Created by the Trico Charitable Foundation in 2011, the biennial Social EnterPrize celebrate and advance leadership and excellence in social entrepreneurship in Canada. Social enterprises are organizations, for-profit or not-for-profit, that blend the social and the entrepreneurial by using business models/markets to solve social problems.
This 2013 Social EnterPrize recipient is a brilliant example of how perseverance, planning, and maintaining quality can turn a grant based charity into a self-sustaining social enterprise. We had a chance to catch up with Founder and CEO, Marcia Nozick on the most recent updates on ESS.
“This program represents a ‘summer of opportunity and social impact’, for the student and the Trico Foundation”, said Overall. “The student will be able to move their venture forward while generating additional income and plugging into our support services, network activities and events; and we get another bird’s eye view on what is needed to take promising social enterprises to the next level. It’s a real win-win.”
Happy New Year! The start of 2019 gives us the opportunity to reflect and learn from 2018. The past twelve months brought the Trico Charitable Foundation amazing insights such as crossing the chasm; the 6 key mindsets of social entrepreneurship; the release of 9 A.S.E.S.S. blogs; social entrepreneurs’, summer students’, and Social EnterPrize recipients’ journeys and learnings; and the grand opening of the Trico Changemakers Studio.
WINS was operating five thrift stores, a donation centre, a free good referral program and four family resource centres. As the cost of doing business is constantly rising in Alberta, WINS had to adapt and, as Karen says, “think differently”
There are a growing number of events connected to social entrepreneurship. Many of them happen in our home city, demonstrating what an incredible hub of activity Calgary is. The Trico Foundation team is pleased to attend many of them and wish we could attend more.