[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://tricofoundation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Jasmine-Retzer-crop.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]By Jasmine Retzer, Student, Mount Royal University
• The Calgary social enterprises profiled in this article will be the subject of SEWF tours on October 2, 2013. In total, 15 local organizations were toured. A special thanks to Thrive, who helped set up the tours.
• This article is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Trico Charitable Foundation and Mount Royal University. Click here to learn more.[/author_info] [/author]
Establishing an enterprise that not only operates as a business but functions synchronically with your social mission can be a powerful and successful model. Case in point, these next three social enterprises who mix business with mission seamlessly.
Women in Need Society (WINS) operates four thrift stores within Calgary and offers thrifty shoppers and treasure hunters a quality and community-oriented shopping experience. Stocked with well-loved and affordable clothing, small household items and furnishings, every dollar generated from their stores helps support the many services they offer for women in need.
Momentum partners with people living on low incomes to help them develop a sustainable livelihood and prosperous future while inspiring growth and opportunity within the local economy. Their award-winning programs and services include skills training for employment, micro-financing and business development, each driven to advance poverty reduction and community economic development.
Ethnicity Catering directed through the Centre for Newcomers, provides immigrants to Canada with 10 weeks of paid Canadian employment training and experience in the food industry. Catering to large-scale and private events along with selling frozen food through an order service, profit generated from their curated ethnic menus helps newcomers’ establish happy and fulfilling lives in Canada.
What these three organizations have in common is their shared desire to inspire growth and prosperity by providing people in need with the resources and skills to build a more sustainable and joyous lifestyle.
How do they make it happen? By synthesizing their business with their social mission.
WINS
From treasure hunters to bargain shoppers, to people in need, everyone can find something special for an affordable price at one of WINS’s thrift stores. Of course thrift stores have come a long way since the days of picking through peoples’ old “junk”. Today you might just stumble upon a Prada bag for $50 or a well-kept leather sofa for under $200.
WINS’s has certainly paved the way for making shopping used a more noble shopping experience.
“Every person should be able to find their needs in a dignified way and to not be judged; to feel valued as a person,” notes Cathy Coutts Executive Director of WINS.
Their philosophy comes from a personal place. Housed in a women’s shelter and recovering from drug addiction 21 years ago, WINS’s founder was sent to the shelter’s basement to sort through bagged donations with hopes of finding a winter jacket. Feeling a real lack of dignity, she believed that there had to be a better way to find items and clothing that she and others desperately needed.
In time she found a small space on 14th St. to open a store, where bagged donations could be dropped off, sorted by volunteers and then hung elegantly on hangers for people to look through. Those items that were not given out for free were then sold to help support the business.
A social enterprise was born.
Four thrift shops later, WINS stores now helps women and families get the basic goods they need in a more than dignified manner.
“When you shop at our stores, you are shopping to support change,” says Coutts, “regardless of your economic background, every person who shops here can make a difference in a woman or child’s life.
The revenue generated from thrifty shoppers goes directly back into supporting the services they offer for women and families in need, one of which is their Free Goods Referral Program – Women in need of basic goods are referred to WINS, who then can supply them with household items and furniture free of charge. With money saved on furnishing the house, the funds these women have can then be spent on paying for the utilities, buying food or sending their kids to school.
“We recently revamped our Referral Program to make it more accessible to clients by establishing a Referral Office at the Dover Store. We can better assist our clients find what they need and it makes it feel more like a VIP service,” explains Coutts.
WINS also operates six Family Resource Centres, which are located within Calgary Housing subsidized complexes. These Centres are a place where women and their families can come learn life building skills and find a supportive community to share their concerns with.
Moving women towards being self-sufficient and instilling a sense of confidence that they can take care of their families is the mission behind the whole operation.
Of course their very title “Women In Need” proves to be a challenge, as many people assume that shopping at WINS takes away from just that, women in need. “It is quite the opposite,” says Coutts, “the more we sell to the general public the more funding we receive to take care of women in need. At least 80% of our funding comes from our social enterprise, my goal being that one day all our funding will come from our business.”
Continual staff turnover and having enough space for donations has also been troublesome for the enterprise. Their strategic plan is to move towards bringing employees a more living wage and benefits package and either opening more stores or a larger donation warehouse.
Running their enterprise as a business, meaning having staff trained appropriately in retail, engaging every member of the organization and establishing partnerships with other organizations, has been one of the many keys to their success.
“Look at it as a business but don’t lose your focus on your social goal. You would run it no different than any other business in corporate Calgary but the difference being you have a social purpose that you are working towards,” explains Coutts. “I also believe in having an open door policy.”
With this focus in mind, WINS has the ability to self-fund along with expanding their programs. Apart from recently adding two more Family Resource Centres, the Dover Store’s warehouse has implemented a bailer which enables them to ship 1000 pound bales of cloth to other organizations who can use it and in return WINS generates a substantial amount of funds for their organization.
Having a business with a social conscience has its fair share of heartfelt moments, “when I see that smile on a child’s face after receiving a gift they would otherwise not get, or meeting someone in downtown Calgary who came to see us 10 years ago and is now a lawyer. It’s that ‘thank you’ that inspires me,” beams Coutts.
After more than 20 years in operation, WINS stores are ever growing and continuing to expand while offering customers a unique shopping experience that benefits women and children in need of a hand up.
Momentum
Adding to the community development tapestry is Momentum, whose fundamental inspiration is to partner with people living on a low income and create economic opportunity in the local context. Integrating their enterprise with the charitable side of things and operating a business that is not a separate entity to their mission is Momentum’s focus.
“We view social enterprise as a verb not a noun,” says Program Director Jeff Loomis who is quoting David LePage, “we try to operate as a social enterprise and do our work from a business approach as opposed to separating our charity and enterprise. We look to integrate.”
20 years ago the Mennonite Centre Committee approached founder Walter Hossli with the desire to start an employment development program. Their goal was to reduce unemployment amongst marginalized people. With very little money to fund the program, the organization essentially started from chicken scratch.
Yet over time (and with a significant and suitable name change) the organization has come to be quite financially lucrative – from earning $300,000 in revenue at the beginning to over $5 million today.
“Our journey has been slow sustained growth, making sure that high quality can be sustained every step of the way. A really thoughtful approach is our strategy for growth, slow and steady,” notes Brian Hill who is the Fund Development Coordinator of Momentum.
Over the course of twenty years, the organization has followed four distinct steps for creating financial success – “Cost properly, build surpluses, build reserves and share leadership amongst your organizational culture.”
In terms of building surpluses, Momentum has come to competitively contract their programs and services to government buyers, much like a private sector would. This has required some major budget planning and risk-taking but when their perceived deliverables are achieved or close to, then the financial benefits are glorious.
Self-generated revenue is another way in which Momentum finds financial stability.
Charging fees for internal services and gaining from interest on investments has ensured Momentum has that extra financial support when times get tough. Moreover, diversifying their revenue streams allows them to be more resilient to funding problems.
Momentum also shares financial leadership amongst their employees and board members. As Hossli writes, “I make a point of knowing what I can do, and what I need help with. Momentum needs the best people possible in charge of finances, so we hire them, pay them well and give them a high profile in the organization.”
This includes allowing Program managers to create budget plans for the upcoming year along with tracking spending and helping decide where extra revenue can be allocated.
“Too often in our sector we treat money as a taboo subject,” says Hossli in his essay entitled Financial Management of CED Organizations: Momentum’s approach could just be what your organization needs, “we’re content to interpret ‘non-profit’ to mean ‘living hand to mouth.’ This will never do when we have such passionate people working for us.”
From the very beginning Momentum has offered trades skills training to encourage more earning power for people living in poverty. But as the organization has grown they have come to offer micro-loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in partnership with the Immigrant Access Fund Society.
“Micro-finance is such a dignified way to partner with people especially for those who are seeking to exit poverty,” notes Hill, “there is a real genuine business relationship between someone who is financing and the entrepreneur.”
Creating partnerships with their participants is essential to their mission. Their goal is to be a community economic leader, yet they wish for participants of their programs to be actively involved in their own financial successes. Essentially Momentum is the guiding hand, supporting peoples’ journey toward economic prosperity and sustainability.
Loomis shared this story as an inspiring example, “A female graduate of our program, who is a single mother with children, came to us after experiencing four years of homelessness. With a lot of hard work and a little help from us, she is now a proud homeowner.”
Leading by example, Momentum educates the impoverished population on the principles of economic sustainability and growth. Their programs offer people an opportunity to step out of economic barriers and live a life that is financially freeing.
Ethnicity Catering
What started as a gathering of women in the kitchen to cook and share stories, blossomed into a social enterprise that not only upholds that collective kitchen spirit but also provides employment experience for newcomers to Canada.
Functioning out of the Centre for Newcomers in the North East of Calgary, Ethnicity Catering has been cooking up meals with a mission since 1996. Their goal is to help recent immigrants settle into Canadian culture and remove them from isolation. Their catering program is designed to give newcomers Canadian job experience while instilling a sense of confidence as they prepare for their new lives. At the same time the program exposes immigrants to Canadian customs and values in the workplace.
“Everybody comes with values from back home. Something you believe in and respect. Being new to the country we want to add Canadian values. Our values keep us connected with our background and the new home we are settling into,” explains Ebtisam Temraz a once newcomer herself and the training facilitator for Ethnicity.
With their own authentic multi-ethnic menu and commercial kitchen, 16 trainees every 10 weeks are welcomed into the program to learn how to cater to corporate and private events, prep large food orders and essentially build their resumes.
From classroom to kitchen, the trainees learn about numeracy, how to read English along with develop their English speaking skills and receive the experience of working in a professional Canadian atmosphere while earning above minimum wage.
The program runs holistically, in that revenue generated from their food sales is reinvested back into the business and its social services.
With a loyal customer base for their frozen food service, Ethnicity is proud to deliver a quality and unique product to Calgary. Yet at times, it has been difficult to operate on a smaller scale. With only one delivery truck on hand and many orders coming through, Ethnicity has discussed the possibility of expanding, but feel as though that is at cost to their mission of creating a supportive community for their trainees.
“With our current arrangement it does keep our focus on the training aspect of our program and enterprise. For many of the trainees the program provides a good opportunity to reflect and connect as newcomers to Canada,” notes ESL Manager Cindy Coleman.
In Ethnicity’s case, bigger is not necessarily better. Their challenge has certainly been keeping in line with their social mission while still operating a profitable business.
According to Communications Coordinator Estelita Novakovic, “Any business should have a conscience that responds to individuals, to customers, to the staff. It has to have that balance between the money piece and the people you are serving. It is important to recognize what you are losing if you sway too much in one direction.”
Choosing balance has certainly helped maintain the quality of their business and training services. Having a more intimate setting in the kitchen as opposed to a large-scale operation, allows for the participants to not only receive a valuable experience but also the careful attention they deserve in order to be successful.
Maintaining quality in their training also translates into providing a quality product. As their lead cook Afaf jokes, “Just recently at Global Fest we ran out of food and customers were really upset. Our food is in high demand.”
Afaf is just one of the many success stories coming out of Ethnicity. She graduated from the program 5 years ago and soon after became the lead cook teaching new trainees the valuable skills she learned in her work experience with Ethnicity. “I love and look forward to coming to my job every day,” she says, “I am so lucky to have had this opportunity.”
For Ethnicity it is these success stories that keep them in touch with the very heart of their business, which is to inspire and facilitate newcomers’ growth in Canada through shared work experience and community involvement.
Each of these enterprises has intricately woven their social mission into very fabric of their enterprises, providing solutions for poverty reduction through market-oriented models. With careful attention paid to their social hand, Women In Need Society, Momentum and Ethnicity Catering have learned to skillfully cross-stitch helping people succeed in life with business practice.
This series of articles comes from a partnership between Trico Charitable Foundation and the Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University. The goal is twofold, to celebrate Calgary social enterprises and to showcase the many ways Arts students can help organizations. For instance:
- interior design and art history students can help with design,
- history students can help with research,
- anthropology and sociology students can help with statistical analysis and culture,
- psychology students can help with understanding markets and interpersonal relationships, languages students can help with translation of French or Spanish,
English students can help with writing, and students in policy studies can help with analysis of economics and political issues.
The Women in Need Society seeks individuals who can help with marketing material, such as writing newsletters, store profiles and keeping up to date with social media platforms.
Momentum has a rich community of those with an Education background, who help coordinate and facilitate their programs.
Ethnicity Catering would benefit from having translators and ESL teachers assist newcomers with practicing their English language skills.
Click here to learn more about how students from the Faculty of Arts, Mount Royal University, can help your organization.
More About SEWF
The Trico Charitable Foundation was honoured to host SEWF 2013. It made history in a number of ways – it was a first for Canada and attracted a record number of speakers and attendees (1,000 individuals from more than 30 countries and over 100 speakers from 20 countries) – but we are most proud of the quality of the discussions on Skills Building, Social Finance, Indigenous Social Enterprise, Collaboration, Policy and Research, and Social Innovation.
We would like to thank the following partners for making SEWF 2013 possible:
Organizing Partners:
- Social Enterprise Council of Canada
- MaRS Centre for Impact Investing
- Social Innovation Generation (SiG)
- The Canadian Community Economic Development Network
Lead Sponsors:
- Suncor
- Vancity
- Government of Canada
- Canadian Youth Business Foundation (now Futurepreneur)
- Social Change Rewards
Presenting Partners:
Supporting Partners:
Friends of SEWF:
Media Partners:
Each year SEWF gives a different host country an incredible opportunity to celebrate and nurture its own social enterprise movement. The inaugural SEWF met in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since then it has been to Melbourne, Australia; San Francisco, U.S.A; Johannesburg, Africa; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Learn more about SEWF’s history here.
SEWF 2014 will be held in Seoul, Korea from October 12-16. Hosted by the Work Together Foundation, this significant international gathering has an ambitious agenda: “Social Change through Social Enterprise”. Learn more here.
