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Shining light on our thinking & doing, our epiphanies & struggles, & our movement.

Aspirations for social enterprise set the bar too low

Two common refrains – hoping for the day when every business is a social enterprise, and claiming that social entrepreneurship “is a verb, not a noun” – sound positive. In fact, they’re holding us back from performing among the virtuosos of the world.

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Spotlight on IRP Recipients: Arts Council Wood Buffalo

The funding ACWB received from IRP was used for a Feasibility Study to determine if a property in the downtown core of Fort McMurray could be purchased, turned into an arts incubator, and run as a social enterprise, providing sustainability for the incubator and for Arts Council.

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Advancing Social Entrepreneurship: Reflections of an IRP Jury Member

Funded by the Government of Canada, the Investment Readiness Program (IRP) supports social purpose organizations as they contribute to solving pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges across Canada.

Its goal is to help social purpose organizations prepare them to be ready for investments and participate in Canada’s growing social finance market.

The latest IRP round was overseen in Alberta by the Banff Canmore Community Foundation (BCCF) in partnership with Red Deer Community Foundation (RDCF). BCCF and RDCF utilized a jury of 14 community members to deliberate on the applications and Dan Overall, Executive Director of the Trico Foundation, was honoured to be part of that jury.

Recently, BCCF sent Dan five questions about IRP. Some of his answers formed the basis of a BCCF blog that is available here. You can see the entirety of the questions and answers below.

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Trico Foundation & Social Entrepreneurship: 2022 in Review

Happy New Year! The start of 2023 gives us the opportunity to reflect and learn from 2022. Although 2022 came with its challenges, the past twelve months were busy, historic, and made great progress in advancing both social entrepreneurship and Calgary’s role as a hub for social entrepreneurship.

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Six Student Led Social Enterprises to Watch

This year’s NU national awards competition featured six finalists for the awards. The NU Community Board offered two primary prizes: The Board Award ($25,000) and the Audience Vote Award ($25,000). In a surprise turn of events, we also decided to award each finalist who did not receive a primary prize an award of $5,000.

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New Online Tool Helps Alberta Social Enterprises Navigate Supports & Connect

Namada was created through the collective wisdom of a Social Impact Working Group consisting of the Government of Alberta, AB Seed, and several key community partners, including the Social Enterprise Fund, Trico Foundation, and United Way Calgary.  The group committed to lengthy, ongoing conversations over the course of a year to really dig deep into how they might better support and understand the social enterprise ecosystem in Alberta.

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