the Pivot on Purpose Summit where audience members will have a chance to vote on which semi-finalist will receive the $25,000 POPular choice award. To help the POP audience and others get to know these social enterprises better, this blog series will have each semi-finalist answer ten questions – five basic questions and five from local funders.
Aisle International has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the $100,000 Social EnterPrize, a biennial award that was created by the Trico Charitable Foundation in 2011 to celebrate excellence in social entrepreneurship in Canada. Redefining the period aisle for the 21st century is the mission of this innovative social venture. Co-Founders Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens wanted to look after menstrual health while at the same time delivering comfort, respect and sustainability.
Are you curious about social enterprise? Trying to figure out how to solve a social problem using a business model? What burning questions do you have?
At this Ask Me Anything about Social Entrepreneurship session, a team of experienced professionals will be available to answer your questions (or help you find the resource you are looking for).
Founder and CEO of aGRO Systems Inc. (aGRO), Victoria Ross, found her passion through wanting to solve a problem that struck close to home. Victoria’s father has been a beef cattle rancher for almost 50 years. While completing her Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Calgary, Victoria found that around half of all Canadian farmers need a second job to make ends meet, similar to her family’s own experience. This spurred the creation of her social enterprise, which provides service and grain bins to breweries, distilleries, and cideries to transform their waste into affordable livestock feed that is sold to local farmers. aGRO is helping make family farmers more profitable, improving the global food system, and reducing carbon emissions from livestock.
Co-Founder and CEO, Carrie Gour and Co-Founder and COO, Beth Thompson created PwrSwitch as a result of trying to solve their own problems. Unfortunately, they both experienced a high conflict divorce and when lawyers asked for documentation, Carrie and Beth, like many others, could not keep up because of the volume of communications. PwrSwitch supports victims of cyber-stalking and cyber-harassment including those experiencing a high conflict divorce or separation by providing a means to effortlessly collect and consolidate the electronic communications evidence they need to seek legal restitution or therapeutic counsel. PwrSwitch realized the extreme need for automated documentation.
Founded in Edmonton, Alberta, Iron & Earth is a worker-led non-profit with a mission to empower fossil fuel industry and Indigenous workers to build and implement climate solutions. With the decline of global oil and their mission in mind, Iron & Earth made the decision to develop a social enterprise training company, as a sort of sister organization.
The Trico Charitable Foundation, in collaboration with the Trico Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Centre at the Haskayne School of Business, is pleased to announce a new special perk for What’s Next YYC finalists.
What’s Next YYC (WNYYC) will showcase ten exciting Calgary and area based social enterprises that have already won awards or successfully completed a local social enterprise support program. It looks to answer “what’s next?” on the journey for these organizations.
New Perk: For 2021 each of the 10 finalists of WNYYC will receive the option of either anonymously keeping $2,500 or anonymously giving $2,500 to a fellow finalist.
The Trico Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the NU Student Social Entrepreneurship Awards. These awards will be given to student social entrepreneurs in 2021 and are meant to celebrate the best and brightest student social entrepreneurs in Alberta. The NU Awards joins a number of Trico Charitable Foundation initiatives, such as What’s Next YYC and the Social EnterPrize, in advancing Alberta as a leader in social entrepreneurship.
For the 2021 edition of the Social EnterPrize, one recipient will:
-Receive $100,000 prize money;
-Be featured in a video profile;
-Be featured at an award ceremony scheduled for the evening of November 18, 2021 (if the ceremony is in-person travel & accommodation will be provided);
-Be featured in an in-depth profile in a case-study undertaken by a Canadian post-secondary institution; and
-Help advance Canada’s social entrepreneurship movement.